STLP groups advance to State

Shanda Crosby
Dec 8, 2025
3 min read

Five CCPS Student Technology Leadership Program project groups have qualified for state competition in the spring.

Congratulations to the following groups:

GRC- Selling School Spirit (Tyler Henson and Preston Blackburn)

Selling school spirit's focus is to raise school spirit within the high school and community. This task is accomplished through GRC’s on-site school store.

GRC- Happy Hooves (Heidi Castle and Megan Robinson)

Happy Hooves is a mental health petting zoo that helps kids release stress and learn about mental health. The group will bring animals and set up a petting zoo with mental health counselors and professionals to talk to kids about how to handle, recognize, and get help for your mental health.

RDC- Social Sisters (Emerson Kincaid, Genevieve and Marielle Maldonado, Kaleigh Thomas)

Working with girls of all ages to enhance their lives through lessons like Organizing your Life, Looking your Best and Getting Involved at School. This group works with girls at RDC, Baker and Justice Elementary.

RDC- Cardinal Peer Mediators (Prem Patel, Caleb Howard, Kale Overton)

Cardinal Peer Mediators train RDC students to be peer mediators and work with admin and counselors at RDC to implement a peer mediation program. They are looking for groups to train in other CCPS schools to have their own peer mediation program.

RDC- Social Media Superheroes (Maci Gullett, Lily Baumgardner, Brantley Schaar-McIntosh, Savannah Frye)

Social Media Superheroes are working to help RDC students become better digital citizens. They provide quick lessons over announcements and the Vivi screens in the school hallways, and video lessons with fun games to assess learning through advisory classes. RDC groups Social Sisters, Cardinal Peer Mediators and Social Media Superheroes, and to the GRC groups Selling School Spirit and Happy Hooves.

Shoutout to RDC sponsor Damonica Partin, GRC sponsor Carrie Konstantopoulos, and district STEM leader Jennifer Turley for their leadership in guiding our students.

"Students work in project-based learning groups every day to meet their project goals," said RDC sponsor Damonica Partin. "Our class becomes like a family because of the work we do in this class and we learn some pretty fun technology, too."

Ms. Konstantopoulos said classroom projects are often converted into STLP entries. "STLP is an excellent way to highlight students' accomplishments and hard work within their classrooms," she said.

How do the projects work?

Students develop a hands-on project based on a need they see in their school or community. They develop a plan for how to address that concern and then set out to implement their plan. They have the opportunity to progress through 4 levels in their journey to state and nationals.

What are the steps?

Level 1 – After pitching their project ideas to teachers to get feedback and refine their goals, students present their projects through a Google Meet to judges from across the state.

Level 2 - This is the state level at Central Bank Center on April 24th. During this stage, students must show judges how their projects address the seven Kentucky Academic Standards for Technology, explain the impact that their project has had, present their project with professionalism, and be able to answer questions from the judges.

Level 3 - State Finals - During final conversations about their projects, teams must convince the judges that their project is State Champion worthy.

Level 4 - Propel - Top projects from each division move on to the national level at the International Society for Technology in Education Conference.

How does this support the Portrait of a Clark County Learner?

Each group's projects are student selected, planned, implemented, and revised. Students learn real-world skills in leadership, collaboration, communication, and digital innovation. The seven KAS for technology align directly to our district's Portrait of a Learner competencies.

Whatever project a group chooses, the learning process offers great benefits for every student's future.

"Students learn how to apply technology tools for purposes such as presentations, data collection and analysis, and implementation of their project work," Ms. Partin said. "They also learn how to work with others to accomplish the goals of their projects and a lot of the work is with adults. They learn public speaking and presentation skills as well as skills like proper email etiquette, how to select the proper technology tools for a task and so much more."

Another category of STLP – Creative Digital Arts – will be evaluated after the first of the year. "We have had several students win first place in the state with CDA entries," Ms. Konstantopoulos said. "Students who have such accolades on their resumes are very impressive when applying for scholarships and college."

Congratulations to our STLP project groups and their leaders!