Great weather and a great turn out for the 2020 Virginia ACTE Seminar held on January 9-10 at the Hilton Hotel!

Laura Smith, President-Elect, and Dr. Jessica Jones, Past President, began the pre-Seminar activities with a session for First-Timers on advocacy strategies and discussing Career and Technical Education with policymakers.

George Bishop, the President, welcomed the participants and a highlight was the participation of Nancy Trivette, ACTE President, and recent Virginia resident. Travis Staton, President and CEO of United Way of Southwest Virginia and a member of the Virginia Board of Workforce Development, share Tools and Tips for Building Work-Based Learning.

Three breakouts sessions on workforce readiness and work-based learning were presented by Travis Staton, Mary Beth Escheverria and Melissa McDonald from Frederick County Schools, and Carly Woolfork from Dinwiddie County.

Policy updates, bills filed pertinent to Career and Technical Education were discussed in the afternoon session. David Bailey and Bonnie Atwood from David Bailey Associates provided the latest information from the General Assembly session and committee activities. Barb Hancock-Henley and Dr. Brenda D. Long provided the updates on CTE bills and funding.

Career and Technical Education Student Organizations are an integral part of CTE and the state presidents from each CTSO and one national officer participated in the Seminar.

Virginia ACTE recognized the work of outstanding CTE educators and a special thank you to the Virginia Lottery for sponsoring the awards. The 2020 Virginia ACTE Outstanding New CTE Teacher award went to Kristian Rice, Business and Information Technology teacher, Spotsylvanai High School; Outstanding CTE Teacher award was presented to Terri Ann Evers, Family and Consumer Sciences teacher, Spotsylvania County Career and Technical Education Center; Outstanding CTE Administrator was presented to Mary Beth Echeverria, CTE administrator, Frederick County Public Schools; Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Judy Sams, Specialist, Business and Information Technology and Related Clusters, Virginia Department of Education. As Virginia ACTE winners, their application will be forward to ACTE Region II for consideration at the regional level.

Participants had the opportunity to visit with policymakers on Friday and share the success stories of their CTE students and the continued need to support CTE across the Commonwealth.

A special thank you to the sponsors and exhibitors that supported the Virginia ACTE Seminar.

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