Representatives with several colleges, including Murray State University, spoke with students about their education programs during the 2026 Educators Rising Kentucky state conference. Photo by Joe Ragusa, Kentucky Department of Education, March 5, 2026
A record number of students attended the 2026 Educators Rising Kentucky state conference on March 5 at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville.
The event, designed to inspire the next generation of teachers, featured a range of activities for students preparing for careers in education.
Veda Stewart, director of the Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE’s) Division of Educator Recruitment and Development, said it was amazing to see the excitement students have for education during the conference.
“No matter what they do in life, the skills that they learn through Ed Rising and through this teaching opportunity, test driving teaching, will take them far,” Stewart said. “They’re learning and gaining skills that will help them in every part of their life.”
There were 875 students registered to attend this year’s event – up from the previous record of 774 students who attended in 2025 – and 12 new Educators Rising chapters, bringing the total number of participating schools in Kentucky to 71.
Educators Rising Kentucky is the career and technical student organization for middle and high school students interested in education-related careers. The chapter is part of the national Educators Rising program, which seeks to create a clear pathway in every school district for young people who want to serve their communities as highly skilled educators.
“For one thing, we know that we need more teachers, and so we need to grow our own,” Stewart said. “We need to build that pathway and allow them the opportunity to see that the best is yet to come for them.”
Bree Massie, the Educators Rising state coordinator for KDE, encouraged more schools to join the program.
“Educators Rising gives us that beginning point, … so what you’re doing is creating, truly, your next generation of teachers,” she said.
Educators Rising President Hunter Carr, a senior at Mayfield High School, said he plans to become a high school social studies teacher and Educators Rising has helped him in a variety of ways.
“I’ve learned how to make lesson plans and then adapt those lesson plans to different learners. I’ve become a better speaker. I’ve learned how to make a speech off of very little information,” Carr said. “I’ve learned how to be flexible. I’ve learned how to make decisions better, and this organization has helped me to do that.”
During the state conference, students competed in dozens of different events that touched on several areas of teaching, including lesson planning, public speaking and developing children’s literature.
One signature event is where students highlight their “Educators Rising Moment.” In this speech competition, students share the moment they realized they were called to a career in education.
Educators Rising President-elect Lily Russell, a junior at Ignite Institute (Boone County), said her teachers motivated her to join the program and continue pursuing more opportunities to learn about being an educator. She currently works as an aide at Caywood Elementary (Boone County).
“Just to see the impact that you can have on even one child genuinely makes everything worth it,” Russell said.
Aside from the competitions, the event featured professional learning breakout sessions where students interacted with education leaders on a variety of topics, such as how to build positive relationships in the classroom, working with artificial intelligence and Kentucky’s United We Learn vision for public education. Representatives from several universities and other education groups were in attendance to inform students about their programs.
The conference also hosted a conference-wide Crafts for a Cause service project, bringing together chapters from across Kentucky to create bracelets, bookmarks, toys and kindness cards for their local communities.
The day concluded with an awards ceremony recognizing students who placed in the day’s competitions. The winning students and the 2025-2026 class of Educators Rising Kentucky state officers will represent the state chapter at the national Educators Rising conference in June.
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