Penn State hosted the 2009 Pennsylvania Future Educators Association (FEA) State Conference on April 16-17 on the University Park campus.
FEA’s mission is to provide assistance to schools in starting and maintaining chapters, precollegiate and collegiate teacher recruitment programs. The organization also aims to motivate students who are interested in careers in education to pursue their interest by setting educational and career goals, promoting academic achievement and exploring the field of education through enriching classroom and school-wide projects along with service to the community.
The event kicked off the first night with a pizza social with support from Penn State’s undergraduate admissions office. After the official registration took place the next morning, 60 students from 12 high school districts statewide were in attendance. The students are members of their local F.E.A. organizations chartered by Phi Delta Kappa.
The next morning a total of 15 breakout sessions were offered by Penn State advisers, admissions counselors and College of Education alumni, students and department representatives. A Penn State student group, Students Engaging Students, also held team-building and communication skills sessions.
Following lunch, a presentation by Jeanetta Thomas of the Penn State Education Partnership Program (PEPP) taught students to explore how the inequity in school funding is impacting education in Pennsylvania, and their roles as future educators.
The conference was organized by Charleon Jeffries, FEA Pennsylvania president and the support coordinator for the College’s office of multicultural programs and F.E.A.- MESA, the Penn State chapter.
Penn State will host the next conference in fall 2010. For further details about the FEA visit, www.ed.psu.edu/educ/multicultural-programs/fep.