Student California Teachers Association

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Welcome to the Family

Ngoc K. Le, SCTA President, UC Los Angeles

Ngoc Le, SCTA President, accepts the Best Newsletter Award for the I Choose to Teach! newsletter from NEA chairperson Mandy Plucker, at the NEA Student Program Leadership Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Welcome to the SCTA family! It is time for you to stop thinking of yourself as just a member of a pre-professional organization and start realizing your place in this big happy family.

As the new president, I would like to welcome back home all returning board members and introduce all new members to the household. If you have not already guessed, the theme for this year is "Big Happy Family." For the 2006-2007 term, we will be working on bringing all our members closer together so that we can create an atmosphere that receives everyone and gives them a chance to share ideas with one another. While every member and every chapter is independent, we want to establish a network that allows for interdependent support and encouragement. In order to grow as an organization, we must learn to work together successfully. To begin, your new executive board has created four goals:

SCTA intends to increase membership 10% (162 members) by March 15, 2007.
Increase support for our members with intent of student recruitment and retention through financial and mentoring services.
To inform members of the credentialing process with the intent of empowering our members to advocate for the profession.
To inform members of equity issues with the intent of empowering our members to advocate for the profession.

We encourage you to incorporate these goals into your meetings, workshops, and conferences. Please let us know if you have any brilliant ideas to help us to achieve our goals this year. These are not just goals for the executive board; they are goals for all members of the Student California Teachers Association.

If you want to be a familiar face in this household, then you must come to our "family reunions" and participate in our "family days." The first family reunion will be in November, and it will be the biggest event of the year. You will meet with hundreds of other students from all over the nation. Fall Leadership is also in November, and it is the first local reunion that no one can miss. You will meet old friends and make new ones all while learning how to survive and love teaching.

Becoming an integral part of the family means spending time with your SCTA executive board and other members. In 2007, you will have the opportunity to spend a day with the family at the Northern or Southern regional conferences, go to Sacramento for Lobby Day, and spend a day doing community service for the neighborhood. The Representative Assembly in the spring will be one last family reunion. You can enhance your experience as an SCTA member by participating in all these stimulating and fascinating events. Isn't it time you added your picture into the family photo album?