Westside High School students recently traveled to Kearney to participate in the Nebraska Educators Rising State Conference, where aspiring educators from across the state competed in events, presented projects and explored careers in teaching.
Students competed in a variety of categories, including interactive bulletin boards, public service announcements and school-based competitions.
Junior Hadley Hoagland competed in the interactive bulletin board event at the middle school level alongside senior Savannah Chalen.
“I competed in interactive bulletin boards at a middle school level,” Hoagland said. “Me and Savannah created a bulletin board based off of voting.”
Chalen also competed in multiple events at the conference.
“I competed in the interactive bulletin board for the middle school level with Hadley Hoagland, and I competed inside our schools with Yasmin Lotoro,” Chalen said.
Senior Micah Aranda participated in a public service announcement focused on teacher recruitment.
“I did a PSA in teacher recruitment with Macaiah Dodd,” Aranda said.
Students spent weeks preparing for their competitions, developing presentations, conducting research and practicing their skills before arriving at the state conference.
“It was kind of stressful, but it looked good, so it was fine,” Hoagland said.
Chalen said preparation required both advance work and last-minute adjustments.
“We had to record a video a couple weeks in advance, but our whole script and everything, we did it the morning of and practiced it going in,” Chalen said.
The conference also gave students the opportunity to connect with others who share an interest in education, something participants said was a valuable part of the experience.
“It’s really cool meeting other teachers because at our school, most people don’t want to go into education,” Chalen said. “Being there, I got to meet a lot of other educators and even some people I might go to college with.”
Aranda said the experience reinforced his interest in pursuing a career in education.
“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher for a couple of years now, so it kind of broadened my interest in it,” Aranda said.
Hoagland said it was encouraging to see younger students already interested in becoming educators.
“It made me happy to see so many different people wanting to be teachers, especially freshmen and sophomores who already knew at an early age,” Hoagland said.
Several Westside students placed in the top three in their respective events, highlighting the preparation and effort put into their work.
For Westside’s Educators Rising chapter, the state conference was not only a competition but also an opportunity to celebrate future educators and continue developing skills that will shape the next generation.
