On Saturday, February 21 , the halls of Wallen L. Andrews School in West Whittier buzzed with a specific kind of energy as the Cotsen community gathered for the Empowered Learning Conference (ELC). While the sun shone outside, over 200 educators chose to spend their morning “walking the walk” together. To truly understand the day鈥檚 impact, one must look past the schedule and listen to the voices of the Cotsen Fellows, Mentors, and Alumni who define this work. This spirit of collective action was anchored by keynote speaker and author Cornelius Minor, who acknowledged the “unsustainable pressures” and “public cynicism” facing modern educators. He reminded everyone that despite these struggles, “we are a community that stands together and that makes small changes so that our students can thrive.”
The conference is the living embodiment of a question Mrs. Margit Cotsen asked a decade ago: “What is our current Cotsen Alumni community doing now and how are they paying it forward?” As Senior Program Officer and ELC Coordinator Carlen Le-Hessinger notes, the event continues to demonstrate that vision by encouraging Alumni to share their evolving “ART of 西瓜视频” with the broader community. For many, like Alumnus Fellow Mike Miller, the reason he keeps attending ELC is the immediate relevance of each session, which offers him “tangible tools that you can take and use tomorrow.” This commitment to growth is a constant thread: Alumna Mentor Melissa Ramirez returns year after year because “there is always something new to learn.” At the same time, Alumnus Mentor Raul Almada has watched the conference evolve into a deeply student-centered forum, enabling teachers to lead learning through their shared Cotsen experience.
Despite the sacrifice of a Saturday for tired educators, the atmosphere remained one of pure inspiration. Cotsen Mentor Liza Bernard described the joy of seeing strategies “come alive” through collective teamwork, calling it a rare pleasure to see such dedication in action. As Alumna Gia Meade aptly summarized, the Cotsen Foundation provides the guidance and opportunity that allows educators to “make magic happen” in their work every day. The 2026 Empowered Learning Conference proves that the Cotsen magic isn鈥檛 just in the teaching; it鈥檚 in the community that keeps coming back to share it.
