MARQUETTE, Mich. — Hundreds of high school juniors and seniors left their regular classrooms Friday and spent the day at Northern Michigan University’s Jacobetti Complex, the last stop on a statewide career tour run by MiLEAP.
MiKickoff is a program of the state’s lifelong-education agency. It is aimed at juniors and seniors who do not yet have a clear plan after graduation, matching their interests and strengths with a next step rather than assuming every student is headed straight to a four-year campus.
Students toured the Marquette campus, worked through hands-on labs and heard from current Wildcats about campus life. They also walked an industry and faculty expo where they could ask instructors and employers about jobs. NMU Associate Vice President Jeff Korpi said many of the visitors expect to go to work after high school rather than enroll right away, and that the day was meant to show practical pathways.
Korpi, who oversees Northern Student Experience, said he wants students to see hands-on options they can take home and use to keep the Upper Peninsula running. He told the group he found NMU from San Antonio, Texas, arrived underprepared, and that people and openings at the university changed the direction of his life.
Friday was NMU’s first turn as a MiKickoff host and the finale of the agency’s five-stop fall swing. Earlier stops were Ferris State University, Oakland University, Saginaw Valley State University and Wayne County Community College District.
Organizers framed the visit as both a look at NMU and a broader push to connect Upper Peninsula teenagers with training and work after high school, whether or not they apply to the university.
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Filed under: Lansing MI Education News
