FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 13, 2005

CONTACT: Megan Reiter (703) 683-9312; mreiter@acteonline.org

ALEXANDRIA, VA- The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) announces that Betsy Jensen of East Grad Forks, Minnesota has been named the ACTE Outstanding New Career and Technical Teacher.  The award was presented to Jensen at the ACTE Annual Convention and Career Tech Expo, December 9 in Kansas City, Missouri. 

The ACTE Outstanding New Career and Technical Teacher award is given in recognition of a career and technical teacher who has made significant contributions toward innovative and unique career and technical education programs and shown a professional commitment early in an educational career.

A farmer and a teacher, Jensen manages her time well to meet the growing demands of her career.  She is responsible for crop marketing and record keeping at the family-operated Jensen Farms.  Jensen is also a farm business management instructor at the Northland Community and Technical College. 

Jensen teaches Farm Business Management and Agricultural Commodity Marketing.  Her programs are part time because they are tailored for full time farmers.  Jensen’s curriculum is based on financial planning; the students’ livelihood depends on their success in the class.  Jensen has cultivated various partnerships to encourage student enrollment.  She recruits students on her own by using promotional tools like radio advertisements and weekly farm business management articles.   Jensen is also responsible for suggesting a department-wide marketing program.  She reviews and edits articles that are sent to publications across the Northern Plains.

Jensen has been a member of ACTE for over five years and has attended the 2004 Annual Convention in Las Vegas, NV.  Highly involved in career and technical education, she is also a member of the Minnesota Association of Agricultural Educators, Minnesota Association of Wheat Growers, and the Red River Valley Potato and Sugarbeet Growers Associations. 

One colleague notes, “Betsy has a unique talent for presenting complex issues in a very understandable way, and for highlighting and reinforcing the key points that she wants growers to learn.”

For more information on ACTE’s award program and its Annual Convention, visit the Association’s Web site at www.acteonline.org.

The Association for Career and Technical Education is the national professional association for the field of career and technical education.  Now in it’s 79th year, ACTE’s membership numbers more than 30,000 teachers, counselors and administrators at the middle school, high school and postsecondary levels.