Two Southern Westchester BOCES educators have been selected to present at a national conference this summer in Nashville. ENL Consultant Teacher Vitaliya Popovych and Math Consultant Teacher Dr. Zsuzsanna Kozmane-Fejes, who both teach at the Center for Career Services, have been selected as presenters at the 2026 Making Schools Work Conference from July 14-17.
They were chosen based on proposals submitted earlier this year and will discuss how their subjects can be made more accessible for students receiving Career and Technical Education (CTE).
Ms. Popovych works with ENL (English as a New Language) students on the Career Services campus whose home districts have identified them as needing assistance. She helps to bridge any gap between the students and the instruction caused by a language barrier.
Her proposal to present at the conference focused on how to make CTE project-based learning more accessible for multilingual learners by integrating literacy strategies, structured discussions, and explicit modeling while maintaining academic rigor.
“I will focus on how to build project-based assignments that are accessible for all students,” Ms. Popovych said. “It will explain how to make sure that you build the background knowledge, that a model is in place, that peer collaboration happens. When students are engaged and it comes to something like writing an essay, then they will know what to write and that they are capable of doing the work correctly.”
Dr. Kozmane-Fejes, who is also a professor at Westchester Community College, works to integrate math into instruction in certain programs at Career Services where students can receive an elective math credit. She often co-teaches lessons, offering students real-world instruction that applies to skills and techniques they learn in the classroom.
Her proposal highlighted how math can be meaningfully embedded into CTE programs through real-world applications such as measurement, geometry, and financial literacy, using interdisciplinary practices developed at Southern Westchester BOCES.
“I learned that in the beginning many students don’t like math,” Dr. Kozmane-Fejes said. “My goal when students leave our campus is that they don’t hate it anymore. I want them to see math as a useful skill that they can use in their trade.”
Dr. Kozmane-Fejes spoke at a conference for math teachers throughout the state last November, which led to the suggestion of submitting a proposal for Nashville.
Together, their presentations this summer will showcase the practical, classroom-tested strategies that have enhanced engagement, equity, and college and career readiness for students on the Career Services campus.
“We started doing this many, many years ago,” Dr. Kozmane-Fejes said. “With CTE becoming more widespread in schools, I think our approach here is hopefully getting recognized more.”