700 High School Students To Participate in Seventh Annual Professional Development Conference

Author and Businessman Stedman Graham Is Keynote Speaker at Conference Sponsored by MCPS and Montgomery County Business Roundtable for Education

The seventh annual Professional Development Conference for Students will be held on Wednesday, March 19, from 8:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m., at The Universities at Shady Grove, located at 9630 Gudelsky Drive in Rockville. This event provides a professional-style conference experience for more than 700 high school students enrolled in these career-related programs: National Academy of Finance; National Academy of Hospitality and Tourism; National Academy of Information Technology; Advanced Engineering, Project Lead The Way; CISCO Networking Academy; Early Child Development; Justice, Law and Society; Medical Careers; and Teacher Academy of Maryland. These are specialized programs available at high schools in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).

Conference events include a keynote address by Stedman Graham, nationally renowned author, businessman, and educator. Mr. Graham will talk about his Nine Steps to Plan for Success and how teens can create a vision for their lives that is based on education, values, strengths, and what they love in life.

Participants will have an opportunity to attend workshop sessions conducted by leaders from the business community. Presenters from the business community include representatives from Ernst & Young, McDonald’s NASDAQ, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Wachovia, Marriott, Sodexo, Booz Allen Hamilton, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Sprint, Hogan & Hartson, Kaiser Permanente, United Healthcare, Clark Construction, IDEO, and MCPS.

Welcoming remarks will be provided by Dr. Stewart Edelstein, executive director, The Universities at Shady Grove, Dr. Jerry D. Weast, superintendent of MCPS, and Shelley A. Johnson, director of the MCPS Division of Career & Technology Education.

Steve Wing, director of Workforce Initiatives at CVS Caremark, will introduce Mr. Graham. Mr. Graham’s presentation is made possible by support from CVS Caremark in conjunction with the Make It Happen! Stay in School! Summit. The Summit will be presented in several cities this year in partnership with the America’s Promise Alliance, a national strategy to improve high school graduation rates.

The conference is sponsored through a partnership between Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and the Montgomery County Business Roundtable for Education (MCBRE).