New Hope-Solebury Educators Present Innovations At Summit In D.C.

NEW HOPE, PA —Educators from New Hope-Solebury School District traveled to the nation's capital recently to present the district's groundbreaking programs at the American Association of School Administrators’ (AASA) Learning 2025 Summit.

The workshops highlighted the district’s efforts to create a state-of-the-art STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) education facility and their signature APEX (Active Personal Educational Experience) internship program for seniors.

The AASA Summit brought representatives from 137 public school districts together which are committed to the Learning 2025 project, an initiative to drive rapid innovation in the nation's public school systems.

As part of the project, the district’s educators connected with colleagues from like-minded, future-focused schools from across the nation.

“We had the opportunity to exchange ideas and practices with colleagues in our country’s most innovative schools. It is giving us the chance to see new possibilities and translate them to meet our needs and to share our successes with our colleagues. This has greatly supported some of our recent projects, including renovations to our classroom spaces and our new high school schedule, which will transition to a block format with extended instructional time next year,” said High School Principal Patrick Sasse during his workshop introduction.

The first presentation focused on the school district’s rapid renovation of an outdated woodshop to create an industry-grade STEAM education facility and its launch of a groundbreaking K-12 STEAM curriculum within the past year.

K-12 STEAM Coordinator Richard Curtis engages participants during the STEAM innovation workshop. (Contributed)

Presenters Amanda Benolken, Ed.D., New Hope-Solebury’s Director of Education and Richard Curtis, K-12 STEAM Coordinator, shared the details of how they managed the substantial undertaking, highlighting the partners and vendors they vetted to fully realize the vision, the considerations when developing a classroom space to support technology’s rapid advancements, and cost-savings measures they implemented.

“We were given a quote of $30,000 for a design element, metal lettering, in our new space. I realized we could spend $40,000 on a CNC machine, enable our students to fabricate the lettering in our new classroom, and have a transformative machine to serve our engineering design courses for years to come. I encourage you to think outside of the box and explore multiple possibilities when investing in a project like this,” said Curtis.

The second presentation highlighted the district’s APEX program, which launched in 2015, and its Career Pathways program, which launched in 2022-23 school year.

APEX Coordinators Lori Soriano and Andrea Korn detailed the logistical considerations to launch a successful offsite, career-minded learning experience and demonstrated the positive impacts of the program.

The APEX experience requires seniors to spend the final three weeks of their school year engaged in career-focused exploration. Professionals from neighboring businesses and organizations host the students for 60 hours and offer them job shadowing and hands-on learning experiences.

From left are: High School Principal Patrick Sasse, Assistant Superintendent Rose Minniti, Ed.D., College and Career Readiness Counselor Sarah Reeder, Science Curriculum Liaison Stefanie Ryan, APEX Coordinator Lori Soriano, Director of Education Amanda Benolken, Ed.D., APEX Coordinator Andrea Korn, Elementary Educator and Equity Coordinator Jacqueline Miller, K-12 STEAM Coordinator Richard Curtis, Gifted Education and Student Equity Advisor Sarah O’Hara. (Contributed)

“As someone who has been teaching exclusively seniors for years, I don’t believe in the term ‘senioritis’. If we have done our jobs as teachers, the students are prepared and ready for what’s next, and at that point in the school year, they are ready to do something that matters to them,” said Soriano as she explained the impetus for the APEX program.

New Hope-Solebury’s College and Career Readiness Counselor Sarah Reeder, in a newly developed staff role formed two years ago, explained how the district took the success of APEX and built a foundation beneath it.

“The most common reflection we received from our seniors when they completed surveys about APEX was, ‘This was a great experience and helped me make a more informed decision about college majors and possible careers. I wish I was able to do it earlier.’” said Reeder during the workshop. At the same time, the Pennsylvania Department of Education mandated that districts begin enhancing their career exploration curricula. “This sparked our efforts to build a four-year, sequential set of experiences for students,” said Reeder.

The curriculum begins with a career exploration course for freshmen promoting research with a broad scope and is then followed by a series of tailored opportunities, such as career panels, mock interviews, and resume workshops for sophomores and juniors.

“The culmination of this will be APEX, and while that program has already had tremendous success, it will now be even more true to its nature as a capstone to our students’ educational experience,” said Reeder.

Other New Hope-Solebury team members who attended the Summit included Assistant Superintendent Rose Minniti, Ed.D., Gifted Education and Student Equity Advisor Sarah O’Hara, Science Curriculum and Career Pathways Liaison Stefanie Ryan, and Elementary Educator and Equity Coordinator Jacqueline Miller. The group engaged in workshops highlighting the potential impacts of artificial intelligence in the classroom, transforming educational models, and life-ready, future-focused opportunities for students.

"Attending the AASA National Summit was a great learning experience," said Sarah O’Hara, New Hope-Solebury Gifted Education Teacher and Student Equity Advisor. "I really enjoyed getting to see what other districts across the country are doing to help move their students, teachers, and leaders forward. I left with some great ideas to try out with my students for the upcoming school year to help push them forward in this ever-changing world,"

The Learning 2025 Summit was hosted by the AASA in partnership with the Successful Practices Network (SPN) from Monday, June 26 through Wednesday, June 28. There were approximately 800 attendees with varying roles within public schools. The objective of Learning 2025 is the future-focused capacity-building of our education system. The Summit showcased a range of successful and innovative practices from across the nation that are reshaping our classrooms and offered workshops to support leadership development, innovation, and classroom culture.

“Attending the Learning 2025 National Summit provided us with an opportunity to learn from educational leaders and experts," said Jacqueline Miller, New Hope-Solebury Elementary Educator; Equity Coordinator. "Through presentations, networking, and how-to sessions, we acquired valuable strategies for strengthening our school culture, focusing instruction, and optimizing community resources. By becoming part of communities, we have become equipped with evidence-based recommendations to provide all our learners with equitable opportunities that foster a positive culture, innovation, and growth within New Hope Solebury School District!”

Added Andrea Korn, New Hope-Solebury APEX Coordinator and Special Education Teacher, "Being asked to share APEX and Career Pathways with educational leaders from across the nation was an absolute honor. We had the opportunity to bring others through our 'why' and 'how'. We were able to connect with administrators who spoke with us about a shared vision for seniors in their districts. We look forward to supporting those districts as they create meaningful APEX experiences for their students!”