On June 4, 2025, family members, Macomb County executives and leaders from the non-profits Gleaners Food Bank and Forgotten Harvest heard digital design campaigns from six teams of sixth graders.
The sixth-grade students were part of the Academy Explorer 6 class at Wolfe Middle School in Center Line. This class focuses on a digital design and communications pathway, and worked closely with the marketing and communication department at the Macomb County Planning and Economic Development.
All students presented a flyer, a blog and a social media post for either Gleaners Food Bank or Forgotten Harvest – which are both non-profits in Macomb County.
We spoke with Kelli Phillips-Herrick, Career Readiness Coach for Center Line Public Schools, about Academy Explorer 6 and the importance of the school’s K-12 Career Exploration Program overall.
What is Academy Explorer 6?
“Academy Explorer 6 (AE6) teaches the students about careers in digital design and communication from the Macomb County Planning and Economic Development Communications Team,” says Phillips-Herrick. “The students learn how to build a digital campaign for a client using Canva to create blogs, flyers and social media posts.”
Although students practice creating marketing materials for Wolfe Middle School’s various activities at the beginning of the course, they then meet with their client (either Forgotten Harvest or Gleaners Food Bank) halfway through the semester.
“On top of learning about digital design and communication careers, our students learned about nonprofits, food insecurity, and how volunteers make a difference (all of which) helps to make our students well-rounded,” says Phillips-Herrick.
Students volunteered by packing boxes for mobile pantries at Forgotten Harvest and watched volunteers packing boxes at Gleaners.
“Since Gleaners hosts a mobile pantry at Center Line High School on the last Monday of every month, our students were able to see how those boxes were distributed to our community,” she says.
Six teams were then selected at the end of the semester to share their campaigns with their parents, the clients and community members.
What is the next step for AE6 students
“AE6 is a semester class, so students who move in after the school year begins have the opportunity to join during the second semester,” says Phillips-Herrick. “Since the students work in teams to create their campaigns, it would be easy to include a new student.”
She explains that taking all of the career exploration classes is encouraged because students may learn skills and tools that they can use in the next program.
“Academy Explorer 7 (AE7) launches in the fall of 2025 and it is a law and justice class,” she explains. “We are partnered with the University of Detroit Mercy Law School.”
The administrators are currently working on the curriculum for AE7, but they are building on the skills the students learned in AE6.
How the pathways work as a whole
“All grades K-7 are assigned a career pathway and those pathways align with the pathways we teach at the high school,” says Phillips-Herrick. “The pathways fall under two academies: Health and Human Services (blue) or Industry, Technology and Innovation (red).”
She explains how it is important for students to get as much experience as possible in the K-7 pathways.
“In Academy Explorer 8 (AE8), the students review all of the pathways offered at the high school through research and presentations from industry professionals,” she explains. “In high school, our students move into the experience phase.”
The experience phase includes choosing a pathway, taking classes in that pathway and working toward a certification and/or college credit for that pathway.
“They work on interview skills, resumes, and begin to create their post graduate plan,” she says.
It’s never too early to introduce careers
“In Center Line, we begin discussing careers with our students in kindergarten,” says Phillips-Herrick. “In grades K-5, they discover different careers within their assigned career pathway.”
She explains that students in kindergarten, first, second, third and fifth grades all get assigned a partner at Center Line High School. The high school students are the experts within that pathway.
“Students also have at least two guaranteed experiences with business partners,” she says. “Also, in high school, students will go to career fairs, go on a college visit and have a job shadow.”
She explains what’s next for the six teams of AE6 students.
“(Macomb County Executive) Mark Hackel and his team discussed bringing our students to the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Fresh! By Gleaners,” says Phillips-Herrick.
Fresh! By Gleaners should be opening up in Warren in Summer 2025.
“Besides presenting at the event in June, our students have had the opportunity to present in front of our board of education and the Ford NGL steering committee,” she says. “It included many of our business partners, the mayor of Center Line, as well as other community members.”
For more information on living and learning in Macomb County, visit Make Macomb Your Home. Find more articles like this at Metro Parent’s A Family Guide to Macomb County.
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