Cadillac Urban Gardens doesn’t just grow produce. It grow leaders and environmental stewards, says U-M alumna Sarah Clark, who founded the garden. Clark started working with Dolores Perales in 2013 when she was a sophomore at Detroit Cristo Rey High School. Perales went on to earn dual master’s degrees from U-M.

Museum founder Olayami Dabls, an artist and storyteller who grew up in Detroit, wanted the museum’s exterior to tell the same story as the strands and jars of colorful beads displayed inside. Since 1998, the African Bead Museum has drawn visitors from around the world. He partnered with U-M recently on the AfricanFuturist Greenhouse, designed to mimic bead patterns.

This past spring the farm grew 14,000 tomato transplants in collaboration with Keep Growing Detroit for distribution in that organization’s Garden Resource Program that supports over 2,000 urban and community gardens in the city.

“The pandemic shined a light on the fact that digital access is both a real requirement for modern living, and a cause of inequity for those who don’t have it. With so many aspects of our lives taking place remotely, that digital divide seemed to get bigger.”

~ DeAndré Calvert

Students are encouraged to be mindful of their identities when entering a space they’re not from, and to always lead with a respect for the work that is already being done. 

Deidre D.S.SENSE Smith has found that, like music itself, hip-hop is becoming a universal language. “People from all walks of life have the need and desire to be understood.”

Ideas With A Beat: Hip-hop Songwriting (MUSPERF 200) is open to all majors.

By expanding the program and building on its history as leaders in environmental justice, SEAS is continuing to foster the educational experience that communities affected by injustice have been demanding of universities.

The forecast calls for the city to add 11,300 payroll jobs this year and 6,100 in 2023, the year in which the city is expected to recover to its pre-pandemic level.

U-M’s Poverty Solutions initiative collaborated with the Detroit Phoenix Center to develop a series of communications workshops for the Summer Leadership Academy on owning your narrative, defining your point of view, using data to support your point, and crafting advocacy statements.