Approximately 240 students from 17 Arkansas high schools are registered to participate in an Educators Rising Region 1 conference hosted by the Arkansas Tech University College of Education and Health on Tuesday, Nov. 15.
According to information provided by the organization, Educators Rising is “a career and technical education movement that aims to inspire high school and college students to serve their communities by entering the field of education.”
Students from Alma High School, Bentonville High School, Bentonville West High School, Dover High School, Elkins High School, Fayetteville High School, Fort Smith Northside High School, Gravette High School, Hackett High School, Magazine High School, Pea Ridge High School, Rogers High School, Rogers Heritage High School, Rogers New Technology High School, Russellville High School, Van Buren High School and Virtual Arkansas will gain information about obtaining a teaching license, financial aid opportunities available to future teachers and the outlook for the teaching profession in Arkansas.
“Programs such as Educators Rising help high school students understand the career opportunities that exist for them in K-12 education,” said Dr. Linda Bean, dean of the ATU College of Education and Health. “Maintaining a steady pipeline of quality teacher candidates is essential to Arkansas’ future, and the ATU College of Education and Health is committed to contributing to that effort.”
Participants in the regional conference at ATU in Russellville will have the opportunity to enter competitions that may lead to opportunities to attend and compete at the Educators Rising 2023 state conference March 28 in Jonesboro and qualify to attend the national conference June 29-July 2 in Orlando, Fla.
“We are so excited that we could have this event face-to-face this year,” said Dr. Theresa Cullen, coordinator of the Educators Rising regional conference, professor of curriculum and instruction at ATU and head of the ATU Department of Teaching and Educational Leadership. “We love when students can see our campus. We were overwhelmed with response as this program grows across our region. Having all of these high school students begin to think about a career in education and showcase their creativity and professionalism demonstrates that Arkansas’ future is bright. Educators Rising programming aligns with the State of Arkansas’ career and technical education pre-educator courses toward becoming a certified teaching assistant. We are so happy to support our profession at Arkansas Tech.”
Capri Salaam, 2023 Arkansas teacher of the year, will offer the keynote address to conference participants. Salaam earned a Master of Arts in Teaching degree with an emphasis in middle school education from ATU in May 2016. She has served as a multi-classroom lead social studies teacher in the North Little Rock School District since 2018.
In addition to the keynote address and awards ceremony, Educators Rising conference participants will also tour the ATU campus and meet with current students and faculty.
ATU, the Arkansas Department of Education and the Walton Family Foundation are among the entities engaged in a partnership that seeks to establish more Educators Rising chapters at high schools around the state, update the curriculum for introduction to education classes at high schools and support competitions for potential future teachers.
Visit https://sites.google.com/pdarkansas.net/edrisingarkansas to learn more about Educators Rising in Arkansas.
Learn more about the ATU College of Education and Health at www.atu.edu/education.
