5th Annual Classroom of the Future, College and Career Pathway Summit

This past Tuesday, I attended the Careers of the Future College and Career Pathway Summit in San Diego.  It was held on the National University San Diego campus. Like all events during the pandemic, CFF’s conference had been on hold the past two years. I was a little concerned about the attendance with the passage of time, but it turned out to be a fantastic summit focused on Career and Technical Education (CTE) and careers of the future. Jen Gibson, SimRated’s Customer Success Director accompanied me to the summit.

Upon arrival I was welcomed by Rami Hanna from National University who was friendly and helpful.  He described his role in Workforce Education Solutions and we quickly began to explore potential opportunities to collaborate.  We then set up our table and had numerous participants come by to explore the opportunities in medical procedure training and certification that SimRated offers.  

We then attended the opening remarks with San Diego County Superintendent Paul Gothold who began the summit by discussing workforce readiness initiatives for youth throughout the county of San Diego.  Following the opening remarks Al Love, Senior Director of College and Career Readiness at SDCOE introduced the Linda Vista Innovation Center (LVIC).  This is an exciting center which will allow students from around San Diego explore the latest technologies in college and career readiness.  Jen later toured the center (see photos). At SimRated, we hope to participate in this Innovation Center as it ramps up to full capacity.

The first breakout session of the day was “SupeTank” which was an interesting session in which 4 superintendents presented their idea for developing, improving, and transforming career technical education programs in their schools.  One interesting proposal was by Dr. Leighangela Brady, Superintendent in the National School District.  She proposed a program to bring a teacher to work.  This would allow teachers to learn about other careers to better teach students in CTE.  As a physician and CEO of SimRated, I identified with this presentation because SimRated achieves this goal but instead by bringing medical procedure expertise to the teacher and students virtually.

I then presented at the industry rapid fire pitch breakout session.  In this session, four industry partners had ten minutes each to present their business to attendants. The goal of this presentation was to share solutions with districts, businesses, and other interested parties in talent development.

The summit concluded with a raffle in which Jen won twice (she gave away the gift card to a teacher in the audience)! 

I would say that my overall experience as a solution provider was excellent. There was a true feeling of partnership and collaboration amongst all stakeholders with the goal of talent development and career awareness for youth. 

Special thanks to Tom Davis, an advisory board member of CFF, who invited SimRated to this fantastic summit and the entire Classroom of the Future board.