Wow there has been a lot going on this summer with our Minnesota Career and Technical Student Organizations! They have all had successful state conferences and conventions; many have returned from their National Conferences, doing Minnesota proud with so many medal winners! In the heat of summer, they are already gearing up for another year.

The MFSO is also gearing up for a new year! We are excited to announce the annual MFSO Fall Workshop the afternoon of October 11th. The theme of this year’s workshop will be Building a Better CTSO: Developing, Marketing and Evaluating CTSO Programs. We will have three great presentations: Integrating Financial Literacy into Your Classroom; CTSO Branding and Marketing 101; and Evaluating CTSO Programs through the Lens of Equity. We are able to provide this workshop free of charge to CTSO Executive Directors, Board Members and Advisers but we do require registration.

The Minnesota Foundation for Student Organizations (MFSO) has made it a priority to focus on ensuring nontraditional, underserved, and special populations have an opportunity to engage in meaning participation in career and technical student organizations. Part of that effort has been addressing “poverty in the classroom”. The MFSO has encouraged poverty awareness training directly through Communications Across Barriers with Dr. Donna Beegle. The MFSO also certified its Executive Director, (Emily Saed) as a Poverty Awareness Coach, allowing her to provide individualized support to CTSO Advisors across the state.

The MFSO has had great success administering this project with its partners: the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. The 2018 report was recently completed and can be found here: Overcoming Barriers: Supporting Nontraditional, Underserved and Special Populations.

The MFSO was recently mentioned by the74million.org in the article When Co-Curriculars Spark Careers: Over 80 Years, How ‘Career and Technical Student Organizations’ Have Evolved From Bricklaying to Business Management to Robotics. www.the74million.org