On April 23 -25, over 9,000 Catholic educators from around the United States, as well as the UK, Australia, and Canada, took part in the 134th annual National Catholic Educational Association Convention and Expo (NCEA 2019) at McCormick Place-West in Chicago. This convention is the largest private education association gathering in the world, held in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Chicago. This was my first NCEA convention and I cannot begin to articulate the enthusiasm and excitement I have after attending these days. I was able to be a part of some amazing conversations and exchanging of ideas in the field of Catholic education. I was also able to debut some of the most cutting-edge research and technologies related to education as a whole.

While there were more than 200 professional development sessions to choose from, I chose to take the opportunity to learn more about best practices in sustaining our Catholic identity and mission, the roles and relationships of shared governance in Catholic high schools, implementing standards and benchmarks, and finally on-going formation and professional development of Catholic school educators. I hope to be able to better serve the province with the new learnings and best practices that I gathered.

Aside from the amazing workshops, the opportunity to share with so many working in the field of Catholic education from preschool, elementary, secondary, adult education, colleges and universities, was probably one of the highlights. There were many moments of insight through simple conversations and formal gathering.

I am looking forward to 2020 where the convention will be held in Baltimore!