U-M students have been working on Neighborhood United’s social media presence. The team also has taken the past few months to formalize Neighborhood United’s organization, designing a membership handbook, approaching donors, and collecting feedback to return successfully in the fall.

Going forward, optiMize has encouraged Bloom Bodies to use its $9,000 fellowship funds to act on community needs. The two focuses this summer are the pandemic and hurt within the community over racial injustice. 

Jeni Olney, mentor and associate director for Social Innovation at optiMize, said: “For our Detroit-Track teams, there is a deep-rooted and often relentless commitment they have to themselves and their communities to share knowledge and resources and create impact together.” 

The idea is that everyone has the right to do research and should be able to ask questions that will make their lives better. One doesn’t have to be in the academy to do research, everyday citizens can do research and it can lead to change.

~ Damani Partridge

Interested in urban issues? Here’s a list of courses offered at the University of Michigan this fall through the College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts, the Law School, the Ford School of Public Policy, the School for Environment and Sustainability, the Ross School of Business, and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.

As they uncovered the history of police violence that has affected a city so close to their home, HIS 393 students walked away with investigative experience that should benefit them in their post-collegiate careers.

Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, a Detroit native and resident, graduated from U-M in 2005 with a BSE in computer engineering. “Like you,” he told the Kessler Scholars, “I attended the University of Michigan on scholarship. A scholarship prepares you and positions you for a new set of opportunities. Be open to those opportunities and possibilities.”

Program graduates will have the skills to preserve and transform places and programs that are vital to the city’s history and growth.

Chene Street today is a far cry from its historic past, which is what inspired Marian Krzyzowsk, who grew up in the area, to launch the Detroit Chene Street History Project in 2002.