Recently, Kentucky’s Commissioner of Education, Dr. Jason Glass, recounted his experience at the 2022 STLP State Championship in his weekly update to KDE staff. Here’s what he wrote:
Team KDE,
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to spend time at the Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP) State Championship at Central Bank Center in Lexington. For the first time in two years, the Kentucky Board of Education held a regular meeting at the event, which was a treat for all of us.
Nearly 14,000 students, educators, volunteers, community members and parents joined the event to watch preschool through 12th-grade students showcase what they know and can do with technology in the arts and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics), and demonstrate many career-ready skills. Students participated in nearly 50 different STLP competition areas, such as robotics, coding, web design and newscasting.
STLP students created projects, products or services and demonstrated their learning through instructional, technical or community development projects; digital content creation such as digital art, photography, design, programming, app development and robotics; and technical services, such as a student help desk, network engineering and wireless applications.
Kudos to all our Team KDE members in the Office of Education Technology, and throughout the entire department, who played a role in putting this year’s competition together.
Attending events like this remind us of the importance of celebrating the creative and ingenious work of Kentucky’s students. Watching the students’ excitement and joy grow as they cheered for their peers reinforces our commitment to giving them the chance to learn and grow in an engaging and meaningful way, such as the opportunities STLP provides. It truly was special to see our students use the skills they are gaining in our public schools each day.
STLP extends our thanks to Dr. Glass for participating in #STLP22 and sharing his experience with Team KDE.