HANCOCK — With the beginning of the school year, the Copper Country Intermediate School District’s (CCISD) Career and Technical Education (CTE) program instructors are ready for the year, with changes made to some programs. Among those includes the shelving of the CTE Graphic Arts and Marketing program for at least three years.

Corey Soumis director the CTE program said the Graphic Arts and Marketing program was eliminated based on recommendations from the previous instructor and program advisory committees for graphic arts and career training business and entrepreneurship. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) led to the decision, according Soumis, who added students will learn about some AI tools within other programs.

“So we’re going to take some of what you call course competencies, or you could call them standards from the graphic arts program, and integrate them into the CTE Business and Entrepreneurship Program this coming year,” Soumis said. “We have up to three years to do that on a trial basis, and we’re going to integrate it into [CTE programs], both at the Career Tech Center in Hancock and at our contractor program down at Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College (KBOCC) in Baraga County for Baraga County students.”

Some aspects of the graphic design program will be done away with completely such as traditional illustration while other aspects will see integration. Work using Adobe Illustrator will no longer be utilized, and this is due to AI sometimes taking the place of the application. Soumis explained when new business owners are starting up these days, they are likely going to use AI tools in the beginning to get started before consulting with graphic artists.

“Graphic Arts is very important, and there’s good graphic artists locally, but the consensus of both Program Advisory Committee meetings was this is a route we should try,” Soumis said. He said when it comes to AI there are ethical considerations present regarding dependency.

“When it comes down to it for our business and entrepreneurship program, one of the primary focuses is with communication skills. So we need to make sure we’re upholding that too,” he said.

The business and entrepreneurship programs are taking place at KBOCC for students of Baraga County and in Hancock for the students of Houghton and Keweenaw Counties. KBOCC Adjunct CTE Instructor Rhonda Nachtigall is new to the program and will be teaching courses on how to begin businesses and handle personal finances. Junior and high school students will be taking the courses to introduce themselves to finances, marketing, international business and entrepreneurship. Since the class is taking place at KBOCC, Nactigall said the students will also have Anishinabe teachings integrated into the program.

Credits earned by the CTE course will transfer to KBOCC if students choose to enroll there. Business and Entrepreneurship Instructor and Associate Work Based Learning Coordinator for the CTE Program Steve Kass handles the lessons for Houghton and Keweenaw County students and said this year the program will be utilizing AI to engage students with data analysis and better sort through market data and create market material. Kass said this will be done with ethics in mind, but the biggest task for the program’s students will be their project, a business plan. The work the students will conduct this year will also have them directly involved with the community.

“We participated last year with creating social media posts for Heikinpäivä, and we plan to do that again this year and promoting Sauna Week,” Kass said. “We also did assist with the construction home build project. We helped create flyers for it. We created some of the marketing material. We worked with Century 21 who was the real estate agent for the sale, and my students participated in the open house with providing some of the tours and stuff, so they were utilizing their communication skills.”

The program is also continuing an international side to the work, with students participating in an electronic postcard exchange with students from Tokyo, Japan. Students found items which contributed to their everyday lives that were made in both Japan and the U.S. for both countries’ students to understand the value of international trade and business.

“Communication is a huge underlining skill of this program that we want students to develop so they have that opportunity to work with another culture, learn with people of a different language, and kind of learn about some of those barriers to communication and work through that,” Kass said. “So I think that’s going to be a big part of our course again this year, both Rhonda and I will be participating with schools in Tokyo with that.”

The CTE construction programs will see two houses built this year, one in Houghton County and the other in Baraga County. Each house will be built by the students residing in each county, though the foundation in Baraga County was completed before the school year began. The house foundation in Houghton County will be worked on between instructors and students and possibly include a basement. Building will begin following a week of safety instructions for the students.

CTE Supervisor Steve Aho spent the past two years working for Moyle Construction on real estate development. Aho said Moyle Construction has been one of the industry partners that has a strong interest in developing students for a workforce regularly on the construction side for them. Aho was also the Advisory Chair for construction trades through the CTE’s construction trades program and acted as a liaison between education and industry. When it comes to building houses for part of the CTE program, Aho said many factors line up in the decisions made when building the houses.

“We’re trying to include as much industry and business connections in our communities as we can,” Aho said. “But we also did things like a market analysis and looked at what type of house is selling, what price range, what fits for the neighborhood that we’re looking to build. Obviously certain properties that are maybe available can help dictate that, but we also want to look at it as a learning experience for kids.”

Aho explained the style of house that ends up being selected needs to keep the project student driven and keeps them learning the process of home construction instead of just putting out a house. “So we try and incorporate a lot of different components of that whole house building process, including having our local realtors and others involved to help guide that process on what’s really going to be feasible and what’s going to sell and what the market is kind of dictating,” Aho said.

The Certified Nurse Assistant Program is a new highlight of the CTE Program which sees students work their way towards certification. Soumis said the program works with Canal View to set up an opportunity where 17 year old students which eaern a license can do CTE Work Based Learning Placement where they can utilize skills needed on the job. There is also a mechatroics program in collaboration with Michigan Tech which will transition to engineering design which will possibly allow students to earn credits for Michigan Tech. The students of this program will then work on a project with another CTE program, the Welding Manufacturing program, and the students of both programs will learn how two differing fields work in collaboration.

The automotive tech program is an area of pride for CTE, where CCISD is coming off a year which saw a student place first in the Automotive Service Technology Division of the Michigan SkillsUSA competition. The year before another CCISD student, Carter Worm, placed first in the same competition.

“Marjorie Miller of Houghton High School went to the Nationals in Atlanta, Georgia and did well, represented well. But she came out of state of Michigan as the first place winner to be able to be sent and represent Michigan and the Copper Country at the national level. So we’re hoping for continued success going into another year here,” Soumis said.

Aho said all CTE programs are industry driven, and the programs offer students the opportunity to experience standards set by industry and learn about changes before officially entering them.

“What are kids going to be experiencing and needing when they go out into that real world?” Aho asked. “We’re trying to prep them for jobs and opportunities that they could have when they leave high school. So utilizing those industry connections, and we have an advisory board that has several industry partners that are all part of this decision making process, and everything that we do. It’s important that we prep kids for that ever changing landscape that’s out there.”