Purpose

This award is meant to encourage new teachers to remain in the profession. Recipients of this award must have made significant contributions toward innovative, unique and novel programs and have shown a professional commitment early in their careers.

Eligibility

Individuals who are currently employed as full-time classroom/laboratory teachers in a career and technical education program other than at the baccalaureate level are eligible for this award. Nominees must have taught for a minimum of three but no more than five years (Applicants may be in their sixth year of teaching at the time of application). Age is not a determining factor. (Candidates must be new to the teaching profession, not just new to career and technical education.)

The nominee also should have been involved in some capacity in Association for Career and Technical Education activities at the local and/or state level and must have been a member of ACTE and a state association for at least the past three consecutive years.

Application Procedures

Each nominee shall submit a nomination dossier consisting of the following:

1. Forms B-1 and B-2 (pages 1-2)
2. A description of the applicant’s current position and significant accomplishments for career and technical education of no more than two pages should be pages 3-4 of the nomination dossier.
3. Support information becomes pages 5-8. This should be no more than one page each in four sections, as follows:
   • Section A — Professional Memberships and Activities (must include dates of service).
   • Section B — Professional Contributions (may include presentations and publications).
   • Section C — Education and Experience Background (to include educational preparation and work experience; should include dates of service for work experience).
   • Section D — Civic and Community Involvement (to include civic, fraternal and/or honorary memberships and community activities or contributions).
4. Letters of support, limited to a maximum of six, should be pages 9-14 of the nomination dossier. Letters should be one page in length. These letters should come from the following individuals:
   • The nominee’s immediate supervisor.
   • An administrator.
   • A colleague or former student.
   • A community lay person.
   • Two additional letters of choice.
5. One photograph of the nominee.
   The photograph is used for publicity purposes only.

Applicants should submit information written in the 3rd person context rather than the 1st. Events should be dated and listed with the most recent submitted first. All materials must be word processed or typewritten on 8- 1/2 X 11 sheets with 3/4" margins, left, right, top and bottom.

All materials must be submitted at the same time as a complete package. No supplementary materials may be submitted; items not outlined above will be discarded before judging. All procedures must be followed for an application to be considered. Applications that do not follow these procedures will be rejected and returned.

The completed materials should be submitted to the Regional Awards Committee Chairperson no later than the dates indicated by the Region.

Videotapes (see paragraph below) should be sent to Executive Director, Association for Career and Technical Education, 1410 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22314.

Video Interview

All regional nominees are required to submit a videotape or DVD (one copy) of no more than 10 minutes in length to the ACTE Awards Committee. The videotape, interview which accounts for 65 of a possible 165 points in the selection process, should feature only the nominee. To qualify for full points, the video interview can have no narrator, no scenes with students, no sound effects, no clothing changes and no background changes. (It is preferable to be standing or seated in front of a plain background, allowing the committee to focus on the response.) Up to 10 points may be deducted for non-compliance. After an introduction detailing the nominee’s name, region, school and program area, the nominee should answer these three questions:

What is your philosophy of teaching career and technical education?

Identify and discuss two critical issues that you face as a career and technical educator.

What has motivated you to become professionally involved beyond the required classroom duties?

Deadline

Materials for each regional winner must be received at ACTE headquarters by September 12, 2008. Videotapes are due October 2, 2008. Deadlines for submission of state winners to regional competitions are listed on the State/Regional page.