2025 SC Education + Business Summit

The Junior Chef Competition is extremely relevant to both CTE students and instructors. The winning team is presented medals, a trophy and scholarships to Sullivan University in Kentucky. Lastly, the winners advance to the Southeastern Junior Chef Competition. Presenters have dietetic backgrounds and work as Education Associates for the South Carolina Department of Education.

Attendees will explore NIWC Atlantic pathways, gaining insights into career opportunities and personal experiences as civilians. The session will include discussions on the importance of STEM initiatives at NIWC Atlantic, highlighting how these programs foster innovation and support professional growth within the organization and the broader community.

Relevance of the topic to the CTE field:
Career and Technical Education (CTE) is essential for preparing students for the workforce, and introducing career exploration in middle school helps build early awareness of high-demand industries. Learning Blade provides middle school CTE educators with free, ready-to-use STEM career exploration resources that align with South Carolina’s workforce needs. This session directly supports CTE goals by offering practical tools to engage students in real-world career pathways such as advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, and engineering.

Value to participants:
Participants will gain hands-on experience with Learning Blade’s interactive career-focused STEM missions and learn strategies for integrating these resources into their CTE classrooms. They will leave with free, ready-to-implement activities designed to help students make connections between classroom learning and future careers. The session will also provide insights into how CTE educators can align instruction with industry expectations and workforce development initiatives.

Presenter knowledge and experience:
As the State Manager for Learning Blade in South Carolina, I have extensive experience supporting educators in integrating career exploration into their classrooms. With a background in curriculum, assessment, and instruction, I have worked with teachers, administrators, and industry leaders to bridge the gap between education and workforce readiness. My role involves training educators, developing implementation strategies, and ensuring that CTE teachers have access to high-quality, career-focused learning tools.

Relevancy: Preparing SC students for the growing demand of digital accessibility skillsets in multiple CTE career fields.

Value: Raise awareness of free resources educators can take advantage of for including digital accessibility skillsets in their lesson plans.

Presenter knowledge: Both presenters are members of the South Carolina Department of Education's Agency Accessibility Team and are both Certified Professionals in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) through the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP).

This session explores computer science standards and explains how to navigate the ADA Title II and Section 508 requirements. Participants will gain practical knowledge of tips, tools, and resources for immediate implementation in their classrooms. Both presenters are SCDE trainers who have been providing digital accessibility training to school districts over the last 2 years. Madalina Tudora is the assistive technology state coordinator, certified as an Assistive Technology Professional through RESNA , and Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) and Courtney Leach is a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) through the International Association of Accessibility Professionals and Section 508 trainer for school districts.

All CTE centers and schools, whether housed on or off the school campus, must advertise, promote, and communicate their career cluster offerings in easily accessible and conspicuous platforms to boost student participation. After 8 years of experience in training district and school counselors, one vital piece to increasing student success in high school is communicating to students and counselors the CTE course offerings before and during IGP conferences.

This presentation provides a hands-on, use these free tools immediately to create the ideal settings for CTE staff to build their skills and professional capacity. The fast paced training is specifically designed for CTE practitioners to learn, observe, and implement each of these strategies, techniques, and resources to develop programs that are based on effective facilitation and engagement. We have presented this workshop and others to over 30,000 conference participants at over 400+ national, statewide, and regional conferences throughout the country, including keynoting at the EBS Summit in previous years, NC Workforce Training Conference (10+ years), Southeast Training Association (10+ years), NCETA (10+ years), Northeast Workforce (5+ years), etc.

As the 2024 SC CCR ELA Standards are implemented across educational settings, it is imperative for CTE instructors to understand the relationship between literacy skills and students’ success in the workforce. Our sessions will focus on how the new standards integrate essential literacy competencies with CTE curricula, thereby supporting CTE teachers in fostering an environment where students not only gain technical expertise but also develop the critical reading, writing, and communication skills needed for success in postsecondary education and the modern workforce.
The 2024 SC CCR ELA Standards emphasize the development of key literacy skills—such as reading comprehension, writing proficiency, and effective communication—that are essential across all career pathways. CTE instructors often teach students who are at various levels of literacy development, and integrating these standards into CTE instruction provides a clear, actionable framework for improving student outcomes in both technical and academic areas.
By attending this session, CTE teachers will gain a deeper understanding of how the new standards can be woven into their existing curricula. They will learn practical strategies for incorporating literacy instruction that aligns with their industry-specific content, helping students bridge the gap between technical skills and the soft skills required by employers. This integration is not only relevant but necessary for ensuring that students are truly prepared for success in the workforce or in further academic pursuits.
Our sessions will also highlight strategies for embedding literacy across all CTE content areas, with a focus on real-world applications. From interpreting technical manuals to crafting professional emails or delivering presentations, the integration of literacy standards into CTE classrooms enhances students’ readiness for both higher education and their careers. These competencies are critical to student success and will contribute to the overall mission of Career and Technical Education to prepare students for life after high school, whether they choose to enter the workforce directly or pursue further education.

Tooling U-SME, supported by the state, and Tallo through their partnership with SC Future Makers are both resources that are available for high school programs.

Presenter Bio
Hannah Bullard is Head of Strategic Partnerships at Tallo. Her team is responsible for the growth and nurturing of Tallo’s strategic partners and to ensure the partner’s goals are met. Hannah's extensive experience in fostering collaborative relationships and her dedication to achieving mutual success make her an invaluable asset to Tallo's strategic initiatives. Prior to Tallo, Hannah worked at Hawkes Learning where she worked very closely with community and technical colleges in providing supportive developmental English and Math curriculum software. Her passion has always been to support the advancement of early talent into educational and career opportunity. Currently, her team is responsible for the relationship Tallo holds with South Carolina Future Makers, an organization that promotes manufacturing educational and career pathways throughout South Carolina. She holds a BA in Finance from James Madison University.

Krista Maurer is a Senior Account Executive specializing in Workforce Education for SME for the past 16 years. She is always excited to have the opportunity to promote manufacturing careers and pathways connecting these opportunities to STEM learning and the advanced technology in our industry.

The Case for CTE is relevant to all areas of CTE and anyone involved in education. CTE has long been the "hidden secret" in most districts, while many do not realize the value it holds. Participants will learn why CTE is not the "lesser" educational experience, but actually, the most valuable experience. Participants will learn of benefits to students as well as the entire educational system, as it has the potential to improves student performance and school report card ratings. The presenter is a 10-year veteran of CTE and often presents at local, state, and national conferences. This presentation contains researched components as well as components garnered directly from field and "hands on" experiences.

SREB's AI Commission was formed by Gov. McMaster to address the changing needs of the workforce and how education can directly support them in gaining AI knowledge and skills. These skills are needed in every cluster and CTE teachers will need support as they work to embed this in their instruction.

This session will provide examples of how to use WIN Learning's courseware to help learners build skills to be career ready and to earn stackable credentials. The courseware can serve as a curriculum supplement for CTE educators.

Relevance: Updates from the South Carolina Department of Education. Value: Will prepare participants for changes taking place as a result of current trends. Presenter Knowledge and Experience: I am the SCDE Education Associate for the Family and Consumer Sciences Programs of Study whose responsibility is to keep abreast of current trends and inform the CTE administrators and teachers.

This session is most relevant to attendees because of the new changes and revisions that are important and beneficial to students in helping them make good career choices and are certainly vital to the success of all career program offerings.