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An innovative partnership between Orion Assembly and two local school districts spells hope for the future.

Only a few miles separate the Pontiac and Lake Orion public high schools in southeast Michigan, but in many ways they are very different. Pontiac is an urban area, with a diverse group of people, including African-American, Latino and Laotian students. The school buildings and equipment show the wear of years of use, the result of insufficient funding — a familiar challenge in cities throughout the United States. Lake Orion, by contrast, is a suburban area where most of the students are white and middle class. The schools are newer and classrooms don’t lack for equipment.  For a host of reasons — but primarily because teachers, administrators and students are naturally inward-looking, focused on learning in their own schools — the two districts have traditionally had little to do with one another. But that changed recently when GM’s Orion Assembly Center, represented by UAW Local 5960, brought Lake Orion and Pontiac together in a landmark partnership designed to not only introduce high school students to careers in high technology, but also improve instruction and demonstrate the real-world relevance of math, science and technical comprehension skills taught in the classroom. Orion Assembly was, both literally and figuratively, in the perfect position to bring the two school districts together and help prepare students for an increasingly challenging and demanding global economy. "The plant is located in two school districts," says UAW Local 5960 Apprentice Chairman Andy Copland, the partnership’s developer. "If you walk down the middle aisle of the plant, on one side you’re in one school district, and on the other side, you’re in the other school district." More than that, the plant is filled with well-educated, highly trained employees who are eager to share their enthusiasm for their jobs and help students understand the type of knowledge and classroom work they will need to pursue this line of work.  "We’ve had our difficulties attracting qualified people," Copland says. "As our business has become more high tech, it has become harder to find apprentices because the education prerequisites now include electronics." Instead of just wringing his hands and wishing students had the skills he was looking for, Copland, with the full support of both UAW Local 5960 Shop Chairman Lee Jones and Plant Manager Jamie Hresko, decided to do something about it. Copland visited officials at both school districts — principals, administrators, teachers, career counselors — and found that 90 percent of them had no idea what an apprentice was, what was involved with a high-tech career and how schools could help train their students for jobs in this field. "The perception was that the plant is nasty and dirty," says Jones, whose parents are both school teachers in the Pontiac school district. "You were viewed as shop rats, and it’s not what you want your child to become." The workforce at Orion, however, knew that image was wrong, and that people like Sheila London were the norm. London, a UAW-represented toolmaker who recently finished her apprenticeship at the facility, is hardly your typical "shop rat." A graduate of Michigan State University’s pre-med program, she had tried a job in psychology, the field she studied in school, but didn’t like it. So she came to the plant and was accepted as an apprentice. She’s now particularly eager to educate students about the opportunities — and the skills needed — at a place like Orion.  "I enjoy this job tremendously,"  London points out. "  When Andy started this program, I saw this as the perfect chance to put it out there for the kids. It’s not for everybody, but how do you know if you don’t know what’s available?" Education Starts at the top Once the teachers and administrators from the Pontiac and Lake Orion school districts were exposed to the Orion Assembly Center, they were eager to listen. They learned about the plant and its workers and the UAW-GM program, "High Technology’s Impact on Education and Training." It was persuasive enough that school officials from both districts began working together with the UAW and GM to make curriculum changes that emphasized the practical applications of technical reading, science and math. Last year, the Pontiac school district implemented a technical reading and writing class and Lake Orion is set to do the same this fall. "The world of work is changing rapidly, and our children are going to need more preparation to get to the required technical level," says Dave Beiter, assistant superintendent of curriculum for Lake Orion Community Schools. "Industry and schools need to work closer together to help us develop the curriculum for their future needs." of the assistance they’re providing to the school districts is meant as a recruiting tool, Orion Assembly and the UAW Local 5960 have made larger commitments, agreeing to provide a myriad of learning tools, including a robot, to help students of all ages learn the practical applications of the seemingly abstract lessons they learn in the classroom. "The technical piece is big," says Hresko, whose motivation for supporting the program comes largely from his own upbringing in the inner city. "I think the kids, once they understand the connection between the classroom and high-paying jobs, will certainly pay more attention." Learning technical skills is certainly important, but learning to work with, respect and appreciate diversity is also a vital lesson. "I’ve seen it work in the business place," Hresko says. "Whenever you have a whole mix of people, whether you’re talking cultural or racial, I think it makes you much more successful." That reality is a key aspect of the partnership. Encouraged by Copland, officials from the Pontiac and Lake Orion school districts spent a day at the plant’s team-building course, where they climbed walls, swung on ropes and forged bonds. The experience had a deep impact on all participants. "Knowing that the UAW and General Motors, along with both school districts, are coming together to form this partnership creates a great opportunity to know each other and build new bridges between the two communities," says Kevin Fowlkes, an assistant principal from Pontiac Schools. "The experience helped me realize there are still good people in the world, and there are still people who care not just about themselves or their families, but also about others." Adds Janet Wolverton, a trustee on Lake Orion’s Board of Education: "I think I will look at everybody with wider eyes, and know that as different as we all are, we have the same goals in mind." What adults can learn, children can usually pick up even quicker. Diversity is a key aspect of the partnership, particularly in the job-shadowing component of the program. The plan is that eight students per week — four from each district — will come and spend a day learning about what happens at the plant. "They do a tour, we buy them lunch, they go to a training center and see how robots work, how a car is built and what technology is in it," Copland says. Not surprisingly, the kids come in and then the questions start flowing. "A lot of them want to know specifically what we do, because they really have no idea," London says. "They want to know everything. They want to know what kinds of shoes you have to wear, whether you have to wear a uniform, how you actually get the job, and how much you get paid." It’s no coincidence that students spend their days at the plant with someone from the other school district. At the end of the 10 weeks of job shadowing, all the kids who spent a day at the Orion Assembly Center come together to go through the teambuilding course. Copland believes it teaches them lessons that stay with them. "One thing we’ve found is that by putting kids from both districts together, they get used to working with people who don’t look like them," he says. "It’s good because when they end up working for or with people who don’t look like them, it’s not a culture shock." Not surprisingly, since all successful initiatives are eventually noticed, the innovative partnership the Orion Assembly Center has pioneered with its neighbors is receiving a lot of attention. Officials with Michigan’s Department of Education, as well as the governor’s office, have praised the program. Copland has even been invited to give a keynote address at the Eastern Seaboard Atlantic Coast apprentice conference in Maine this June. Eager to share the credit for the program’s success with his colleagues, the schools and the kids, Copland is humble about his own contributions. But he also understands that he’s been part of something very special. "It’s the most important thing I’ve done in 30 years," he says.

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