Michael Graham admits to being a rebel. His dad and a couple uncles each had careers in the construction industry. Graham mapped out an entirely different path for himself that was intentionally void of hammers and wheelbarrows.

Graham, 40, of Yukon, enrolled in Precision Machining while in high school in 2001 at Canadian Valley Technology Center. He thought he might want to become a machinist. Both machinists and carpenters interpret blueprints. But that’s where the career similarities end.

The construction industry beckoned Graham to reconsider. He resisted until he could no longer stand the thought of the “family business” without him playing a role.

“I kept searching for what I wanted to do and just never landed on anything,” Graham said. “I finally enrolled in the Construction Trades program,” he said, “because I wanted to learn to build houses. I wanted to design homes and be a homebuilder.”

Graham said he was a pretty decent cabinetmaker, so he worked in a cabinet shop. Internally, he believed he could do more than carpentry.

“I left the industry so I could get back into college, because I wanted to be a teacher,” he said.

He started a home business building custom furniture and waited for an opportunity to teach. It’s a career he said he never would have considered while in high school.

“Now I get to teach in the field that chose me,” Graham said. “My biggest satisfaction in teaching is actually helping students with the soft skills I cover in class. My main focus it to help develop my students into quality employees, not just quality carpenters.”

Students enrolled in the program prepare for work in commercial and residential construction. They acquire skills, such as framing, roofing, cabinetry and trim carpentry using a wide range of professional hand, power and air tools.

Graham met his wife, Alexis, when the two were in elementary school. They have been married 18 years. She also works at CV Tech as one of the school’s Outreach and Recruitment Specialists.