Help Send Our Students to the SHAPE America National Convention

Our Physical Education-Teacher Education (PETE) majors regularly engage at the local and state levels in a range of professional development opportunities that include field days, wellness fairs, open houses and physical education workshops.   

A signature event in our program for our student organization (KNPE Majors Club) is the attendance and participation at the two-day State Convention in December. Most of our future teachers attend the event and participate in sessions geared for an audience of current and future Physical Educators.  A key experience for many students in the Majors Club is their planning and presenting at the state convention, often to an audience that includes alumni currently in full-time teaching positions who were in their shoes during their NIU days in the Majors Club!

We model advocacy in hopes that our current students advance our efforts in their future teaching communities.  

On a national scale, our PETE faculty team regularly attends the SHAPE America National Convention each spring. In March 2024, SHAPE will be held in Cleveland, Ohio. Our program usually recognizes one student as our “Major of the Year” and funds their travel to the national convention.  This year, with the proximity of the conference relatively close to NIU, we have been pushing for more NIU students to attend and participate.   

For our students, attending the SHAPE America Convention would be professional development on a much larger scale – 4-5 days of sessions and networking with other physical and the sharing of resources.  

We would be raising funds for conference registration, membership, and travel expenses for our Physical Education students to attend SHAPE 2024. The total price of attending is quite expensive, and we want to eliminate the financial barriers.

The experiences affiliated with this campaign will benefit our program with increased access to knowledge and professional activities, increased awareness among students in our program of ongoing advocacy at every level. The campaign enhances the KNPE Majors Club profile as a vibrant and engaged community of learners.