2026 Early College Summit

Slide Deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FQIpxTB6JqQVxCQ99um_qQnQVm3FowPJJa25541TCEY/edit?usp=sharing

Are you ready to help your students become the leaders they were made to be?

We believe students are ready for more! More responsibility, more opportunity for impact, and more ownership of the school environment.

The key to leveraging the power of student leadership lies in inspiring our students to believe they can lead, equipping them with research based leadership skills, and empowering them to lead within their school community.

We will reflect on case studies of how 3 schools across 3 states have done that during the 2025-2026 school year.

You'll also get to experience 2 of our signature leadership development activities which you can use to cultivate leadership among your students!

Craven Early College integrated AI literacy into its existing visible thinking framework to strengthen, not replace, rigorous, student-centered instruction. Through a phased professional learning model, faculty examined research on AI and learning, aligned their work with the North Carolina Portrait of a Graduate, and adapted thinking routines to support evaluation of AI-generated content and metacognition. Ongoing PLC collaboration and targeted workshops introduced tools such as Napkin, NotebookLM, Miro, ChatGPT for Educators, and Claude within a “learning levers” framework. The result is a practical, replicable model for instructional evolution that preserves academic rigor, supports equity, and prepares students for an AI-shaped future.

Link to Presentation: https://bit.ly/4us93Lm

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.