NEW ACHIEVE Career & Technical Education (CTE) Scholarship

A new scholarship pathway that parallels the successful ACHIEVE Advanced Placement (AP) Scholarship

Nebraska is no different than many other states who are facing employee shortages, especially in the skilled & technical trades. School administrators across the state are taking notice of these shortages and coming up with different solutions. The Elkhorn Public Schools and the Elkhorn Public Schools Foundation decided to incentivize exploring more Career & Technical Education (CTE) and career exploration opportunities by creating the new ACHIEVE Career & Technical Education (CTE) Scholarship.

In 2009, the Elkhorn Public Schools Foundation teamed up with the Elkhorn Public School District and launched the ACHIEVE Program. The goal was to recognize and award students who challenged themselves by taking numerous advanced placement classes, participating in school extracurricular activities, and volunteering in their community. The program was unique in that all students who met the requirements would be awarded a scholarship.

The ACHIEVE Scholarship Program has been extremely successful. In 2009, there were 19 recipients, and the number has steadily grown from 80 in 2015 to averaging over 200 in recent years. The dollar commitment from the Foundation funding this program has also grown from $40,000 in 2014 to averaging $240,000/year.

2024 Scholarship Highlights

Dr. Bary Habrock, EPS Superintendent, saw the impact of the Foundation’s ACHIEVE Scholarship Program on student achievement and wanted to replicate it to highlight careers. This parallel pathway rewards students who take a progression of CTE courses and complete a multitude of career exploration experiences with the goal of incentivizing more students to pursue a skilled & technical trade as a career. In an ambitious effort, they soft-launched the scholarship during the 2023-2024 school year. Administrators worked with their high school counseling teams to develop an application to identify seniors who were eligible to receive an ACHIEVE CTE Scholarship.


The results from the Class of 2024 were promising. Last April, the Foundation recognized 32 ACHIEVE CTE Scholarship recipients at its annual Scholarship Recognition Ceremonies! For the Class of 2025, the applications have been incorporated into the Foundation’s online scholarship platform, and we expect the number of recipients to steadily grow like the original pathway, which has been renamed the ACHIEVE Advanced Placement (AP) Scholarship. EPS administrators and the Elkhorn Public Schools Foundation board members are asking Nebraska businesses and Elkhorn families to consider donating to the ACHIEVE Scholarship Program to ensure the sustainability of the program for future generations of Elkhorn students!

Class of 2024 ACHIEVE CTE Recipients