As we recently started the last quarter of the year, we wanted to share the momentum powered by our successful GED® Annual Conference last July with 500 participants. Since then, our entire GED Testing Service team has continued engaging with adult learning communities in diverse settings and through media, and events. We have connected with more than 8,200 educators and administrators since August this year. Our team has also presented at 32 conferences and forums in 23 states. We look forward to the engagement opportunities we have lined up for the rest of the year. We are pleased to share these initiatives with you and recognize your daily work in helping our learners grow, develop, and move forward.

Whether at an in-person engagement opportunity or online, you help us in our mission to always “put the learner in the center” of all we do. We will continue telling their inspiring student success stories! We have found that these success stories can be the impulse a learner needs to start their path toward GED certification. These stories of accomplishments can also be the nudge our inactive learners need to keep motivated and complete their GED.

We partnered with innovative programs like the DisruptED Podcast to further our outreach and communication channels. I shared the support and resources we offer GED learners and all “their untapped dreams” in this podcast. I was also proud to serve on a panel with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation on the very timely topic of skills-based learning. You can learn more about the thought leaders who participated in the Talent Forward series.

We will end the month strong with our first-ever GED Tech Apprenticeship™ Job Expo on October 26th in Los Angeles. Students will have the opportunity to learn about the GED Tech Apprenticeship™ program, meet our network of employers ready to hire GED grads and participate in interviews for jobs.

Let’s share the energy of our mission and end the quarter and the year strong! Let’s continue the momentum to help learners realize their dreams.

Lastly, we are happy to share that four new states will join the GED team. Learn more about them in the November issue of In Session.

This last week we are honored to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day! This day, proclaimed by President Biden in 2022, to be recognized on October 9th, is also called First People’s Day or Native American Day!

Today, we recognize the many accomplishments, achievements, and contributions of Indigenous people in American history, society, and culture. Do you know about the things developed by Indigenous People? Native Americans created the first chewing gum! You have surely come across several inventions in your leisure time – things like canoeing, lacrosse, hammocks, and kayaks. There were also discoveries made that led the way in medicine, such as pain relievers and mouthwash.

We honor all of these contributions that have been adopted in America. We also acknowledge that this community of people have faced extraordinary challenges over the years and into the present day. Throughout history, the Indigenous people have encountered genocide, dislocation, intolerable living conditions, physical, mental, and social abuse in a way that lends itself to incomprehensible trauma.

The White House Proclamation signed on October 7, 2022, appointed Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior, the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, along with more than 50 other Native Americans now in significant roles across the executive branch. With the understanding that there is so much more to do, this action raises the voices of the Native communities in effort to restore dignity, justice, and good faith.

To demonstrate our respect to our Native American communities, at GED events from now on, we will honor our Indigenous communities by starting the meetings with a land acknowledgment similar to this: We would like to honor all the ancestral stewards of this land on which we meet today and their descendants living in over 1,000 Tribes, Nations, Bands, Pueblos, Communities or Native Villages.

To learn more about Indigenous People’s Day and get to know the life and history of Native Americans, check out these resources:

A Proclamation on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2022 | The White House

The Native American Government That Helped Inspire the US Constitution: https://www.history.com/news/iroquois-confederacy-influence-us-constitution

10 Native American Inventions Commonly Used Today: https://www.history.com/news/native-american-inventions

Indigenous Peoples’ Day: Things You Wouldn’t Have Without Native Americans: https://newsone.com/4230030/native-americans-contributions-america/

European Colonizers Killed So Many Native Americans That It Changed the Global Climate https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/01/world/european-colonization-climate-change-trnd/index.html

Native American Life Today: https://pages.nativehope.com/native-americans-today

Native American Living Conditions Today: http://www.nativepartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=pwna_living_conditions

Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492 – ScienceDirect

You may recall last April, we interviewed our GED® Testing Service Director of Product Management, Jane Bledsoe, about the official GED mobile application. Here are some updates to our mobile app and how you can help us further the development of this vital tool for GED learners.

While the primary audience for the app is the learners who are preparing for the GED on their own, adult educators can also use the app. The app is like a ‘virtual advisor’ in your pocket, helping the learner organize their path to taking and passing the GED tests. In doing so, learners will meet Virtual Advisor character, Syd. This character celebrates with learners as they make their way through practice questions, scheduling tests, and completing milestones.

Our research found that 18% of candidates who create an account on GED.com make progress by testing within a year. We want to help the learners who feel stuck along their journey. The app will give them confidence and motivation to reach their goals.

If you attended the GED Conference this past summer, you had a chance to try a prototype of the app and provide feedback. We appreciate receiving your thoughts and have made updates to the prototype and the app launch.

We plan to beta-test the app starting this quarter. We invite you to be a beta tester for our GED mobile app to help us improve the experience. Stay tuned for signup details in next month’s issue of In Session.

Please note that the app is not meant to replace the website. There is a wealth of information on GED.com that learners and educators will continue to access. and the same login can be used for the app and GED.com. The two will be linked so that a test scheduled on GED.com will prompt a notification in the app. The app will not include all the content found on GED.com. The app will help guide learners as they navigate the GED journey.