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Purpose
The purpose of the ACTE Career Guidance Award is to recognize school counselors and career development professionals who are currently making significant contributions in career and technical education programs in their communities and/or states. Recipients of this award must have made significant contributions to advocate, educate and communicate the value of CTE as a viable career option to a variety of audiences, including students and adults. They must also demonstrate exemplary efforts in helping students and/or adults evaluate their abilities, interests and talents that encourage them to develop academic and career goals aligned with career and technical education.

Eligibility
Individuals who are currently employed as full-time baccalaureate school counselors and/or career development professionals involved in career and technical education. A nominee should have been involved in Association for Career and Technical Education activities at the state, Regional and/or national levels, and must have been a member of ACTE and a state association at the time of nomination to the Region level.

Application Procedures
Each ACTE awards nominee must compete in their state and Regional competitions prior to being considered for this ACTE member award. All materials must be submitted electronically through the regional awards committee chairs to the ACTE awards committee (Items 1-6 in one single PDF file, photo in separate JPG file). Regional awards comittee chairs can provide applicaiton deadlines and other details.

Each nominee shall be evaluated on the following components:

1.  ACTE Excellence Awards Program Application 
2. [Section A] Description of innovative programs and/or significant accomplishments in career and technical education 
• Maximum two pages
• Written in 1st or 3rd person
• Paragraph format
3. [Section B] Description of career and technical education membership and/or affiliations (to include leadership responsibilities and activities)
   • Maximum one page
   • Written in 1st of 3rd person
   • Paragraph or list format
    
4. [Section C] Description of community involvement (to include industry/business partnerships, community activities and/or contributions)
   • Maximum one page
   • Written in 1st or 3rd person
   • Paragraph or list format
    
5. [Section D] Share a personal story of significance in career and technical education
   • 500 words or less
   • Written in 1st person
   • Paragraph format
    
6. [Section E] Letters of Support (2)
• Supervisor
• Student or Parent
7. Photo. Digital photo should be high resolution, JPG format and separate attachment from the ACTE Excellence Awards application. (The photograph is used for publicity purposes only)
8. Interview

All procedures must be followed for an application to be considered. The completed materials should be submitted to the Regional Awards Committee Chairperson no later than the dates indicated by the Region.

Interview
The interview specifications will be provided to the Region winners/ACTE national nominees.

Deadline
Check with your state and Region representative for application deadlines. State and Region competition information is listed on the state/Regional page.