History
The Idaho CTE Foundation was created in 1982 to support, enhance, and promote career technical education (CTE) in Idaho. The founding fathers of the Foundation were giants in Idaho education at that time:
- Jerry Evans. Idaho’s elected Superintendent of Public Instruction.
- Milton Small. Executive Director of the Idaho State Board of Education.
- Roy Irons. Director, Idaho Division of Professional Technical Education (PTE), which is what CTE was called back then.
- Larry Selland. Executive Vice President, BSU, who also served 1-1/2 yers as the Interim President at BSU. BSU’s Selland College of Applied Technology was named for Selland after his death. The Selland College of Applied Technology became the College of Western Idaho (CWI) in May, 2007.
Over the years the words in the Foundation’s name has changed from Vocational-Technical, to Professional-Technical, to Career Technical, but the Foundation’s aim of supporting CTE at all levels: students, teachers, and administrators, has not changed. Today our student scholarships are sponsored or endowed, so they will continue to be awarded into the foreseeable future. Annually the Foundation awards between $50,000 and $60,000 in scholarships to Idaho’s CTE students.
The Foundation’s scholarships awarded include:
Merit Scholarship
Aids CTE students, both secondary and postsecondary, to travel to their national CTSO conference.
Tools for the Trades
Assists post-secondary students to purchase tools or supplies for their CTE program of study.
Anne Veseth Memorial Continuing Education
Provides postsecondary CTE students with financial assistance for their second year of college.
Neptune Lynch First-time Scholarship
Provides postsecondary CTE students with financial assistance for their first year of college.
The Foundation also assists the Division of CTE by sponsoring the annual Student Day at the Legislature (SDAL) event every February during CTE-month activities. This event puts our CTE student leaders in-front of our legislators to “tell their story”, and encourage continued funding of CTE in Idaho. In addition, the Foundation sponsors a legislative reception every February during CTE-month to connect industry partners to legislators so the legislators hear first-hand the value of career technical educated individuals in Idaho’s workforce.
Our Mission
The Idaho Career Technical Education Foundation, Inc. is committed to stimulating and promoting quality Career Technical Education to fill the needs of Idaho’s growing workforce.
Our Goals
- Enhancing programs through industry donations
- Offering scholarships to students to attend national competition
- Developing a statewide awareness campaign
- Promoting career-technical programs
- Collaborating with business and industry and other supportive organizations
- Fostering statewide Board representation
Our Vision
- To be the leader among Foundations in Idaho that support Career Technical Education; a Foundation that provides resources for students, teachers and programs and reaches out to all parts of the state to form lasting partnerships between education and industry; these partnerships work for quality in Career Technical Education and result in preparation of students who excel in meeting the changing needs of the workplace.
- Collaborating with business and industry and other supportive organizations
- Fostering statewide Board representation