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Health & Fitness

NBC News profiles UCS program as part of its Education Nation initiative

NBC News has profiled the Utica Center for Science and Industry as part of its Education Nation initiative. 

The national news station profiled how UCSI is working to address the national skills gap in an article titled: "Michigan high school prepares students for the real world - and real high-tech jobs."

According to NBC: "Education Nation is a year-round initiative to engage the country in a solutions-focused conversation about the state of education in America."

Michigan high school prepares students for the real world - and real high-tech jobs


Editor's note: This story is one in a series on education issues featured at the 2013 Education Nation summit in New York City on Oct. 6-8. To learn more, please visit EducationNation.com.

By Sarah Butrymowicz, The Hechinger Report

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – By the time Brad Foley graduated from high school in 2012, he’d made a bicycle that served as an alternative energy source and helped craft a model of an eco-friendly dashboard for cars. For his senior project, he’d designed a “Mission Impossible”-inspired game featuring a security system with laser trip wires.

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He was well-prepared for his part-time job helping to design plastic molds at Hi-Tech Mold & Eng., a Rochester Hills, Mich. supplier to automotive companies. But now he finds himself bored in his classes at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Mich., where he’s working toward a degree in mechanical engineering.

“It’s almost a step back,” he said. “We’re doing stuff that doesn’t really correlate to the real world at all.”

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Foley’s high school program, the Utica Center for Science and Industry (CSI), uses technology to prepare students for automotive and military industry jobs. The hope is that CSI, run by the Utica Community Schools about an hour north of Detroit, will help the region’s economic recovery by aligning education with employers’ needs. Foley was in CSI’s inaugural class, starting in 2008.

For the compleete article, please follow this link:  http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/10/06/20822468-michigan-high-school-prepares-students-for-the-real-world-and-real-high-tech-jobs

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