About Us

The Minnesota Foundation for Student Organizations (MFSO) is the collective umbrella co-curricular Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSO) reside under in Minnesota. The MFSO was created in 1996 by the Minnesota State Legislature to ensure the stability of and provide collaborative leadership to Minnesota CTSOs.

The MFSO acts in an advisory capacity to the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities in allocating, managing and reporting on legislative funds awarded to the CTSOs for basic operations.

The MFSO is governed by a 23-member Board of Directors, half of which are appointed by the Minnesota State Governor and half which serve as representatives to the Student Organizations. The Board of Directors is designed to represent the following career and technical career areas: Agriculture, Business, Technology and Industrial, Marketing, Service Occupations, Family and Consumer Sciences and Health Occupations.

Career and technical student organizations have served students for over 75 years. Shortly after federal legislation provided for agriculture and homemaking education, FFA (Future Farmers of America) and FHA (Future Homemakers of America), now known as FCCLA, were established. As new career initiatives were added at the state and federal level, other career and technical student organizations were developed including VICA, now known as SkillsUSA, OEA, now known as BPA, and the list goes on to include over 10 CTSOs which are currently recognized at the federal level in the Carl D Perkins Act.