Trent Trout, computer integrated manufacturing instructor at Saline High School (SHS) — an SME PRIME (Partnership Response in Manufacturing Education) school — was taken aback recently when his former boss strode into his classroom followed by a group of cheering coworkers.
“It was totally by surprise; it wasn’t expected at all,” he remembers. “It’s a Thursday afternoon, just kind of a normal day, and then Dr. Ryan Rowe — he was the old CTE director here, and now he’s the county director — came in with some balloons, and a whole bunch of people started following behind him, and I was like, what is this for?”
It was then that Trout found out he won the annual Michigan Association for Career and Technical Education’s 2026 Teacher of the Year award. Rowe had nominated him for it.
“It was awesome, a huge honor,” says Trout, 25, who lives in Saline, located in southeast Michigan. “He totally caught me by surprise; I was not expecting that at all.”
The honor was especially sweet for Trout because it represented a full-circle turn. He was once enrolled as a student in the program for which he won the teaching award.
Now in his fourth year as a teacher at SHS, Trout has become an integral part of the school’s SME PRIME program.
“Last year is when everything was getting rolled out,” he says, recalling the day when a link popped up on his computer screen inviting SHS to apply for the SME PRIME program grant. “I’m like, why not, let’s fill it out and see what happens,” he says. After the school was chosen, new equipment came flooding in, and Trout got to go to a lot of different training sessions — getting certified himself so he can certify his students.
“It’s opened up so many more doors for my program and for my students than I would have ever thought, especially this early on,” says Trout. “All our competition was paid for last year, which really helped out. And all the equipment in the shop is equipment that we probably never would have had the chance to get without that program.”
The new equipment will help jumpstart a new mechatronics and robotics class Trout will be teaching next year. “Frankly, it’s a class we couldn’t have without having all the new equipment from SME,” he says, adding that the new tools include numerous pieces of mechatronics equipment such as an AC/DC trainer, a small Festo MecLab trainer, a mechanical drive trainer and a pneumatic trainer. Other new equipment includes an industrial Stratasys 3D printer, a Starrett Snap-on Precision Measurement Toolbox and a Verisurf Master3DGage probe arm.
It’s all been a surprising turn of events for someone who never thought he was going to be a teacher. “Out of high school, it wasn’t on my mind at all,” says Trout, who worked at a couple of different machine shops after graduation, then transitioned into custom cabinetry at a shop in Saline. “I was pretty set there; I was sure I was eventually going to take over that company,” says Trout. It was then that a former teacher of his, who is Saline’s current CAD teacher, contacted him to see if he was interested in teaching some new manufacturing classes at the school. “I gave it a thought for a minute and I’m like, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I’ll give it a shot,” says Trout. “It was four years ago now, and I’m really enjoying it.”
He’s enjoying it so much that he went back to school to get his teaching certificate. “Right now I have a couple more classes through Washtenaw Community College and then I’ll be transferring to Ferris State University, hopefully in the spring,” says Trout. “When I’m done, I’ll have my bachelor’s in technical education with a CTE teacher endorsement.”
Reflecting back on the past year, Trout says, “It’s been an awesome ride for sure. All the connections I made along the way, and all the connections I’m still making, have really boosted our program. So it’s been very cool.”
