SCTA is laying an impressive foundation for the future by cultivating tomorrow's leaders today!  During the course of the SCTA Fall Leadership Conference, students attended the Leadership Skills, Building Chapters or the Political Academy track.  This new "track" approach allowed a strategic and focused delivery of specially designed sessions.

 

The result was a tremendous learning opportunity, but the most valuable and beneficial aspect was spending the entire weekend in the company of the same people within the track!  Not only was there time within the sessions for small group activities, but also time between sessions to share!  It amazed me how much I learned from other campus leaders.  Each campus seems to be struggling with similar issues and many have discovered innovative solutions.  I now have a bag full of things I learned during the sessions and from chapter leaders.

 

Since there were three tracks, the campuses that sent three or more students benefited the most by sending one student to each track.  The Building Chapters track focused on strategies for organizing and recruiting members; chapter communication systems; connecting with CTA Service Centers and writing sample grants.  The Political Academy track held a mock election for school board (Darth Vader, the incumbent, won a narrow victory).  All of this was to illustrate how everything in education is political and why educators must advocate on behalf of their profession and students.  The Leadership Skills track included dealing with difficult behaviors; assertive behavior and effective communication and using leadership skills to create SMART schools.

 

Over one hundred dynamic student leaders attended the conference in San Francisco.  Among our California students, we were fortunate to welcome two dynamic students from the Kentucky Education Association (KEA) Student Program, Kayla Davidson (Chapter President) and Karen Bailey (Chapter VP) of Alice Lloyd College.  Through their presence, many of our SCTA chapter leaders and members were able to extend their network and broaden their perspectives with fellow future educators outside of California.

 

The chapter leaders that attended this conference demonstrated an amazing sign of great growth within SCTA.  The future of public education is in good hands!