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The KEA Student Program is a professional association for college students preparing to enter the teaching profession. Through its affiliation with the KEA and the NEA, KEA-SP provides college students assistance, benefits, professional resources, and the opportunity to learn—not only from each other—but from a network of campus advisors and from practicing professional educators.

KEA-SP is one of the largest student organizations in the country. The association currently has 32 local chapters on Kentucky college and university campuses. Each KEA-SP campus chapter plans activities and programs for members to help them become successful teachers. KEA-SP also provides statewide training sessions to keep future teachers informed on the issues that will affect them when they enter the classroom.

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KEA Student Program dues are $28. This includes $15 for NEA, $5 for KEA and $1 for the KEA technology assessment, and $7 for local Murray State dues.

Your online application information will be processed by KEA and forwarded to your local campus chapter. You may also elect to pay your dues through your local campus chapter advisor or you may send a membership form and check for $21 to: KEA Student Program, 401 Capital Avenue, Frankfort, KY 40601.

Pre-Service Educators

The KEA Student Program is Kentucky's only professional association open to all college students preparing to enter the teaching profession. Nearly 2,500 students working for their teaching certificates at 36 Kentucky colleges and universities choose to belong to the KEA Student Program each year—and they are better prepared to enter the classroom because of it.

The KEA Student Program helps them complete their portfolios; document their mastery of Kentucky's standards for new teachers; write their resumes and learn valuable interviewing skills; prepare for the PRAXIS exams; and network with teachers and administrators in the school districts where they will apply for teaching positions. Our former members say their experience in the KEA Student Program helped them most when they had to demonstrate their capacity for leadership during their KTIP year.

Professional Development

Each year KEA Student Program members enjoy access to a variety of state and regional professional development events and many more at their home campuses, and the certificates they receive become part of their portfolios. All of these events are open, free of charge to KEA Student Program members. Community Outreach KEA Student Program members take part in community outreach projects at home and across the state. KEA Student Program members visit schools across Kentucky to read with children who might not otherwise have that experience. In each of the last three years the KEA Student Program and its individual campus chapters donated more than 1,500 books to needy children at schools across Kentucky as part of NEA's Read Across America.

Leadership

KEA Student Program members learn valuable leadership skills on campus and through opportunities to work with KEA's local associations; in elected and volunteer positions at the state level with the Student Program and KEA; and by representing KEA and the KEA Student Program at national and regional conferences. In the last ten years alone, more than 320 KEA Student Program members from 28 colleges and universities have represented KEA and the Student Program at national professional conferences in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Louisville, Miami, New Orleans, Orlando, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Washington DC.

Scholarships and Awards

In the last ten years, KEA has awarded more than $60,000 in scholarships to members of the KEA Student Program, through the Marvin Dodson-Carl Perkins Scholarship awards program; every member is eligible to apply. In 2005, 2006 and 2007, a Kentucky student won the national Jack Kinnaman Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded each year to two members of the NEA Student Program.

Liability Insurance

As a member of the KEA Student Program you are covered automatically under the NEA Educators Employment Liability Insurance Program. If legal action is brought against you for any incident that occurs during your student teaching or other on-site classroom activities required for your degree program, your legal expenses will be paid, along with up to $1,000,000 in damages. For more information, email Jeanine Scott at jeanine.scott@kea.org or call 1.800.231.4532, ext. 322 or ext. 326.