More than 150 middle schools in 47 Michigan counties have implemented Project Healthy Schools since 2004. The community collaboration with U-M is one of the few school-based programs to demonstrate lasting improvements in participants’ health behavior and cardiovascular risk factors.

Having excelled in careers at Microsoft, Amazon, and now Meta, this 1997 electrical engineering alum and renowned video game engineer co-founded The Motor City Alliance to make Detroit a powerhouse for FIRST Robotics teams.

As president/CEO of the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, Mark Wallace, MPP ’04, oversees ‘the best riverwalk in the country.’ With $1.8 billion in investments over two decades, visitors have gone from essentially zero to 3 million.

Michigan alumnus Alex Wright is a co-founder of Detroit City FC, a minor-league soccer team that strives to satisfy the demand for soccer in downtown Detroit, represent the city in a positive light, and build community.

Detroit’ goal: To benefit more people with improved access to fresh food, community cohesion, and reduced stormwater runoff, while countering gentrification effects that may occur with expanded green space.

Detroit has plenty of negative stereotypes, and Paul Draus hopes to transform seemingly undesirable qualities into benefits. The professor of sociology at UM-Dearborn has partnered with people to bring greenspaces to alleyways and windmills to neighborhoods.

U-M’s Detroit River Story Lab partners with community groups in Flint and Detroit to teach schoolchildren about ship construction and buoyancy, river ecology, and the river’s role in the history of the Underground Railroad.

Clara Hardie, U-M grad and Detroit resident, co-founded Detroit Youth Volume in 2010, a mixed-income Suzuki violin program that offers scholarships and extra support for lower income students seeking classical music training.

U-M ramped up collaborations in Detroit during the pandemic to help residents address food insecurity, unemployment, eviction reform, and more.