Kenan Fellows Program conference highlights the importance of connecting teachers with industry and colleagues statewide
Over a hundred educators met in Chapel Hill on Aug. 3 to attend the first ever, two-day Reigniting Teacher Passion Conference hosted by the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership.
Educators were able to connect with colleagues and industry partners through a variety of professional development sessions. Attendees also got to hear from each other about their experience as Kenan Fellows alumni or in the classroom in general.
“Our goal is to take the formula that makes us unique, which is pairing an industry or community experience with pedagogical and leadership development. We want other educators to be able to experience what we would call ‘our secret sauce’ that sets us apart,” Program Director Vance Kite said.
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Connecting educators
The conference offered 18 presentations for the fellows to choose from over the course of two days. Many of these were about projects spearheaded by current Kenan Fellows or alumni. Topics ranged broadly from introducing AI tools to supporting neurodivergent educators.
One presenter was Jennifer Taylor, a career development coordinator and Kenan Fellows alumnus. Her goal was to share ways to plan events with local business partners and students.
She shared with the attendees several stories of how her passion for career and technical education (CTE) has grown through her work in Henderson County and surrounding areas.
“I wanted to give them the opportunity to see the value in connecting careers to your classroom,” Taylor said.
Over lunch, attendees also got to hear from a panel of Kenan Fellows alumni. The panelists discussed their personal stories as educators and what motivated them to keep going.
Panelists were asked about the value of the network they’ve built as Kenan Fellows alumni.
Rebekah Morse said that coming from a small county like Polk, the fellowship drew her in because of what she could learn from the community and the “bits and pieces” she could bring back to people in her home district.
The discussion also emphasized educators supporting one another.
“The real way to transcend the outside noise and agitation is to turn towards our colleagues,” Durham Public Schools teacher Al Donaldson said.
Connecting industry partners
For Kenan Fellows Program Manager Carrie Horton, the way this conference stands out from others is by offering site visits.
Conference attendees were able to choose from a variety of community and industry partners to visit the morning of the second day of the conference. These sites included laboratories, textile businesses, farms, and more. Attendees were then invited back to the conference center in Chapel Hill to debrief.
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“Part of our fellowship is really about giving those fellows an opportunity to connect deeply with a community partner. Sometimes it’s industry, sometimes organizations, and they do that through a three-week internship,” Horton said. “So we just wanted to give a little taste of what that looks like, so that they could see what some of our other programs, like STEMwork or Mountains to Sea, entail.”
During the visits, educators learned how to arrange field trips to the locations for their students and brainstormed lesson plans. For example, some attendees toured North Carolina State University’s Agroecology Education Farm and discussed showing students how food is harvested through science and history-based lesson plans that can be done on a trip to the farm.
Gretchen Ross, a current Kenan Fellow who teaches in Asheville City Schools, was a part of the farm visit. She said the visit helped teachers envision things they can take back to their students and their schools.
“It really is beautiful to see that there are spaces for education, for kids to really truly come and be immersed in different farming practices and what it looks like,” Ross said.
On the first day of the conference, attendees also had access to a technological “play area,” where they learned how to use gadgets they could employ at their schools like virtual reality headsets.
Commenting on the conference as a whole, Myles Cyrus, a science teacher from a Wake County charter school, saw the experience as a new version of professional development.
“A lot of times, I think your principal or your assistant principal have an idea of what everyone needs to do. But with this conference, I have the element of choice of what sessions I want to attend, what topics I want to cover and learn about, and just to network and build connections,” Cyrus said.
The Kenan Fellows Program was initially founded 26 years ago to retain math and science teachers in the Research Triangle Park area. Now, it serves as a connector between educators, their colleagues, and industry partners across the state.
Educators can apply for a year-long fellowship as well as any of the three other programs in their suite of professional development opportunities.
Kite said that whether educators went into the conference familiar or unfamiliar with Kenan Fellows, they still leave reinvigorated and are willing to engage with them in the future.
“We hope that they will leave feeling like we have treated them like professionals. That we are elevating and advocating for the profession of being an educator in North Carolina,” Kite said. “That they leave with new tools to enrich their classrooms and new industry connections to bring to their classrooms.”