Crissy Lauterbach, a Lakota East High School teacher, left, helps Alysha Scott, Lakota East junior, put the finishing touches on her school’s poster for the Ohio Future Educators Association State Conference in the Student Center yesterday morning. It too

Credit: DKS Editors

Chelsea Maloney, a senior at Colerain High School in Cincinnati, said a good education is the key to a successful life.

About 700 students from different high schools in Ohio participated in the 18th annual Ohio Future Educators Association conference yesterday in the Student Center, where students could learn more about the teaching profession through different sessions.

Julie Wilcox, the coordinator for recruitment and retention, said this is the first time Kent State hosted the conference.

“Our goal is to help them [OFEA] have a successful conference and to do some recruiting and showing off all of the great programs here at Kent State,” Wilcox said.

Kent State, the Ohio Department of Education and the OFEA, a non-profit organization that helps future educators, sponsored the event.

Students also participated in competitions, where the different chapters of the Future Educators of America, a youth-led organization affiliated with the OFEA, created posters, table displays, scrapbooks and banners dealing with this year’s theme “Aspire to Reach Higher! Teach!”

Alysha Scott, a junior from Lakota East High School in West Chester, participated in the table display competition for her school.

Her display was made of mountains, which she said went along with the theme of reaching for higher education.

Scott said her school has a program for students who are thinking about going into teaching.

“The Teacher’s Academy program is two classes, and we basically learn the fundamentals of being a teacher,” Scott said. “We learn lesson planning, we teach in front of people, we learn discipline and different medical issues that we might encounter when we become teachers.”

Scott said the program helped her decide what she wanted to do after high school.

“At first I wanted to be a nurse, but then I changed my mind after participating in the program,” Scott said.

She said she plans on going into early childhood education after graduating.

Maloney also has a teaching program at her high school.

She said it is a junior- and senior- level program, where students learn about the teaching curriculum and how to deal with behavioral problems in the classroom.

Maloney plans to study early childhood education at the University of Cincinnati.

“I value education, and I think this is great, and I’m glad I’m getting a head start on my career,” Maloney said.

Contact College of Education, Health and Human Services reporter Jackie McLean at [email protected].