Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneur’s Project +Impact Studio for Local Business is an interdisciplinary summer internship where undergraduate students from the Ross School of Business and several other schools and colleges at the University of Michigan partner with a portfolio of Detroit entrepreneurs to help expand their businesses.

The tech pros will provide free, one-on-one support to entrepreneurs in their community. Tech pros will work between 30 and 40 hours a week with small businesses. UMSI and JEI are aiming to enroll 140 businesses. 

Lily Hamburger says that DNEP’s presence in Detroit has generated trust and new projects, such as the DNEP+Impact Studio for Local Business, which helps entrepreneurs pivot in the post-pandemic economy.

Today, in developing Avalon’s footprint across Detroit and Ann Arbor, Jackie Victor says she has always wanted a community-minded place where people meet, eat and organize a better world. That may be why you never know who you’ll run into at Avalon from CEOs to small-business owners to everyday working people who are drawn to her energy and optimism. 

Modeled after a design studio, small teams of students will work with a portfolio of business owners within certain industry sectors to identify immediate needs and develop solutions. This approach should allow students to perform substantive work without overly burdening business owners who may be in crisis.

The U-M Detroit Center will offer four sessions, grounded in the current context of the COVID-19 emergency, offering participants an opportunity to explore the resources that are available to address rapid response needs.

“We have a team of interdisciplinary students responding in various ways: law students researching legal questions related to Small Business Administration lending, public policy students creating easy to understand guides, and design students designing templates for businesses moving to online sales.”
~ Justin Erickson, program manager for the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project.