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Top 5 Highlights from the 
First-Ever Virtual Conference | 
 
 
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1. “Learning is social and emotional.” 
– Teri Lawler, Education Associate, DDOE 
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2. “Early child care needs to be a ‘have to’ expense in the state budget like public education, and not a ‘want to’ expense. We can save later in remediation by investing early.”
– Former State Representative, Quinn Johnson 
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3. Desere Ndikum’s Performance
View Ms. Ndikum’s moving spoken word performance as part of the K-12 session (starts at 4:35). A senior at Newark Charter School, Ndikum competed and was a finalist in the 2021 MLK VOICE 4 YOUTH, a statewide, spoken word competition that provides high school students a platform to creatively share how Dr. King’s legancy guides their response to today’s challenges. 
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4. “How do we use some of these future opportunities to help support child care providers directly, and improve quality?” 
– Yvette Sanchez-Fuentes, Associate Secretary of Early Childhood Support, DDOE 
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5. How to get involved with postsecondary success:
1) For those that are employers: Look at new models like youth apprenticeships, different ways to hire, and earn-and-learn models 
2) Join the IT Industry Council 
3) Consider hiring someone from a neuro diverse background 
4) As Dr. Shelley Rouser mentioned: Mentor someone. Help another person achieve what you’ve achieved in your career 
– Patrick Callihan, Executive Director, Tech Impact 
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| The Vision Coalition of Delaware presented its first-ever virtual conference, New Perspectives in a New Year, as a series of three webinars led and moderated by Vision Coalition Leadership Team chair and Delmarva Power/Atlantic City Electric regional president, Gary Stockbridge.
 After 12 consecutive years of an annual conference hosted at the University of Delaware, this marked the Vision Coalition’s first virtual event. The conference serves as an annual check-in among advocates and educators on the priorities ahead, while also celebrating progress and success stories from the field. 
A diverse group of local voices facilitated in three panels on early learning, K-12 education and postsecondary success including workforce development. To view the conference conversation, please search using the hashtag #VCCDelaware.  | 
 
 
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| Vision Coalition Leadership | 
 
 
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| The Vision Coalition of Delaware is one of the nation’s longest running public-private partnerships devoted to education. They are the group responsible for Vision 2015, a ten-year plan released in 2005, and Student Success 2025, which launched in 2015. Based on feedback from 4,000 Delawareans, Student Success 2025 acknowledges that, to truly succeed in the future, students will need more than just core academic knowledge. To tackle tomorrow’s problems and excel in the jobs of the future, students will need “soft” skills and attributes like creativity, flexibility, and curiosity. The Vision Coalition Leadership Team includes: | 
 
 
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Tony Allen, Ph.D. 
President, Delaware State University
Jeffrey T. Benson, Jr. 
Managing Partner, Prominent Insurance 
Susan Bunting 
Delaware Secretary of Education 
Heath Chasanov 
Superintendent, Woodbridge School District 
Katrina Daniels 
Principal, Colonial Early Education Program 
Elizabeth ‘Liz’ Farley-Ripple, Ph.D. 
Associate Professor of Education and Public Policy in the School of Education and an Affiliate of the Institute for Public Administration at the University of Delaware 
Dorrell Green 
Superintendent, Red Clay School District 
Paul A. Herdman 
President and CEO, Rodel 
Logan S. Herring 
Chief Executive Officer for the Kingswood Community Center; REACH Riverside; The Warehouse 
Mark Holodick 
Senior Leadership Specialist, Delaware Academy for School Leadership (DASL) at the University of Delaware  | 
 
 
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Stephanie Ingram 
President, Delaware State Education Association
Rev. Provey Powell Jr. 
Member, Delaware State Board of Education 
Rob Rescigno, Ed.D. 
Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs, Wilmington University 
Bettina Tweardy Riveros, Esq. 
Chief Health Equity Officer; Senior Vice President, Government Affairs and Community Engagement, ChristianaCare 
Justina M. Sapna 
Vice President for Academic Affairs at Delaware Technical Community College 
Gary Stockbridge 
Regional President, Delmarva Power and Atlantic City Electric 
Javier G. Torrijos 
Chair, Delaware Hispanic Commission and Retired/Former Assistant Director of Construction at Delaware Department of Transportation 
Margie López Waite 
Chief Executive Officer at Las Américas ASPIRA Academy  | 
 
 
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