The STLP State Championship event is the best celebration of learning in Kentucky. Each year, thousands upon thousands of students, educators, administrators, parents, partners and community members join together to shine a spotlight on ways technology has enabled learning, service, student voice and leadership across our state’s schools.

As leaders in their respective districts, STLP Coaches, building principals, library media specialists, district technology leaders and others work together to support STLP State and ensure as many students as possible can participate in this one-of-a-kind educational event. Throughout the years, STLP has worked to build the STLP State experience into a wonderfully eclectic collection of project-based-learning presentations, hands-on exploration of cutting edge technology tools, individual competitive challenges, and celebrations of student accomplishments.

We have expanded every aspect of STLP State to provide new and additional opportunities for student participation. Now, more than ever, we want to see as many school districts going “All In” on STLP and actively planning for attending State in April.

Throughout the year, feedback was sought and collected. What we heard, we heard clearly: so many challenges in districts (from transportation woes to emergency level substitute teacher shortages) make it exceedingly difficult to commit resources for bringing STLP groups out of district to both STLP Regionals in the fall and STLP State in the spring. Combined with feedback from participants that found stronger educational impact utilizing a “virtual” Regional platform in 2021, the direction was clear: STLP Regionals should not be in-person this year.

Here’s our compromise: since districts will avoid many of the challenges described above by have Regionals as online events, let’s all commit now to bringing record number of students to STLP State in Lexington on April 19, 2023.

Start planning your district/school’s trip to State now and, perhaps more importantly, plan from the beginning to stay for the entirety of the day’s activities. That’s right, we need schools to stick around for the entire program and starting your planning with that end in mind will be important come the spring.

Additional feedback exclaimed that STLP State’s program day needs some tweaking to help wrap up in a timelier fashion, to provide clearer communications throughout the day, and a more functional and worthwhile closing celebration. We heard you and were excited to be developing new plans for STLP to help meet those expressed needs. But we need your commitment to take part in the complete program in return.

What are some steps to take now to go “All In” for STLP State?

  • Encourage more schools to submit projects to the Regional event and more digital project judging entries in January
  • Guide students to apply for positions on Service Teams to help run State
  • Connect students with State Challenge competitions (open to all) and bring students to experience the non-competitive side of State
  • Start reserving transportation and setting expectations for travel schedules with your district leadership
  • Work with your District Technology Directors and Digital Learning Coaches to devise plans for how to get teams to State

The STLP State Championship is as much a celebration of the hard work of students as it is the hard work of supporting, coaching, and developing those students. State is in recognition of everyone’s hard work and we can’t wait to break more attendance records this coming year. Here’s the deal: you get the students to Lexington and we’ll work to make it worth your effort!

Start now to take your STLP All In for 2022-2023!