1. Sometimes the ‘hero’s journey’ takes an unexpected turn

    John Levinson, MBA ’75, is a passionate Wolverine who has attended 587 consecutive Michigan games, peaking with the 2023 national championship. Now adapting to a diagnosis of ALS, the indomitable Levinson plans to be back in the Big House — and on the road — next fall.

  2. UM-Dearborn alum shines on the Detroit Lions Drumline

    The Lions’ breakout season is making DeAndre Hicks’ first year with the team’s “Honolulu Boom” percussion group a memorable one. Joining the drumline was a lifelong dream for this social media specialist at U-M’s Center for Academic Innovation.

  3. Braiding an identity from history and challah

    Baker and blogger Marissa Wojcik, BA ’16, combines her love of Jewish family tradition with a streak of culinary curiosity to adapt centuries-old recipes for the modern-day foodie. Pass the Canadian Poutine Challah, and try the Chicago Hot Dog Babka.

  4. Big chill? Not in this ‘Circle of Estrogen’

    It’s been 40 years since ‘The Big Chill’ examined the nature of lifelong bonds — the ones forged in college — that couldn’t survive the real world. In the case of 12 alumnae who met as U-M freshmen in 1985, those bonds remain as solid as the day they moved into Alice Lloyd Hall.

  5. The unsinkable Sarah E. Ray

    In 1945, Sarah Elizabeth Ray was denied passage on a ferry on the Detroit River because she was Black. She fought the injustice, became a civil rights activist, and her case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, her legacy is being preserved in a collection coming to the Bentley Historical Library.

  6. Genre-jumping Fulbright scholar takes a novel path

    Aspiring scientist Ariel Djanikian, MFA ’04, read the writing on the lab wall when she found herself prioritizing creative writing over her latest experiment. Her fascinating and often tragic family history informs a recurring theme in both of her novels: the obliteration of one group of people for the convenience of another.

  7. Michigan Central Station set to open in 2024 with U-M grad turning the key

    Michigan Central CEO Joshua Sirefman, MUP ’96, is confident this 30-acre mobility district will become a global hub for innovation. The historic but long-abandoned Michigan Central Station is an icon in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood.

  8. A Lifelong Dream

    Elizabeth James was just a toddler when her grandmother took her to a march in Detroit where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would deliver the “I Have a Dream” speech for the first time. Today she is a program manager with the LSA Department of Afroamerican and African Studies.

  9. A man and his bog

    Bogs have a reputation as soggy, inhospitable places teeming with insects and unseen hazards. But to Bryan Pfeiffer, BS ’80, they are sacred spaces brimming with life lessons and slow rewards. The 65-year-old ‘boy explorer’ is a Vermont-based field biologist, photographer, and nature writer with a passion for dragonflies, birds, and butterflies.