This article is part of Concentrate's Voices of Youth series, which features stories written by Washtenaw County youth with guidance from Concentrate staff mentors. In this installment, student writer Tova Weiss takes a look into Ann Arbor Public Schools' Homebuilding program.
When Jonah Kaufman arrived at Ann Arbor Public Schools' (AAPS) Homebuilding class site for the first time, it was just an empty plot of land. Somehow, Kaufman and a small but mighty collection of other high schoolers with little to no prior training in construction had to work together to build an entire house before the end of the school year.
Like many Homebuilding students, Kaufman, a senior at Skyline High School, has always thrived outside, doing hands-on work. He remembers helping his father with yard projects growing up, preferring the tangible work to that done in a classroom. When a friend recommended the Homebuilding program to Kaufman, he applied eagerly. Now, a year later, that choice has tremendously impacted Kaufman’s entire life and mindset.
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Doug CoombeJonah Kaufman.
"[Homebuilding taught me] skills in general, but also just character,” Kaufman says. “It really gives us the opportunity to explore, to break out from the comforts of being in a classroom setting and just do what we love. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The program is amazing.”
AAPS’ Homebuilding program is a collaboration between Pioneer, Huron, Skyline, and Community high schools. Founded in 1968, the career and technical education program is intended to widen the horizons of high school education beyond the classroom for students interested in the building trades. The program is funded by a nonprofit board of directors called the Ann Arbor Student Building Industry Program, which covers building supplies, the construction site, and more. AAPS contributes the instructors, students, bussing, and other essential amenities.
Every school day, students hop on a bus that takes them to the construction site for a new suburban home. The participants are divided into two three-hour sessions, and between them, they shoulder the responsibility of building the house.
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Doug CoombeHomebuilding students work on their current house.
“When we first start the year, there's nothing. It's a full, plain field,” Kaufman says. “We'll learn the basics - using utility tools, [personal protective equipment], being safe - and then we'll just start going.”
The students do essentially all the work of building a house. From constructing a roof while balancing 30-40 feet in the air to installing electrical systems, they get the chance to try it all. While adult professionals step in to assist with the most difficult tasks, like installing the foundation, students are there for every step of the building process.
At the beginning of each class, the instructors briefly introduce new skills and deliver a rundown of what the goals for that day are. From there, the students split into groups and get straight to work. The kids look out for each other, with a group leader assigned each day to help oversee their work and ensure their tasks get completed. Diving right into brand new projects means the students are guaranteed mistakes. But it also means they learn how to recognize those errors and how to remedy them.
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Doug CoombeHomebuilding instructor Mark Valchine works with student Nick Turenne.
Mark Valchine, the lead instructor for the program, considers that a key part of what makes Homebuilding unique and important.
“Our schools have focused a lot on paperwork, tests, and that's how you measure success,” he says. “But the real world's not that way.”
Valchine calls it “fingertips-back learning,” a method in which students use a new skill, then look back and assess where they’ve succeeded, where they’ve failed, and how they can strengthen that skill. Meanwhile, Valchine and the other instructors hold back, watching without intervening unnecessarily, stepping in to support students without making the work their own.
Valchine started building when he was 12 years old. When he found out in his junior year of college that it was possible to teach classes like Homebuilding, he immediately knew that was what he wanted to do.
“The rest is kind of history," he says.
Homebuilding students view their instructors with respect and appreciation. They refer to Valchine as “Coach V."
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Doug CoombeHomebuilding instructor Mark Valchine works with student Nick Turenne.
Jake Carnell, a junior at Pioneer High School, describes Valchine and the other coaches as mentors.
“They help lead us in the right direction," he says. “When we're stuck, they come help us, and it's awesome.”
In addition to the impact Homebuilding has had on his own life, Carnell also recognizes Homebuilding as contributing to the construction industry and the Washtenaw County community at large.
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Doug CoombeJake Carnell.
“The trades, their population, and job workers are going down significantly,” he says. “This is getting people back into the trades and getting more workers in the workforce."
Michigan faces a substantial shortage in the skilled trades, a field essential to the state’s economy. The class contributes directly to solving this problem. Valchine says roughly two-thirds of Homebuilding participants pursue jobs in or related to the construction industry after completion of the program each year. In fact, several local remodeling agencies are run by Homebuilding alumni, according to Valchine.
While student homebuilding programs similar to Ann Arbor’s exist across the country, AAPS hosts one of the most successful classes of its kind. Valchine says the current house that students are building is "the largest home built by students in the nation in one school year."
“The demands that that puts on them to execute, to work through that process, is probably the deciding factor of what makes our program so unique," he says.
Many Homebuilding program participants have won individual awards of their own in the construction field.
Along with many other Homebuilding students, Jupiter Gergics, a senior at Community High School, entered
a competition in individual carpentry through SkillsUSA earlier this year. They reached the state level, where they won first place and will be continuing on to the national level. Gergics was the first non-male to win regionals in the state of Michigan.
“It took awhile for that to set in. It took a week or two before I really felt that,” Gergics says. “But now it's something that I carry with a lot of pride because the title of state champion is temporary. It's something that there have been many of and there will be many more … but the first to do something is always something to be remembered and that's really cool.”
Although Gergics recognizes gender disparities in the building industry, they’ve found the Homebuilding program to be free of stereotypes or traditional gender expectations. Although there are more male participants than those of other gender identities, Gergics has never noticed any kind of bias.
“Everyone has the same opportunities. Everyone has the same things available to them,” Gergics says. “It's empowering to be a part of a community like that.”
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Doug CoombeAnn Arbor Community High School student Jupiter Gergics.
Gergics, like so many of their peers, considers Homebuilding to be hands-down their favorite class they’ve taken throughout high school. They describe their experience as both fun and enriching.
“We learn so much, even if it is indirectly. A lot of what we learn directly is how we swing a hammer, how we load a nail gun, but through that we learn a lot of teamwork things, leadership things, life skills, how to work with people, how to do a bunch of different things, and how to apply that learning,” Gergics says. “When you learn math in a math class you're learning so much theoretical stuff. You're learning all of this and you're like, 'Okay, what does any of this mean? If you put this in front of me in the real world I wouldn't know how to use any of it.'”
But Homebuilding is the real world, Gergics says.
“A lot of the skills that I've learned in Homebuilding - leadership, teamwork, all of this - I’ve used in real life, and I've been really grateful to have that knowledge," they say.
Gergics will be attending Michigan Technological University for a degree in mechanical engineering. Although they don’t yet know how they will be using that degree, they anticipate that the life lessons and technical skills they’ve learned in Homebuilding will carry with them in whatever work they find themselves doing.
Carnell hopes to study construction management at Ferris State University. Kaufman will be attending Washtenaw Community College and plans to transfer to Eastern Michigan University to pursue the same degree. Both consider Homebuilding the experience that made up their minds about what they wanted for their future careers.
Valchine is proud of his students’ diverse career trajectories.
“Our students are everywhere,” he says. “We have students that have gone to MIT and graduated with Ph.D.s. We have students that are here in Ann Arbor working for local contractors.”
Valchine loves seeing where life takes his students. He watches with pride, knowing Homebuilding was an important part of their journeys.
“Building the house is the vessel that we use to teach them life lessons, " Valchine says. “And the life lessons make them stronger and make them successful when they leave us."
High school junior and lifelong Ann Arborite Tova Weiss is dedicated to using language and creativity to make a positive impact on the world. Outside of writing, Tova loves music, social advocacy, and cooking.
All photos by Doug Coombe.
Concentrate Managing Editor Patrick Dunn served as Tova's mentor on this story.