CTSO advisors and CTE teachers are often challenged to understand the needs of students that are part of special population groups. Economically disadvantaged students, in particular, have disproportionate amount of obstacles in their every day life we are often not aware of.

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 it's partners: the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU). To date, the project has directly supported sixteen secondary and ten post secondary CTSO chapters. Direct support provided economically disadvantaged chapters the opportunity to engage in opportunities that would otherwise not have been available to them. The full report for 2017 [FY17] was recently completed and can be found here: Overcoming Barriers: Supporting Nontraditional, Underserved and Special Populations.

Recently, the MFSO was featured in Techniques Magazine for support students in poverty through Career and Technical Student Organizations. The entire article can be found here: Making An Impact: How CTSOs Support Students in Poverty.