Awards

ACTEA Special Recognition Award:
ACTEA recognizes special contributions to Career and Technical Education by its teachers, business partners, and administrators who have furthered our aims and objectives for the youth and adults of New York State.


Thomas Olivo Leadership Award:
The New York State Association of Career and Technical Education Administrators established the Thomas Olivo Leadership Award for each of the six ACTEA Zones in New York State.

This award was named in honor of C. Thomas Olivo, who was the New York State Education Department’s Director of Vocational Education in 1966, when VICA (now known as Skills USA) was established.  Dr. Olivo had the foresight to see the value of instituting a youth organization for students enrolled in secondary trade, industrial, technical and health occupations. He advocated developing leadership skills through participation in career oriented student organizations, a goal that ACTEA continues to support today.

Students receiving this award are honored with a $500 scholarship from ACTEA.


The Sidney Platt Medallion of Honor Award
The Sidney Platt Medallion of Honor is intended to express the professional organization’s admiration for that person, whether professional or lay, who has best furthered the aims and objectives of Career and Technical Education in the interest of quality programs for the youth and adults of New York State. The recipient need not necessarily be a resident within New York State because Career and Technical Education is affected by leadership on all levels of government; national, state or local.

In honoring a leader of Career and Technical Education, ACTEA reveals its own standards of excellence, leadership and effectiveness in the fostering and developing of viable and quality programs.  The award is not intended to be given as a result of retirement or for contributions made routinely as part of the regular duties of one’s work.  The award is rather intended to recognize excellence in leadership far beyond the parameter of any job description.

The recipient should be, or have been, truly a leader, a pivotal person on whom great decisions depend, of whom anyone, both inside and outside the profession, could agree was the epitome of educational leadership, scholarship and responsibility for the creation of, development of, and maintenance of the highest quality of Career and Technical Education Programs designed to advance the well-being of both the individuals being served and the community in which the service is being rendered.

The recipient must also have been a leader in the pursuit for recognition of the rights of youth and adults to relevant education; and to have that type of background capable of engendering an admiration of professional standing in the entire educational field across the spectrum.

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