Clifford McClain (Teaching & Learning) recently was honored by the Nevada Association of Career and Technical Education (NACTE) as Postsecondary Teacher of the Year at its annual conference at Lake Tahoe. This award was presented in recognition of his outstanding service, devotion, and leadership in career and technical education. While at the conference, he also made two presentations. He presented "Why Not a Collegiate CTSO?" (Career Technology Student Organization) with UNLV sophomore Celine Endy, administrative vice president of the UNLV collegiate DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) organization. The presentation discussed the need for more student leadership organizations on Nevada's college campuses, while highlighting the success of the new UNLV DECA chapter. McClain also presented a paper, "I'm Not What Others Think: Countering Stereotype Threat." This presentation discussed how repeated experiences of negative stereotyping can lead to diminished confidence, poor performance, and loss of interest by many of our students, especially on cognitive high threat tests.
