From high school CTE classes to WCC to U-M, Saline native blazes his own trail in business

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, as well as adult-written stories spotlighting local youth perspective. In this installment, student writer Tova Weiss profiles aspiring entrepreneur Evan Aeschliman.

University of Michigan (U-M) senior Evan Aeschliman says he makes “better busy than bored” his motto in life. Aeschliman has blazed his own trail toward a career in business, progressing from high school career and technical education (CTE) courses to Washtenaw Community College (WCC) to U-M.

Aeschliman was born in Ann Arbor and raised in Saline. A member of Saline High School’s class of 2022, Aeschliman’s first CTE course was Intro to Marketing. 

“Leading up to high school, … I was definitely looking for vocational education opportunities,” he says. “As soon as I had that outlet in high school I started taking those classes.” 

Aeschliman found that the marketing course’s practical nature gave him some clarity about what his future would hold.

“As soon as I took some marketing classes in high school I knew I had a vested interest in business just because it all seemed to click for me,” he says.

High school was where Aeschliman picked up what he calls his first “big boy” job, as well.

“As soon as I turned 16 I pretty much worked as much as I could while playing sports and staying up in school,” Aeschliman said. 

His first job was during the COVID-19 pandemic, building personal protective equipment like face shields for frontline workers. It was a full-time job, and Aeschliman says he found fulfillment in knowing he was contributing to something important. 

“It definitely instilled some work ethic going forward,” he says. 

Shortly afterwards, he got a job as a landscaper at a driving range called Miles Range, where he worked for three years. 

After completing Intro to Marketing, Aeschliman decided to continue along the same track by enrolling in Marketing 2, a higher-level CTE course that took a more hands-on approach to exploring marketing. He says that course was “very interesting” because students got to run the school store, The Edge.

That involved a variety of different duties, from making coffee to selling merch to something that stood out to Aeschliman: utilizing payment tracking software to analyze sales. Aeschliman considers his time working at The Edge to be formative. 

“That definitely played a part in the entrepreneurial path that I’m on going forward,” he says. 

Aeschliman is a strong advocate for CTE courses, saying they provide practical, functional skills that can’t be found in an ordinary classroom setting. 

“If you look at a class like auto tech, welding, [or] computer integrated manufacturing, it’s very hands-on, robust skillsets that can immediately be taken to the workplace,” he says. “You get an idea of what you may or may not like post-high school, post-college. It allows you to get industry exposure early.”

Upon graduating high school, Aeschliman faced the same dilemma every teenager grapples with as he asked himself the question: “What next?” After much consideration, he decided WCC was the answer. From a financial perspective, WCC provided a much more affordable alternative to a traditional four-year university. He applied for and was granted the President’s Honor Scholarship, which provided him with free tuition and a stipend for books. That wasn’t the only reason he selected WCC, though. 

“It was an appealing environment because I knew I could take courses in pretty much whatever I wanted,” he says. 

Although he considered some liberal arts schools, Aeschliman felt that their more specialized nature would restrict him. He wanted room to explore the full scope of his interests, and WCC gave him that flexibility. Aeschliman says he would recommend WCC to anyone, particularly students who, like him, are unsure of what they want for their future. 

“It was just an awesome experience,” he says.

On top of the ways WCC supported his academic aspirations, Aeschliman found a strong community and outlet for his passions in the extracurricular scene on the WCC campus. He first discovered Ann Arbor Entrepreneurs, a club for students interested in entrepreneurship.

“I saw that the club had been deactivated since COVID so I ended up going to the entrepreneurial center and I asked them about it,” Aeschliman says. “They were looking for someone to get the club back up and going and I was like, ‘That sounds interesting.’ I kind of revived that club post-COVID.” 

He met with the club’s former leader and was able to get the club back up and running. From there, Aeschliman picked up one club leadership position after another, deeply enjoying each one. 

“Getting plugged into clubs is definitely a great way to meet likeminded students,” Aeschliman says, “and if you’re looking to transfer it shows initiative on your part.” 

He put the education from his high school CTE course experience into action by joining the WCC Marketing Club as an officer. During his second year at WCC, he became president of that club as well. Finally, during that same year, he collaborated with a couple of teachers to start a club called the Investment Club. Their mission was to set students up for finance studies after leaving WCC, as well as to provide economic education on topics like budgeting.

In addition to leading clubs, keeping up in his classwork, and doing internships in cybersecurity and sales analytics, Aeschliman continued to fill any gaps in his schedule with work. He worked in construction for a couple of years, renovating student housing on the U-M campus. But he quickly started working on the WCC campus as well. 

“I honestly felt like WCC was investing in me, so I kind of wanted to figure out how to get involved there,” he says. 

He took on the role of student sports assistant in the WCC sports office, supervised by Sports Office Manager Matt Lucas. Aeschliman considers working with Lucas life-changing. 

“He’s been one of the biggest mentors that I’ve had in my entire life,” Aeschliman says, adding that he and Lucas still regularly meet for coffee to catch up. 

Lucas expresses gratitude for getting to work with Aeschliman.

“I could go on about how important a role he played for us and our continued growth and development of our club sports program,” Lucas says, adding that he admires and appreciates Aeschliman’s professional and personal excellence. 

“He’s got good logic, good decision making. He’s someone I could really rely on,” Lucas says. “I’m a believer in empowering our [student] staff to learn and grow, and he really dove into that. He was always trying to learn. [He] still is.” 

Lucas says he watches Aeschliman’s success post-WCC with pride and admiration. He thinks Aeschliman disproves misconceptions about community college students lacking drive or academic excellence. 

“[WCC] is one of the best things that’s ever happened to him,” Lucas says.

After completing his associate’s degree in business administration at WCC, Aeschliman was admitted to U-M to finish out a four-year degree. 

“I felt pretty confident going into it just because I knew WCC was preparing me well,” Aeschliman says. “I knew that post-[WCC] I was still kind of interested in business but I wanted to dabble in some different areas.” 

Initially, he was admitted into the U-M School of Kinesiology, which houses WCC’s Sports Management Program. He felt the program would be the perfect marriage of his experience at the WCC Sports Office, his high school CTE courses, and his WCC degree in business. After a short time in the program, though, he decided it wasn’t a good fit. 

Aeschliman then transferred to the U-M College of Language, Science, and the Arts, where he briefly pursued a dual degree in psychology and economics before dropping the economics major to focus on psychology. He is also working towards a certificate with the Ross School of Business Michigan Sales and Business Development Certificate Program. 

“[I] ultimately ended up on psych for consumer behavior [and] sales strategy stuff,” Aeschliman says. 

Aeschliman isn’t sure where exactly he’s going to end up after graduation, but he says he’s okay with that. 

“As it stands right now, I like trying new things and doing a lot of things at the same time,” he says. 

His broad range of educational and vocational experience makes him feel prepared for whatever the future holds. He knows he’ll use the skills he learned way back in his high school Marketing course, in addition to all the other lessons he’s picked up along the way, wherever he ends up working. 

“I think there are a lot of opportunities to do a lot of cool things in life, whether you take a traditional path or you decide to go a little nontraditional and go straight into something vocational,” he says. 

At the end of the day, Aeschliman says he’s grateful for the opportunity to try so many different things, and eager to try even more. His number one priority as he moves into the future is making sure to meet his career and everything else in his life with intentionality, as he’s met all of his work so far — from running his high school’s store to working in the WCC Sports Office. 

“I think it’s important to have a ‘why,’” he says. “As cliche as that is, I think having an idea of what that looks like is really important.”

Concentrate staffer Patrick Dunn served as Tova’s mentor on this story.

Click here to read more from the Voices of Youth series.