The Brownwood High School chapter of Texas Association of Future Educators (TAFE) attended the TAFE Teach Tomorrow Summit at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX, February 14-16, 2015.

TAFE is a co-curricular and statewide non-profit student organization created to allow young men and women an opportunity to explore the teaching profession.

TAFE’s mission is to encourage students to learn about careers in education and assist them in exploring the teaching profession while promoting character, service, and leadership skills necessary for becoming effective educators. The meeting featured a series of breakout sessions and general sessions in which members had opportunities to develop skills for becoming effective educators.

Attendees to this three-day conference included members of TAFE, which consisted of approximately 1,500 students, interested in becoming educators.

The conference gave these students the opportunity to meet others from around the state with the same interest, gain an understanding of what it takes to be a successful college student, and learn the skills necessary for becoming a successful educator.

This year’s conference theme was, “Teaching is Out of this World: It’s a twirled world that will leave you swirled.”  The youth developed this theme to show others that teaching can be, “crazy, zany, and fun, fun, fun!!!”

The first keynote speaker was Damen Lopez, founder of No Excuses University. Damen motivated and encouraged students to not let anything get in their way of attending college.  A second keynote was presented by COMETRY.  COMETRY used comedy and poetry to teach values associated with being the type of person or leader that others gravitate toward.

While at the conference many members participated in competitive events designed to offer future educators exciting, authentic opportunities to measure their creativity, skills, and initiative against high standards and their peers from across the state. There are a total of 29 competitive events and 19 of those events advance to a national competition.

On Sunday, the 2015-2016 officer team was elected to continue the mission of TAFE and to inspire “The Hope for Tomorrow.”

“It is my hope that the students left the conference with a greater understanding of the education field, a clear vision of how to get into college to pursue their dreams and knowledge of what it takes to be successful in college,” Donita Garza, TAFE State Program Director, said.

“As Ms. Garza spoke of, I hope these students have come home with lots of information and confidence to move forward in their future endeavors.  The organization was started at Brownwood High School this school year and has blossomed with support.  I work with a great group of kids.  These students have shown excellence in the organization and represented our school and district with lots of awards,” stated Mitzi Cockerham, Advisor.

Casey Shannon, senior at BHS and president of Brownwood High School T.A.F.E. said, “TAFE has become such a major part of everyone’s life in the organization. We have students in our TAFE organization that came in here not knowing what to expect or what they wanted to do in life, but now they have found their calling which is teaching. The wonderful thing is [that] each one of us wants to teach something different like band, athletics, English, etc. I can say for myself, I have found what I want to do by being part of TAFE. My plan is to get my doctorate in education and become a superintendent of a school district. I have a feeling TAFE will be part of BHS for a long time.”

Awards the organization received at the Teach Tomorrow Summit are listed below:

Outstanding Chapter
BHS TAFE Chapter Members: Pamela Russell, Justin Price, Joshua Wilbourn, Liliana Torres, Gavin Gill, Alexis Edwards, Casey Shannon, Lorena Lopez, Delaney Bennett, Nathan Lacy, Katherine Bautista, Connie Sliger, and Mitzi Cockerham (Advisor)

• Bulletin Board Competition – Blue Ribbon:  Delaney Bennett and Casey Shannon

• Bulletin Board Competition – Blue Ribbon:  Lorena Lopez and Katherine Bautista

• Teacher Created Material – Blue Ribbon:  Joshua Wilbourn and Gavin Gill

Additionally, students also participated in the following events at the summit:

• Creative Lecture – Alexis Edwards
• Public Speaking Contest – Joshua Wilbourn

2014-2015 TAFE Officer Team:

Cody Richardson – Vice President of Service, Gavin Gill – Vice President of Educational Awareness, Katherine Bautista – Vice President of Leadership, Casey Shannon – President, Delaney Bennett – Vice President of Teaching, Justin Price – Vice President  of Fundraising, Josh Wilbourn – Vice President of Technology, Nathan Lacey – Vice President of Recreation/Social, Mitzi Cockerham – Advisor

Pictured at top:  (left to right) Connie Sliger, Pamela Russell, Justin Price, Joshua Wilbourn, Liliana Torres, Gavin Gill, Alexis Edwards, Casey Shannon, Lorena Lopez, Peyton Cockerham, Delaney Bennett, Nathan Lacy, Katherine Bautista and Mitzi Cockerham (Advisor)

Above:  Casey Shannon and Delaney Bennett (Bulletin Board Competition – Blue Ribbon)

Pictured above: Katherine Bautista and Lorena Lopez (Bulletin Board Competition – Blue Ribbon)

Above: Gavin Gill and Joshua Wilbourn (Teacher Created Material – Blue Ribbon)