UTEP Aerospace Center - Dr. Racheal Haggerty, K-12 Education Program Manager

Join us to discover how the NASA MUREP Aerospace Academy (MAA) at UTEP is inspiring and preparing high school students in West Texas and Southern New Mexico—particularly those underrepresented in STEM fields—for advanced studies and careers in aerospace and other STEM-related disciplines. Learn how you can bring this free, impactful camp to your school, complete with complimentary materials, professional development for teachers, and stipends. Don't miss this opportunity to empower your high school students and enhance your college and career resources! 

SchoolLinks - Michael Discenza, Chief Technology Officer / Alex Hernandez, Operations Analyst

Whether it be economic value, community impact, or both, employers have varied motivations for participating in districts' work-based learning programs. Understanding these motivations is essential to maximize the effectiveness of your outreach. 

Join SchooLinks to discuss best practices for tailoring your outreach to expand the reach and impact of your industry partner network and work-based learning programming. In this breakout session, we will share strategies and reference materials from the hundreds of districts we support in this work. 

Certiport - Todd Kirby, Territory Manager

Skills have become the global currency of the 21st century economies. In this presentation, we will delve into the significance of certifications for students in Career and Technical Education programs. We will explore some of the key benefits of certifications which include validation of knowledge, increased marketability, increased earning power, enhanced academic performance, improved reputation, credibility, increased confidence, and respect from peers. Join us to discover how certifications can enhance your students' educational experience, prepare them for successful careers, and elevate the reputation of your CTE program.

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board - Andrea Panter, Senior Network Coordinator / Lauren Discher, Professional Learning Coordinator

My Texas Future is an exploratory resource designed to enable, inspire, and propel all Texas students toward degree and credential attainment while also providing them with a clear path to job opportunities. We will show how My Texas Future will jumpstart a student's Apply Texas application.

Curipod - Jens Aarre Seip, Co-founder & CEO / Lexi Lobdell, Head of US Operations

Curipod is a student engagement tool using AI to help you customize lessons to your classroom's specific standards, topics, or interests. This session will focus on how to create CTE, TEKS, & STAAR standard-aligned lessons within Curipod that engage every student in your classroom. You'll also learn how to upload your own rubrics into Curipod to give feedback with AI on your students' written and visual work.

Medical Center of the Americas Foundation - Nancy Lowery, Senior Director of Innovation / Marianne Mijares, STEM Lead Title: Inspiring Future STEM Professionals  

The MCA's STEM Innovation Lab model uses hands-on science-based activities to inspire interest in STEM careers.  The Innovation lab works with elementary, middle, and high school students using age-appropriate experiments.  Experiments are combined with conversations about relevant careers. This presentation will talk about the model, provide sample experiments that can be used in class, and discuss how your classes can participate.  We will also be asking for participant feedback on a new high school program we are looking to roll out.