COOL training primes student officers for a successful 2025-26 school year

State officer teams from Iowa's career and technical student organizations (CTSO) laid the foundation for the upcoming school year with a full day of leadership training provided by the Iowa Department of Education at the Grimes State Office Building in Des Moines.

The Creating Outstanding Officers Through Leadership (COOL) training session focused on teamwork, communication and professional skill development for CTSO student officers. It aimed to help them develop individually and organizationally as they use the COOL training to further build career and technical education (CTE) and refine skills in their chosen professional area.

"This provides the leadership experience that guides these peer-elected state officers in taking the vision of each CTSO organization from the state level back to their individual regional and district local chapters," said Cale Hutchings, applied sciences/industrial technology education program consultant for the Iowa Department of Education. "These activities can help them not only better communicate with professionals and school board members but also with other students, which is immensely valuable."

CTSOs enhance CTE programs and provide opportunities for students to apply the skills they have developed in classrooms through conferences, competitions, community service events, worksite visits and other activities. More than just an extracurricular activity, participation in CTSOs can help students explore potential career paths, make connections in the community and strengthen desirable soft skills, such as communication, organization and time management, among others.

Facilitated by leadership trainer Ashley Brinton, the COOL training strived to push CTSO officers outside their comfort zones and build confidence in new skills they can parlay into their statewide leadership roles. Student leaders from six of Iowa’s eight CTSOs participated in the training. DECA, Business Professionals of America (BPA), Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), SkillsUSA, Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and Technology Student Association were represented at this year’s COOL training.

"The main goal is for them to learn how to be the best leaders they can be for their CTSO, from basic to advanced leadership skills and knowledge about all CTSOs," Brinton said. "I really love it when they leave here energized to help new students become members of a CTSO. I believe that every CTSO brings something important and I want them to be comfortable talking to other people to encourage them to join a CTSO."

Before a brief working lunch, the officers also heard from Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow about the Department's commitment to career and technical education. Snow also welcomed dozens of questions from the officers in a lively discussion on furthering the work of CTSOs and the support the Department can provide to the officers and educators in that mission of delivering meaningful CTE experiences to Iowa’s nearly 50,000 CTSO members in middle school, high school and postsecondary education.

Snow's session was bookended by a series of organizational, project management, presentation and communication exercises to build confidence and the motivational skills officers need to be successful.

"It's a room of people who have already established themselves as leaders, but the really clear goal is to maximize their outcome," said Praneel Rastogi, the incoming Iowa chapter president of the Business Professionals of America and a senior at Iowa City West High School. "Working together is where we can really get a state-level outcome and really form a leadership team."

This opportunity to work together in statewide teams was one of the critical components of the training. For many of the newly minted CTSO officers from across the state, it was the first time they had been able to meet face-to-face and develop their leadership teams and objectives. Brinton was hopeful this convening at the start of summer allows the CTSOs to continue their planning and brainstorming throughout the summer and hit the ground running in August.

"This is one of the first things we've done as a state leadership team, and a huge thing is team bonding and how much closer we've gotten today," said Avery Hunt, the first vice president of Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) and a sophomore at Johnston High School. "We're learning what we can do and how we can be the best leaders for our state and be the best role models for the members of our organizations."

While CTSO leadership teams created internal networks and developed their leadership capacities, the session also featured exercises to create networking opportunities between CTSOs and opportunities to work in tandem to strengthen the statewide network of nearly 750 active CTSO chapters.

"The cross-CTSO connections are definitely there," Praneel said. "It's interesting to see other groups with other ideas and leadership teams. All of them have their own unique ideas, but we all share a common goal. There's a lot of quality leaders in this room that are definitely going to inspire their generation."

That common goal is shared by all eight statewide CTSOs and the Department in establishing high-quality CTE opportunities and multiple pathways to postsecondary success and completion.

"I don't think you can find a single person that is not sold on it," Praneel said of CTE. "It boosts outcomes everywhere. As a state, if we can raise the bar and adapt to the modern world, it's going to be beneficial for everyone. And if it can be student-driven, I think that's even better."