After-school program opens pathways to emerging careers

MOUNT CLEMENS — A new after-school program for Mount Clemens Community Schools gives students the opportunity to reach new heights: literally, given the fact the students are piloting drones.

Open to the district’s students in grades six through eight, Youth Foundations in Flight is a program that gives students the chance to have hands-on experience operating and working with quadcopter drones. The program is run by Code313 — operating under the name “Code586” — at the historic Mount Clemens High School campus. It includes a meal and transportation for participating students and is free to participate in.

“We’re teaching not only the basic aspects — the rules, the regulations — surrounding drone technology, but we’re also teaching them how to maintain (drones), how to fix them, how to repair them,” said Bartel Welch, executive director and founder of Code313. “And then we’re also teaching certain skill basics that allow them to reach into different career fields.”

The program teaches students how to operate and work on drones with the goal of the students playing “drone basketball,” a game Welch says Code313 created. While fun and something the organization is looking to expand further in itself, the skills picked up through drone basketball are able to be applied generally to operating line-of-sight drones. These skills — paired with an FAA Part 107 commercial drone operator’s license that can be earned starting at age 16 — gives students a leg up in emerging career paths like aerial inspections or aerial delivery.

“By the time these youths reach 16, they’ll be trained up on operations of drones, how to maintain drones, basic flight maneuvers and everything so they can take that Part 107 test, get their license and they can fly commercially,” Welch said. “You’re talking about jobs that can be paying $50-plus an hour for a 16-year-old. That’s game-changing, not only for their lives but for their family’s lives.”

The seeds for the program were laid when Welch got in touch with Terri Lowe, the Mount Clemens High School college and career success coach, who connected Welch with Mount Clemens Community Schools Superintendent Julian Roper. Welch, a resident of Clinton Township, had wanted to bring Code313’s STEM and STEAM educational programs into Macomb County. Code313 was founded in Detroit in 2019 and expanded across Wayne County and into Washtenaw and Genesee counties over the following years. Roper met with Welch at Code313’s STEAM Slam event at Huntington Place and the two hit it off.

“I went and took a visit for myself to see kids actively engaged in the program, and instantly I’m like, ‘Our kids need that,’” Roper said. “We connected then found out that (Welch) lives right down the road. He wants to do something in his community, and he just hasn’t been able to get into Macomb County.”

With a large amount of vacant space in the historic high school and an interest in giving students different opportunities to engage with their studies, Roper worked with Welch to set up the after-school drone program. Youth Foundations in Flight began meeting on Feb. 17 with an assembly to get students aware and excited about the program.

Roper, who attended the assembly, was affected by the students’ response to the program.

“When they started engaging and assessing by a show of hands who would be interested, there were kids that I’ve seen in this district for a couple of years now that I’ve never seen any excitement in … and I’ve seen kids who were really reserved (that were) on the edge of their seats,” Roper said. “It just blew me away. There was one kid in particular who you could never read what he’s thinking, what he’s feeling, does he like it here … (he) was on the edge of his seat so bad that I went down to the counselor’s office and said, ‘Make sure he gets in the program. I don’t care who (gets in), but make sure he’s the first one in,’ because it just hooked him.”

Finding things that interest students while also helping them learn and grow has been a focus of Roper’s time as the district’s superintendent. A similar program last year saw students working with Tommey Walker, founder of fashion label Detroit vs. Everybody, to create unique branded clothes to be sold through the school’s store. Roper believes programs like these — combining classroom learning with practical experience and exposure to different career pathways — will keep students in school and interested in things that could become lifelong pursuits.

“When you service a population like ours … we are the most impoverished school district in Macomb County,” Roper said. “I know for sure our kids have not gotten their hands on some of these opportunities, for whatever reason … I know firsthand that children seldom become what they seldom see, and as the superintendent of this school district, I want to leave no stone unturned. I want to have every possibility that we can bring to (the students). Even if there’s one kid that gets exposed and it changes their life, it gives them hope, it gives them a purpose, they find something they’re in to, I’m open to (it).”

Depending on how Youth Foundations in Flight goes, Roper says it may be added to the district’s slate of career technical education programs alongside courses in subjects like culinary arts, broadcasting and HVAC. Roper and Welch currently view it as a pilot program for this and will evaluate it after the program is completed at the end of April.