b'Session HighlightsEducationSouthern Region Holiday Inn Express and Suites, California | May 11-12, 2023 The session opened with the Southern Region Team leading the class through its first round of Perceptions and Realities, before everyone boarded the bus and headed to the James A. Forrest Career & Technology Center. There the class was welcomed by Dr. James Scott Smith 21, Superintendent of St. Marys County Public Schools, who spoke about the Apprenticeship Maryland Program and Teacher Appreciation Initiative which is addressing the need to recruit, train, and retain St. Marys Public Schools employees. A tour of the impressive James A. Forrest Career and Technology Center campus followed. William Brit Kirwan, former Chair of the Maryland Commission on Innovation and Education, Senator Bill Ferguson, President of Senate and representing District 46 in Baltimore City, and Dr. Scott 21 then joined the class for an open discussion about education reform in Maryland two years after the passing of the landmark Blueprint for Marylands Future legislation. That afternoon, the class bussed to the Exelon Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant where they were treated to lunch, sponsored by Exelon, and a tour of the facility that includes two nuclear reactors that can produce up to 1,790 megawatts (MW) of zero-emissions energy, enough carbon-free electricity to power the equivalent of more than 1.3 million homes. In the evening, the class enjoyed dinner at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, the oldest publicly supported marine laboratory on the East Coast. They were welcomed by Dr. Tom Miller, Director, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. Then, guest speaker Dr. Michael Gonsior, Professor, spoke to the class about the effects of septic effluence on the Chesapeake Bay. On day two, the class spent the morning touring the regions largest employerPatuxent River Naval Air Station. Stretching across 25 miles of shoreline at the mouth of the Patuxent River, PAX River supports naval aviation operations, as well as projects for foreign governments, academic institutions, and private industry. That afternoon, the class bussed to Historic Sotterley, the only tidewater plantation in Maryland that is open to the public. Executive Director Nancy L. Easterling 21 led a tour of this National Historic Landmark and provided an overview of the non-profits mission to preserve, research, and interpret Sotterley Plantations diverse cultures and environments.THANK YOU TO OUR REGIONAL SPONSOR, The Patuxent Partnership28 Leadership Maryland 2023'