The symposium brought leading educators from Connecticut public schools, higher education institutions and state departments and agencies together with high school students from diverse backgrounds pursuing their dream to become a teacher through a state initiative, Educators Rising Connecticut.

The symposium, “Transformative Pathways: Empowering Educators, Engaging Learners” opened with a video greeting from U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona. In his work to lead America’s development of a more diverse educator workforce, Cardona recognized Connecticut’s important gains in developing programs, resources and scholarships supportive of educator diversity.

“Part of our vision includes making sure that we have a beautifully diverse workforce of highly qualified teachers. The diversity that matches the diversity of our communities,” Cardona said. “The bottom line is that educator diversity matters. It’s not a good-to-have, it’s a must-have. It’s not only good that students see themselves represented, but it’s also good for the social, emotional, and academic benefits for all students, not just students from different backgrounds. And I’m proud to say that Connecticut is leading the way.”

The event’s keynote speaker, Pedro Noguera, a nationally recognized scholar and sociologist, spoke on “Teaching for Equity: How Teachers Can Make a Difference for All Students.” Additional opening comments were given by 2025 Connecticut Teacher of the Year Julia Miller (New Haven Public Schools), and Commissioner for the Connecticut State Department of Education Charlene Russell-Tucker.

Russell-Tucker said increasing educator diversity and strengthening the state’s educator pipeline continues to be a strategic focus of the department and its innovative programs.

Between 2009 and 2014, Connecticut’s percentage of educators of color grew from 7.8% to 8.1% of the workforce. Last year, the number rose to 11% percent. Currently, 58.8% of Connecticut’s public school student body are students of color.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure that representation is in our state,” said Russell-Tucker. “This work is critically important, and our collective actions demonstrate that we’re not just talking about it or not just admiring the problem. We’re about effective solutions, and we are moving forward. We’re leading the charge to ensure that our educator workforce really looks like and depicts the students that it serves. Together, we truly are changing the face of education in Connecticut.”

The symposium’s six breakout sessions were paneled by educator leaders representing a cross-section of Connecticut’s institutions of higher education, diverse public schools, and state education organizations. The closing symposium panel addressed “Connecticut Educator Pathways: Addressing the Teacher Shortage and Diversifying the Educator Workforce.”

Coraly Rodrigues is a Student Officer in Training with the student governing panel of Educators Rising Connecticut. The Waterbury Career Academy 11th-grade student said seeing the large number of high school students participating in the symposium was exciting.

“One of our goals is to promote Educators Rising Connecticut to other school districts,” said Rodrigues. “I want to be able to motivate students on becoming a future educator and have that sense of motivating others.”

Isaias Rodriguez, a 12th-grade student at New Britain High School, has been involved with his school’s Educators Rising Connecticut program for four years. He’s held club positions including State Delegate and Vice President of Communications and hopes to be a music teacher or a preschool teacher.

“Being here today is a great experience, because we’ve been learning a lot about the impact that diversity has on the field of education, and how I can play a role in helping the education field in Connecticut,” said Rodriguez.

New Britain High School teacher-leader Eileen Marquez said the annual symposium at Quinnipiac is always impactful for her students.

“We’ve been coming every year it’s been existing, and I feel like every year the students take away something different. Today, they’re going to be fully immersed in participating in the breakout sessions; and they’re excited to be networking, because we have so many other districts here,” said Marquez. “It’s really exciting for them to be here at Quinnipiac, to meet students who have their shared interests from across Connecticut, to meet staff and faculty members from different colleges, and to hear from some big names in education.”

Marquez said students in the program frequently visit different college campuses as part of their interest in becoming future educators.

“They’re always looking to see, ‘Could I fit here?’ They’re always paying attention to the environment, as well as the people. We come from a very diverse district, so we’re always looking for the same,” said Marquez.

School of Education Dean Anne Dichele said the focus of the symposium aligns well with Quinnipiac’s mission of supporting equity and diversity in its future educators.

“This is the third year that we’ve had the opportunity to work with the state department in its aspirational efforts to support educational diversity, and to really support young diverse educators,” said Dichele. “We’ve been doing an enormous amount with the state department in terms of providing scholarships for our diverse candidates and increasing diversity in our own teacher prep programs, so we’re really excited to be a part of all of this. It’s an exciting time to be an educator.”