High country teacher shreds norms in ski-industry education
MSU Denver grad instructs students at Summit High how to make and market custom skis and snowboards.
If you had told 20-year-old Thomas Lutke he would be a teacher one day, he would have laughed in disbelief. The Michigan native came to Colorado after dropping out of college, with no idea of what he wanted to do with his life other than to ski. By following his passion for skiing, Lutke finally found his purpose: to become a teacher.
Lutke is now a full-time Career and Technical Education teacher at Summit High School in Breckenridge. His new Ski Business and Manufacturing class is his true pride and joy. It’s one of the only classes of its kind in the nation, in which students learn to design and build custom skis and snowboards and market their products.
“They’re building more than a ski,” said Lutke. “They’re building a business.”
Lutke believes it’s important that schools think outside to box to offer classes that allow students to tap into their passions. “When you can offer a class that students are truly passionate about, they’re learning so much more,” he said.
RELATED: Young snowboard CEO hits new peaks
Still, he could never have imagined he would one day share his love of skiing with his students. “It was wild, but I wouldn’t change the path I took to get here at all,” Lutke said.
Lutke started with a low-paying job at a Copper Mountain ski-rental shop before moving to Breckenridge for a stint as a ski instructor and then into a ski-coaching position with Team Breckenridge, always working as a ski tech on the side for extra money. As a coach, Lutke realized how much he enjoyed working with teens, which eventually led to his decision to become a high school social-studies teacher.
Lutke was 23 and married when he enrolled at Metropolitan State University of Denver in 2008. Being an older student helped him maximize his education.
“I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” Lutke said. “As soon as you have that why, it really makes school a lot easier.”
In December 2012, just as he earned his degree in History, a social-studies teacher position opened at Summit High. Lutke got the job. Over the past decade, he has developed ski- and bike-tech classes for the school’s Career and Technical Education program, giving students hands-on experience to work in the ski and bicycle industries.
Summit High School’s innovative class can be an inspiration to more than schools in Colorado’s ski towns.
“We have an opportunity to transform education into something totally new and exciting for the current and next generations,” Lutke said.
