Amid the ongoing teacher shortage in Illinois, energy and optimism filled Illinois State University’s Bone Student Center, the hub for the fifth annual Future Teacher Conference (FTC) Friday, November 3.
Hosted by the College of Education (COE), the one-day conference drew record attendance, as more than 1,300 high school students aiming to become educators attended workshops across campus, listened to speakers, and networked with mentors and future colleagues.
“We hear about the shortage, but wait a few years, and you’ll see a lot of us out there in classrooms,” said Leafar Taher, a senior at Normal Community High School. She plans to become an elementary school teacher. “It’s pretty cool to think about.”
Launched in 2019, the FTC has grown each year according to Kelli Appel, COE’s director of recruitment, retention, and student services.
“As the largest producer of teachers in the Midwest, we want to be sure that we’re celebrating future teachers.”
Kelli Appel, the College of Education’s director of recruitment, retention, and student services
“As the largest producer of teachers in the Midwest, we want to be sure that we’re celebrating future teachers,” Appel said. “With the teacher shortage situation in Illinois, we want to be sure that all these students who are interested in becoming teachers know there’s a way and see the path to do that and feel comfortable with the idea of coming to Illinois State for that great preparation.”
The conference kicked off with an entertaining performance by Illinois State’s Gamma Phi Circus and opening remarks by fifth-grade teacher Peter Richey ’08 and literacy specialist Kristin Richey ’08. The Richeys are past COE Young Alumni Award winners. Students then split up to attend a session specific to the teaching specialty that interests them the most.
“New this year, they had to select one area of teaching that they wanted to learn about, and that was in response to feedback from students,” Appel said. “So, they were able to do a deeper dive during that first session.”
Lunch included a keynote address by Daniel Jackson ’18, COE’s 2023 Outstanding Young Alumni award winner. A second-grade teacher and the culture and climate chairman at Dixon Elementary in Chicago, Jackson discussed professional student-teacher relationships, work-life balance, and connecting with the school community. Attendees also browsed the table fair, which spanned two-thirds of the Brown Ballroom and included information from all of Illinois State’s education programs.
“We are the only education program that offers all the endorsements from the state,” Appel said. “So, students can pursue any of those and get information about them.”
In the afternoon, students chose to attend two of nearly 30 available sessions, with topics ranging from incorporating fun and engaging classroom technology, to celebrating equity, diversity, and inclusion, to being a “STEM superhero,” to becoming a Redbird.
Christian Arroyo, a junior at Benito Juarez High School in Chicago, attended the conference with some of his classmates, including seniors Amy Gomez and Kimberly Lopez, who all want to become impactful educators. Arroyo said he would love to teach third or fourth graders.
“This conference has been great,” Arroyo said. “The campus is really nice, and everyone’s been really helpful. It’s been really enjoyable here—like, very positive energy.”
As part of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) program at their high school, Arroyo, Gomez, and Lopez are already gaining hands-on experience by creating lesson plans and teaching either their classmates or elementary students. They are all planning to pursue teaching degrees in college.
“I like working with the kids,” Gomez said. “They all have different personalities, and it’s just fun to interact with them.”
Addison Brown, a senior at Normal Community West High School, hopes to teach high school family and consumer sciences (FCS). She and Taher are both members of the extracurricular Educators Rising program, through which they intern at local schools.
By attending the FTC, Brown enjoyed visiting her future college home—Illinois State.
“Through a lot of student teachers, I’ve heard they love it here,” Brown said. “It’s a really close-knit group.”
She said the conference helped expand her understanding of opportunities within the education profession. Special education, for example, is an endorsement that she could pursue in addition to FCS.
“You’re always going to have students in your class who have different needs,” Brown said. “They talked about strategies for your classroom, and they talked about the special education program here and scholarships that are available.”
Appel, who works with a committee of COE faculty and staff throughout the year to plan the annual conference, said she loves welcoming thousands of high school students to campus who have a shared passion for teaching.
“We want them to know that we’re proud that they want to become teachers and they have so many people here to support them,” Appel said. “We hope that they’ll continue their journey to becoming a teacher, and we hope many of them choose Illinois State for that journey.”
