Smart Thinking Foundation Impact
In budget-strapped school environments, it’s rare for superintendents and other school leaders to have a no-cost or low-cost opportunity to gain leadership lessons and inspiration from nationally acclaimed speakers. Donations to the Smart Thinking Foundation have helped CESA 6 provide these valuable experiences for schools and systems.
Ensuring Great Leadership Summit
More than 400 Wisconsin school leaders participated in a no-cost “Ensuring Great Leadership” Summit in August 2018 at Cardinal Stritch University, thanks in large part to summit sponsor CM Regent Insurance Company.
Four speakers shared their insights on leadership:
DANIEL PINK - New York Times best selling author of To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others, a top 10 most watched TED Talks speaker and a top 10 business thinker of the world (Thinkers50)
GEORGE KOONCE - Former Green Bay Packer and Super Bowl champion, author of Is There Life After Football?: Surviving the NFL, Marian University Senior Vice President for University Relations
LIZ MURRAY - New York Times best-selling memoir author of Breaking Night about her story as a homeless teen to a Harvard graduate, recipient of Oprah Winfrey’s first-ever “Chutzpah Award.”
ERIC LARSEN - Polar explorer, adventurer, author of On Thin Ice
Hear CESA 6 Smart Thinking Podcast interviews with Daniel Pink and Liz Murray.
Spring into Success Summit
To serve the agency’s core values of service to schools, collaborative leadership and stewardship, CESA 6 in February 2019 provided a day of high-quality, motivational professional development for our school districts at a nominal cost - $6.50 for lunch. The full-day event held simultaneously at two sites, with 4 keynotes speakers and 55 breakout sessions.
The keynotes speakers were Dr. Richard Cash, LaVonna Roth, Kenneth Williams and Tom Hierck. Breakout speakers included many CESA 6 expert consultants, as well as external leaders Greg Wolcott, Jessica Johnson, Michael Matera and many others.
This is now an annual event. Spring into Success Summit 2020 in February 2020 expanded from two sites to four sites uniting more than 3,600 educators from 29 school districts and systems with 130 speakers in 85 breakout sessions. In 2021 during the pandemic, the Spring into Success Summit moved to a virtual format which allowed 5,271 registrants from 181 school districts, 27 states and 4 countries to attend. Donations to the Smart Thinking Foundation help fund this event.
