Columbia Union Educators Gather for Bootcamp

Story by V. Michelle Bernard

More than a month from the start of the 2024-25 school year, this week some 75 educators from around the Columbia Union Conference (and beyond) gathered for Principal’s Bootcamp at Chesapeake Conference’s Spencerville Adventist Academy in Maryland. 

“Our goal with Bootcamp is to better prepare our leaders to lead,” says event organizer Jacqueline Messenger, associate director for secondary education at the Columbia Union. “We know that being a principal is one of the most difficult jobs in our system and we want to support and grow our principals.” 

Throughout the week Columbia Union Conference President Marcellus T. Robinson shared worship thoughts to enrich and encourage the educators who work in a demanding field. 

On Thursday he reminded the educators of the confidence God has placed in them through their positions of service. He wants us to dispense the grace He gives to others, he said. “Let us be conduits of God’s grace.” 

Each day this week, presenters shared on topics such as technology, strategic planning and AI. Martha Ban, associate director for Technology Education at the North American Division (NAD), shared resources, Journey to Excellence 2.0–the new framework for Adventist education; and information about AEconnect, the NAD’s student information system. John Antonishak, president and CEO of JDA Associates, a professional and organizational development firm, shared presentations on strategic planning.  

“We believe that this will enable our principals to go back to their schools and help create a strategic plan for their school,” said Messenger. “A strategic plan is a necessary part of their accreditation process.” 

Nicole Nase, teaching principal at Pennsylvania Conference’s Reading Junior Academy, has attended the bootcamp the last two years and likes that the sessions modeled how to walk a schoolboard through creating strategic plans.  

She adds, “God wants us to be prepared, and to have the foresight to know what's coming down the road … and to ask for His blessing [and] direction as we plan for the features of His schools and His students. … It's important to have a roadmap of where we're going so that we can bring more souls to Him.” 

On the final day of the bootcamp, Presenter Desmond Suarez II, a teacher at Potomac Conference’s Richmond Academy, said, “AI is changing our world. … We’re supposed to live in this world, and as educators our biggest job is to equip our students to be successful in this world. As educators the biggest disservice we can do is to pretend something doesn’t exist. ... Our job is to prepare them.” 

This summer, the Office of Education will also host an Encounter training to prepare elementary and secondary teachers about the Bible curriculum. 

Messenger shared that programs like this are made possible thanks to a grant from the Bainum Foundation.