Utah First Lady Abby Cox met with Utah Valley University’s School of Education leaders on Monday, October 24, to learn how the state can better support educators at UVU. The latter is preparing Utah’s educators for the classroom. Eighty percent of the university’s students who graduate in education at UVU stay local.

“We wanted to find out what the challenges are and how we can better prepare our teachers to face and be successful and thrive in the environment they will find themselves in,” Cox said.

“Students today have a very different dynamic, a very different experience than even 10 to 20 years ago. So, we want to ensure that our teachers have the support and preparation for what they will face so they can stay in their jobs.”

The School of Education welcomed Cox and her interest in education.

“It is evidence of the need for the teaching profession, and it allows us to come together as educational stakeholders to provide for the teachers who are in the field to continue doing the excellent job they are doing and to prepare future teachers to get into the classrooms ready to teach and ready to have a positive impact on students,” said Vessela Ilieva, Dean of the School of Education.

The First Lady is not a foreigner to education. She earned a degree in special education with a dual emphasis on early childhood and severe disabilities. She is a dedicated advocate for children with special needs. She also launched the Show Up initiative in 2021, which focuses on educators' mental and emotional well-being and the need to teach emotional intelligence skills in the school setting.

“We know from our business community that what they are looking for in a future workforce is kids that really do have those kinds of durable skills that will help them not even be successful in their work environment, but their families and their home and their communities,” Cox said.

“This needs to be a part of everything we do now, but especially things being taught in school.”

Cox said reports indicate that students entering universities have 15,000 fewer social interactions than 20-30 years ago. The lack of interpersonal skills impedes social progress and resiliency.

“Employers are saying, ‘I can teach a kid to code all day long, but what I can’t teach them to do is have eye contact, be able to work in a diverse group, be able to show up on time, be able to handle a stressful situation that they are put in,’” she said. “Those are the kinds of skills that our children have to have to be successful in this environment.”

Cox said it is important to address emotional intelligence skills early. “How can we help them put down their phone?” she said. “How can we help them navigate the technologies that we know are going to be around? How do we provide those social interactions that create the ability to be resilient? This needs to be a part of everything we do now, but especially things being taught in school.”

Stan Harward, Associate Dean of UVU’s School of Education, said programs are being implemented within the School of Education, with more to come. “We are very conscious of it with our students, especially after going through COVID, and so we have been working with our school districts,” Harward said. “Alpine especially is doing some great things with that, so we have had some of their people come over and present to our professors.” 

Harward said the ideas discussed with the First Lady would continue to be embedded throughout courses offered in the School of Education. He also told Cox that UVU is also working diligently to fill the need for teachers throughout the state.

“One of the most significant issues we have is trying to recruit students to come into our program. All the way along, you have people telling them, ‘Don’t go into teaching.’ So they are kind of fighting against the stream to come in,” he said. “We are trying to reach into the high schools and put together some things so that the students taking their Teaching as Profession courses develop some field trips and other opportunities for them to come here, so we are building a pathway for students.”

The First Lady said she is impressed with Utah Valley University’s leadership and programs.

“The takeaway is that they are doing amazing things,” she said. “That they do have great outreach in all of our communities, that they are really thoughtful about how to prepare our students to have their own emotional intelligence to be able to teach those emotional intelligence skills to their students as well.”