Auburn University, February 17, 2003

As president-elect of the Alabama Federation Council for Exceptional Children, Dr. Richelle Rice, an instructor in the Department of Rehabilitation & Special Education in the College of Education, planned and coordinated the Super Conference 2003 on Feb. 3-4 for the professional organization.

The conference, which was held at the AU Hotel and Dixon Conference Center, attracted more than 600 special education professionals in K-12 and higher education, parents of children with special needs and undergraduate and graduate students.

The primary goal of the Super Conference is to provide professional development through a variety of activities and to keep special education professional current in best practices for that field. To meet this goal, Rice sorted through numerous presentation proposals and selected more than 60 of those proposals as mini-workshops and concurrent sessions.

The keynote speaker for this year's conference was Daniel Skandera, a professional musician for more than 10 years who first began playing the marimba when he was 17-years-old and a special education student. While he played the marimba, he was accompanied by a professional pianist and by an educational, motivational and awareness presentation by his mother, Marie Skandera. His story set the tone for the conference's theme: "Creating Success Stories through Best Practices."

Another goal of the conference this year was to increase student involvement. There were more than 50 AU undergraduate and graduate students who attended and about 200 total students from across the state. Some of the students took an active role in the conference by giving presentations, which Rice said was an exciting new feature.

"Our federation serves its members and the field of special education through this conference and by acting as liaisons to the legislature at both the state and federal levels influencing laws that deal with special education," Rice said.