ACTE’s Region III Leadership Conference

Save the Date!
June 15-17, Menomonie, Wisconsin at UW–Stout

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Pre-Conference Events
Workshops: Monday, June 15, 1:30-4:00 p.m.
Cost: $100

• AI in CTE: What to Teach, What to Assess, What to Guard
• Breaking Down Barriers: Key Strategies for Advancing an Impactful Educational and Community Ecosystem

Tours: Tuesday, June 16, 2:00 p.m.
Cost: Free

• Learning on the Move: Inside CVTC’s Mobile Labs
• Menomonie on Tap: Discover Lucette Brewery
• Workforce Ready: Innovation Inside UW-Stout’s Polytechnic Labs

Featured Presentations
Kristy Volesky & Jason Van Nus

CTE Junk Food: Designed to Impress. Not to Prepare.
Kristy Volesky & Jason Van Nus
Tuesday June 16, 2026 7:45am – 8:45am CDT
If everything looks like it’s working… why do the outcomes tell a different story?

Across CTE, there is no shortage of activity, innovation, or investment. Yet many experiences, while well-intended and widely celebrated, fall short in preparing students with the depth, clarity, and readiness they need.

This keynote takes a closer look at the kinds of experiences that consistently get labeled as “successful” and asks a harder question: are they actually building skill, direction, and opportunity, or just creating the appearance of progress?

Without relying on easy answers or surface-level fixes, this session challenges attendees to rethink what they prioritize, what they defend, and what they continue to scale.

Attendees will walk away recalibrated with a sharper lens, a lower tolerance for surface-level shine, and a clear blueprint for designing programs that don’t just look good… but actually prepare students for what’s next.

Kristy will also be presenting a workshop with Scott Carr on Monday, June 15 at 1:30pm for an additional fee of $100.

Breaking Down Barriers: Key Strategies for Advancing an Impactful Educational & Community Ecosystem
Kristy Volesky & Scott Carr
Monday June 15, 2026 1:30pm – 4:00pm CDT
What if the walls between classroom and community didn’t just come down—they disappeared entirely? What if students didn’t just learn about careers, but actively solved real problems alongside industry professionals while still in school? What if every business partnership created mutual value, and every student graduated not just with a diploma, but with professional networks, leadership experience, and compelling reasons to build their future locally?

This pre-conference introduces The Impact Project—a proven framework for forging an unbreakable alliance between education and community vitality. We’ll move beyond transactional partnerships and one-off collaborations to build strategic, sustainable ecosystems where students become the innovators our communities need, businesses gain work-ready talent invested in local success, and education becomes the engine of economic and cultural development.

You’ll learn how to:

• Build collaborative partnerships through intentional planning, advisory councils, and cross-sector teamwork that transforms isolated efforts into coordinated impact
• Immerse community and business partners into schools as co-designers and co-teachers who bring industry expertise together with academic pedagogy to create authentic, meaningful learning experiences
• Immerse students out into the community where they try on professional roles, solve real problems, engage with authentic workplace texts and challenges, and see themselves as current contributors—not just future employees
• Design a future-focused process that brings education, community, and business together to co-create experiences built on quality, scalability, and purpose-alignment
• Achieve measurable results including student navigation and purpose development, career and community integration, reciprocal value creation, talent retention and local pride, economic development leadership, and strategic investment in future innovators
• Targeted Audience Includes: CTE and Career Coordinators, District and Building Leaders, Business Partners, and Community Organization Members

This work is for you if:

• You’re tired of partnerships that don’t lead to sustainable student outcomes
• You want to retain local talent instead of watching your best students leave and never return
• You’re ready to position CTE as essential to your community’s economic future
• You believe students should be solving real problems and leading real initiatives—now, not someday

Leave with an understanding of how to design an educational and community ecosystem where student success, community vitality, and economic prosperity are inextricably linked. This isn’t about adding more to your plate—it’s about transforming the work you’re already doing into something that changes lives, strengthens communities, and creates futures worth staying for.

The Impact Project Purpose:
To forge an unbreakable alliance between education and community vitality by transforming isolated contributions into strategic, sustainable investments that retain local talent, foster student leadership, and ensure our community’s economic and cultural future is built by—and for—the innovators we educate today.

Jason will also be presenting a complimentary workshop on Wednesday, June 17 at 8:30am.

Advancing From Electives to Economic Engine: Using LinkedIn to Build Real CTE Programs
Jason Van Nus
Wednesday June 17, 2026 8:30am – 9:30amCDT
CTE programs are built on industry partnerships—yet most programs operate with limited visibility to the very employers they are trying to engage.

Educators often celebrate students and partners in closed rooms (banquets, advisory boards, internal communications, or filed-away evaluations), while neglecting the one platform designed for professional visibility: LinkedIn. As a result:

• Student talent remains invisible to employers
• Employer engagement remains transactional instead of scalable
• Programs struggle to move from good experiences to sustainable talent pipelines

If employers cannot consistently see your students, your program, and your outcomes, your program is not competing in the modern workforce ecosystem.

This session reframes LinkedIn from a social media tool into a strategic workforce development engine for CTE programs.

Participants will learn how to transform everyday program activities, student placements, employer partnerships, and classroom experiences, into high-visibility, high-impact content that attracts, engages, and recruits industry partners.

Attendees will leave with a practical system to:

• Position students as emerging talent, not just participants
• Turn employer appreciation into public recruiting leverage
• Build a living, scalable portfolio system that extends beyond graduation
• Expand employer networks through second- and third-degree visibility
• Document program impact in a way that speaks the language of ROI and workforce value

This is not about posting more—it is about building a digital talent pipeline that works for you 24/7.