Building Bridges Today for Tomorrow's Leaders - State Conference 2017

Exciting news! Registration for the 2017 Student PSEA Conference and Convention is now open! At the conference, you will be inspired by keynote speakers A.J. Juliani and Anthony Gabriele, learn from accomplished presenters during breakout sessions, participate in an amazing Outreach to Teach service project in the Cornell School District, and have the opportunity to run for regional and state level positions. This year we have changed a few things and we are excited to share these changes with you! 

The first big change that you will notice is that your conference T-shirt will now be included with your registration. This T-shirt should be worn to the Outreach to Teach project on Friday evening. This means that in return for donating to PACE, we have new opportunities.

Professional headshot. For a $5 donation to PACE, you will receive a professional headshot. A Student PSEA member from Slippery Rock University who takes professional photos and videos as a hobby has graciously volunteered to take the headshots at our conference. What’s better than one of your own members giving their time back to the organization?

Photo booth. For a $5 donation to PACE, you can receive one ticket for the photo booth, or for a $12 donation to PACE, you can receive three tickets for the photo booth. One of our EA members who sits on the Student PSEA Committee has donated their time and photo booth to our conference. Another great example of someone giving back to the organization that they value.

Another new part of conference will be the Interregional Informational Meetings, also known as IIMs. These meetings will replace a portion of the region meeting. The IIMs will provide information about Gettysburg, the NEA Student Leadership Conference and Representative Assembly, voting on the floor, nominating on the floor, and much more. For the IIMs, you will be merged with one other region in a breakout room and then you will split off into your respective regions for your region meeting. Region Meetings will be kept strictly to nominating and voting for region positions, as well as nominating for the NEA SLC/RA. We believe that creating this divide will allow for more time for questions and voting/nominating. We are excited to hear your feedback on this set up for next year. 

As mentioned above, this will be the first year that nominations for the NEA SLC/RA will not be taken on the floor during Business Meeting 1. Nominations will now be taken during Region Meeting 1. There will be a Nominating Committee from your region that will announce nominations for your region during Business Meeting 1. We believe this is a more organized process and will give us more time for nominations of state level officers.

 

The last difference with conference this year is that we have added awards to our conference. The new awards are Exceptional Underclassman, Outstanding Chapter Advisor, and Outstanding Servant Leader. These awards are modeled after the awards given at the NEA Student Leadership Conference. Those who win each award will be submitted for the NEA award to be given at the NEA Student Leadership Conference in June 2017. We are excited to showcase more exceptional members and advisors this year. Without you, this organization would not be possible.

One part of conference that hasn't changed is that Student PSEA chapters from across Pennsylvania get to showcase what they have been doing all year through the APEX Showcase. I believe this is one of the most amazing parts of the conference. APEX stands for Achieving Professional Excellence. Throughout the year, that’s what all of you have been doing. By being part of your college or university’s Student PSEA chapter, you have been achieving professional excellence by participating in events that focus on leadership and membership development, community service, professional development, and political action and advocacy. You should be very proud of these events. You have worked hard all year to put them together, you have taken the time - when you could be working on assignments, hanging out with your friends, or taking a nap - to better yourself as an educator by attending these events. Be proud of your hard work!

This is the first year that we have gone completely online for the APEX Showcase submissions. Remember that your submission must be in the form of electronic portfolios, videos, computer slide shows, as well as other creative ideas. This saves you money that can be used on other events. With technology so prevalent in our lives, it makes it much easier to create online portfolios and websites that showcase your chapter and the amazing opportunities you provide to your members. Throughout the year, your chapter presidents and advisors have been receiving fliers that provide examples of events for each pillar. Below are the winners of last year’s APEX Showcase, guidelines for APEX submissions, and submissions from last year. This year’s first place winner will receive the Student PSEA Chapter of the Year Award and will be submitted for the NEA Local Excellence Award.

Last Years Winners

1st Place – University of Pittsburg at Greensburg

2nd Place – Clarion University

3rd Place - East Stroudsburg University (submission was in scrapbook format)

APEX Guidelines: https://www.psea.org/uploadedFiles/Student/StudentPSEA-APEXGuidelines.pdf

APEX Examples 2016:

Clarion- http://clarissanpotsubay.wixsite.com/clarionspsea
UPG- http://knc333.wixsite.com/upgspsea
Slippery Rock- http://ca33davis.wixsite.com/sru-s-psea
IUP- http://iupstudentpsea.weebly.com/
West Chester- http://kkishbaugh1714.wixsite.com/student-psea-of-wcu
Lock Haven- http://alf8317.wixsite.com/lockhavens-psea
Cal U- http://caluspsea.wixsite.com/caluspsea
Shippensburg- http://shippensburguniversitypsea.weebly.com/
Kutztown- http://kuspsea.weebly.com/
Gannon- http://bennett030.wixsite.com/apex
PSU- http://spseapsu.wixsite.com/psuspsea

Another opportunity to showcase your hard work is through the Learning Center Competition. You can showcase your creative side as an aspiring educator by creating a learning center. Learning centers are similar to a lesson that you would use in your classroom or an interactive bulletin board. Display the lesson/bulletin board on a trifold and bring it to conference with you! Student members will be able to look at your lessons showcased around part of the ballroom. Below is the link to the Learning Center Competition submission guidelines,  as well as examples from previous years. We would really love to see more submissions this year!

Learning Center Guidelines- https://www.psea.org/uploadedFiles/Student/StudentPSEA-LearningCentersGuidelines.pdf

For more information on conference, presenters, running for state and region level positions, PACE, and more, visit https://www.psea.org/students.aspx?id=3330.

I am so excited to share this experience with you, and all of the new and exciting opportunities and changes we have for you!

I hope you’ll join me in Pittsburgh where we will build bridges today for tomorrows leaders!

Shelby Pepmeyer

State President