2025 Early College Summit

CELL at UIndy launched a PBE initiative with 18 rural Indiana schools where they created projects in their communities. Several of these teacher’s projects have received the National Signature Project Award and/or the Grants in Place Fellows from the Rural Schools Collaborative.

The value of PBE goes beyond making connections with the community.  It also addresses character education, helping the students intuitively understand the importance of empathy and compassion for others while directly guiding them through inquiry and research.

CELL’s approach to PBE is to show educators how to leverage community to engage students.  In this session, participants will consider approaches to PBE: explore, ideate and plan their own projects.

This interactive workshop will explore the impact of Early College courses on high school transcripts and their implications for college admissions.  Participants will discuss how these courses are graded, listed on transcripts, and the role of high school profiles in communicating Early College experiences. Key questions include:  How do colleges view these courses in admissions?  What challenges arise in GPA calculations? How can schools ensure accurate representation?  Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of how transcript practices influence student opportunities.

The power of any network lies in building strong connections among members. During this role-alike networking session, join peers and colleagues to connect around role-alike discussion of topics important to your work in the early college ecosystem through a facilitated networking conversation.

SEL is often limited in its potential for systemic implementation.  Sometimes it is utilized to solely address student behavior or other singular facets of a students identity.  In today's session, we will discuss how SEL supports student academic efficacy and how CASEL's schoolwide indicators of SEL can help your Early College develop whole-person-centered strategies to support students, staff and families and accomplish systemic SEL.

Colleges and districts can collaborate by integrating AI to enhance classroom engagement, streamline administrative tasks, and support individualized learning.  This partnership equips students with critical AI skills, aligns education with workforce trends, and prepares learners for a future driven by innovation, fostering adaptability and success in higher education and careers.