By Doug Carroll
Communications Staff
GCU’s chief executive officer, Brian Mueller, welcomed nearly 500 high school members of the Arizona chapter of the Future Educators Association to campus on Thursday morning.
The teens, representing nearly 30 high schools, will engage in a variety of activities, competitions and breakout sessions in the two-day conference. They convened in the North Gym for an opening general session to hear from Mueller and Dr. Jeanne Storm, director for the national FEA organization.
As he looked out on those in the audience, Mueller said it brought back fond memories of his own teaching career.
“I remember being in high school, deciding I wanted to be a teacher and a coach,” he said, recalling early stops in Monroe, Mich., and Denver.
“I envy you in a lot of ways. You’re in a place (Arizona) that needs you desperately. We’re not as good as we could be, and we need to get better. You couldn’t be coming along at a more important time.”
Much of the conference is taking place in GCU’s new College of Education building. The college’s recently appointed dean, Dr. Kimberly LaPrade, was to address the conference at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Storm challenged the students to become involved in FEA at the national level. The national conference was held in Atlanta last month and will come to Phoenix in 2013.
Fariba Nassar, a senior at Independence High School in Glendale, spoke briefly. She told movingly of losing her father and landing in Arizona as part of a refugee family.
“Being a teacher is one of the best careers,” she said, “because you’re helping others reach their goals and dreams.”
Reach Doug Carroll at 639.8011 or [email protected].
