Introduction:

This past Thursday, July 13 at Tech Hill Commons, NTC hosted the We Build Tech Summit designed to connect Nashville’s tech educators and business professionals. In the morning, the program was geared towards educators, providing different workshops that informed them on how to incorporate technology into their classrooms. Read about the morning sessions here. In the afternoon, the workshops were followed by Keynote speaker, Pat Yongpradit, Chief Academic Officer from Code.org and two panel discussions.

Thanks to Asurion and Leadership Tennessee for supporting NTC in our goal of connecting businesses with effective ways to support the next generation of tech professionals.

Keynote Speaker

Pat Yongpradit from code.org spoke to an audience of educators and business professionals about code.org’s mission of computer science, what is happening nationwide with computer science, and the K-12 framework.

Yongpradit discussed how the country is making computer science a priority in the K-12 curriculum. Computer science has sparked a nationwide movement, and states throughout the country are supplying more funding for computer science programs and software. He also informed the audience on different ways they could support code.org and how it could help their students with computer science.

Educator/Business Leader Panel Discussions

The Summit hosted two panel discussions aimed at highlighting leaders who are building the connections between industry and education.

How can businesses, community colleges and K-12 school systems better connect?

The first panel discussion included: Meg Chamblee from CGI, Pryor Manning from Nissan North America, Rebecca Collins from Williamson County Schools, and was moderated by Patrick McAnally of Leadership Tennessee.

Best practices for industry and university partnerships

The second panel discussion included Bryan Mayes of EventBrite, Glenn Acree of Belmont University, Chrisila Pettey of MTSU and was again moderated by Patrick McAnally of Leadership Tennessee.

Thank you

Thank you to all the education professionals who attended the professional development sessions and industry professionals who participated in the afternoon discussions. Special thanks to Asurion and Leadership Tennessee for supporting NTC in our goal of connecting businesses with effective ways to support the next generation of tech professionals.

We look forward to your ideas and feedback on how to make this program even better. Please contact Sandi Hoff with your comments.