Student CTA serves as a "farm league" to groom potential teachers for careers in the classroom as well as provide networking opportunities with professionals.
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Rudy Jimenez Ortiz, outgoing president of Student CTA, will start teaching for real this fall.
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"Student CTA has taught me not only to advocate for the profession, but to advocate for students," says Rudy Jimenez Ortiz, 22, who's graduating this month from California State University at San Marcos. "I have attended CTA conferences on classroom management, parent conferencing and other things that will help prepare me for the classroom."
As the outgoing president of Student CTA, which has chapters on 70 campuses, he and other members of the board of directors get to mingle with delegates to CTA's State Council of Education and witness the organization's decision-making apparatus in action.
"If I'm going to be part of a new profession, the only way to make sure that I have some say-so is to be involved," says La Shay Roberts, a former president of Student CTA and a student at Sonoma State University. "Student CTA seems to be a way to do that."
"Student CTA has been a wonderful learning opportunity," says Roberts, 24. "I've learned about running the organization from the ground up. I've planned conferences, set up workshops and recruited students. And from these things I've learned time management, how to delegate, and how to motivate others and get them to work for a common cause."
When Student CTA members get jobs in the classroom, they're generally eager to join CTA and get involved.
"We're helping turn the wheel."