NAF Future Ready Labs Reflection: Gaining Industry Insights, Developing Future Ready Skills, & Building Community in Pontiac, MI

This past summer, NAF Future Ready Labs (FRL) partnered with the Pontiac Regional Chamber (PRC) to provide a group of high school students with paid internships at the PRC Training Center. This engineering-focused opportunity offered them the chance to gain experience in developing projects of value that support relevant work experience to fuel future aspirations.

Over six weeks, the high schoolers had the opportunity to visit work sites, gain exposure to STEM fields, network and build meaningful connections, and develop their problem-solving skills. Guided by skilled engineers, students received hands-on experience in robotics and bot development, coding and entrepreneurship, by forming collaborative teams, and working through prototyping, iterating, and perfecting their projects.

Bryan Schuerman (M.A., M.Ed.), the district’s CTE Supervisor and an American Meteorological Society Certified Educator, explained how important it is to get students out in industry, especially in partnering with entities like the Pontiac Regional Chamber.

“NAF Future Ready Labs in Pontiac gave students an avenue they would not have had otherwise,” he said. “Through their participation, students cultivated new skills while getting paid and receiving half a high school credit – putting them one step closer to graduation.”

This unique internship experience was designed to enhance the talent pipeline of engineers in Southeast Michigan, with a focus on NAF academy students attending Pontiac High School. Students returned to their classrooms feeling equipped with new skillsets that will enable them to thrive in the professional world, as well as a sense of confidence in beginning to shape a strong engineering identity, by emphasizing greater career awareness.

“Soft skills are so crucial,” stated Schuerman. “Students worked on resume building and other career prep skills over the course of the six weeks, as the NAF FRL enabled them to explore and immediately be able to apply their learnings in real time.”

Students also engaged in the Engineering Design Process, using AI and robotics, to solve important problems. With guidance from Engineering Classroom Leaders, they had the opportunity to learn about various STEM tools (such as robotics, bot development, coding, & entrepreneurship) and use them in collaborative teams to invent and prototype brighter, healthier, and more successful futures.

Schuerman described how the impact of this experience provides students with the college and career readiness skills to be successful for their next steps after high school.

“We put a lot of focus into getting our students ready, not only in the district, but in the country, to go into the five industries we focus on (such as Health Sciences, Manufacturing, Transport and Logistics; to name a few) or any industry outside of that,” he shared. “Whether students choose to go on to a 2-year institution; a 4-year institution; or directly enter the workforce; we want them feeling self-assured and prepared to take ownership of their futures.”

One unexpected lesson the students had to learn was resilience, as the FRL suffered an immense loss, with the passing of Damany Head, chairman of the Pontiac Regional Chamber.

Schuerman reflected, “We unfortunately had to say goodbye to a valuable member of this program – Damany – at the end of the FRL experience and what really drove it home for us, was that the students celebrated his life and what he had done for them. Even though the students were hit with an extremely difficult loss, they turned it into something positive to celebrate the legacy that he had left behind. Moving forward, we know his legacy will continue!”

NAF Future Ready Labs in Pontiac looks forward to another enriching summer of learning in 2026; interested students should stay tuned for registration information coming in the spring.