Career & Technical Programs Making A Difference
Despite the pandemic, career and technical education programs are still an important option for students – and a critical training pathway for our economy.
That’s why Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proclaimed February to be Career and Technical Education Month.
“There are many career pathways that can lead to a rewarding future, and it’s important that Michigan students can access and explore the many options available to them,” Whitmer said in a statement about the proclamation. “Career and technical education programs offer academic, technical and real-world skills that prepare our high school and college students for success in today’s 21st century economy.”
Two Michigan CTE programs are featured in the February edition of the MEA Voice for winning national prizes in the $1 million Harbor Freight Tools for Schools competition—which earned the programs $35,000 for improvements and a $15,000 prize for these two dedicated MEA members:
DEMETRIUS WILSON, Oakland Schools Technical Campus
One of the ways that MEA member Demetrius Wilson challenges students in his Engineering, Robotics, and Mechatronics program is to put “faults” into equipment that students have to solve before they can proceed with other tasks.
It’s one thing to know how to build or use equipment, but it’s next-level to fix broken stuff, he says. “I tell students, ‘You’re worth your weight in gold when something breaks down and time is of the essence, and you get that piece of equipment up and running.’
“Students actually start enjoying it. They’re like, ‘Do anything, Mr. Wilson. I’m going to turn my back, and you mess it up.’”
GARY MISHICA, Hancock Public Schools
When he was a high school sophomore, MEA member Gary Mishica already had a collection of old cars and buggies to work on, so his parents shouldn’t have been surprised to find another vehicle when they returned to their Copper Country home from a (rare) vacation.
They “flipped out” to see an orange 1942 Ford ambulance in the front yard, 27 feet long and 7 feet high, bought by their son for $100. “They said, ‘You have one week to get rid of that,’” Mishica said. “Then it was a month, and before you knew it I had it there for five or six years.”
From a young age, learning from his industrial arts-teacher father, Mishica found what he calls his hobby, his joy, his passion and his job—following in the footsteps of his paternal grandparents, mother, father, great aunt and assorted other relatives who served as educators.
