ConVal students Zoe Nevers-Hiers, Wubalem Harrison and Christine Broderick and Mascenic students Kim Leroux and Angelina McCabe are heading to Orlando this summer to compete in the 2023 Educators Rising National Conference after placing in the New Hampshire Educators Rising competition.
The students have all taken careers and education courses at the Applied Technology Center (ATC) at ConVal, which offers students the opportunity to student-teach in classrooms, get in-field experience and earn up to nine college credits.
“I wanted to jump right into education,” said McCabe, “So I was talking to my guidance councilor and she brought up this amazing program.”
Harrison plans to go into occupational therapy, and through ATC she was able to go to Antrim Elementary School and work with the occupational therapist there.
“It’s definitely nice to know and see what it’s going to be like,” she said.
Other students taking careers and education classes want to go into nursing or speech therapy.
“The majority of people in class are not specifically going to be a teacher,” Nevers-Hiers said.
Sarah Grossi, who teaches careers and education classes, said the last time a student went to nationals was in 2019. This year, Nevers-Hiers, Leroux and McCabe placed second in New Hampshire in the ethical dilemma category. Harrison and Broderick placed fourth in children’s literature.
The ethical dilemma the students were asked to present on involved a “very not black-and-white situation,” said Leroux. It involved stepping into a teacher’s shoes who was asked not to do anything about an alleged cyber bullying incident. McCabe said there were “so many parts to the whole scenario” and coming from Mascenic, which is smaller than ConVal, “it was interesting seeing different points of view.”
Harrison and Broderick wrote and illustrated a children’s book, after the realized how separate special education classes are from other classes.
“We wanted to write a book about inclusion,” said Harrison, and a character finding a way to bring the two groups together. Themes of inclusion are present throughout the book and in the illustrations, and at the end the students come together during a basketball game. Harrison said, “Be the change you want to see” was the motto they used as they created the book.
The national competition is scheduled for June 29 through July 2. The students are excited to be surrounded by a community of aspiring educators.
“I’m really impressed how they pulled it all together,” Grossi said of her students, “I’m very proud.”
McCabe will be a senior next year, but the others are about to graduate. Nevers-Hiers is going to Lesley University. Leroux is going to Fitchburg State University, Harrison is going to Penn State and Broderick is taking a gap year.