College of Education, Health, and Human Services

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Sat, 04/26/2025 - 17:47

��-Dearborn awarded 1,074 degrees during three commencement ceremonies on April 26.

��-Dearborn's newest graduates celebrated at the April 26 commencement ceremonies. Photos by Matthew Stephens/Michigan Photography

The Administration Building and Social Sciences Building are getting makeovers

lblouin — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 12:24:20 +0000

The Administration Building and Social Sciences Building are getting makeovers lblouin Wed, 04/23/2025 - 08:24

Moving the College of Business and College of Education, Health and Human Services, both now housed in the Fairlane Center, to the main campus is one of the key parts of ��-Dearborn’s current Comprehensive Campus Plan. If all goes according to schedule, the faculty and administrative staff from CEHHS will make a move to what’s now the Administration Building in time for the Fall 2026 semester. (The building will also likely get a new name!) By late the following year, COB plans to take up residence in a renovated Social Sciences Building, much of which has been vacant ever since the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters brought its social science faculty to the CASL building a couple years ago, though some classes are still taught there.

Facilities teams will be kicking off one of the first big steps in that process in just a few weeks when they relocate administrative staff from the AB to temporary offices in the SSB in order to make way for construction teams. Director of Facilities Planning and Construction Emily Hamilton, who’s overseeing both projects, characterizes this as a more “modest” renovation than the recent overhaul of the Renick University Center’s first floor. But like that project, one of the guiding principles is to do a lot more within the same amount of space. Business Affairs will consolidate Financial Services and Student Accounts into the existing suite. All other administrative departments within the AB — the Chancellor’s Office, Provost’s Office, Office of Research, External Relations, Institutional Advancement and Alumni Engagement, and Human Resources — will be consolidated into the east wing of the building, making the west wing available for CEHHS. Hamilton says to accomplish that, the design teams are taking advantage of hybrid and remote work schedules, a dramatic decrease in the need for paper file storage, and shared reception areas, which have left many units needing less physical space. This new administrative wing of the building is also gaining a kitchen, a flexible meeting room space, a few flex offices and a copy room, all of which can be used by any of the administrative units.

Most of the renovation budget is being funneled into the CEHHS wing of the building, where the plan calls for new faculty offices, a dean’s suite, a college-level advising office, two classrooms, open student collaboration and lounge spaces, and several multipurpose spaces that faculty and staff can use for meetings or lunch breaks. Hamilton says that if the budget allows, the team is also planning to update the underutilized open space in the middle of the building. Cosmetically, the interior is getting new paint, carpet, ceilings and some modern sliding office doors like those in the renovated RUC, which save a lot of space compared to conventional in-swing doors.

A rendering of an open collaboration area in the renovated Administration Building. Credit: Neumann/Smith Architecture

The renovation of the SSB is currently in the early design phase, but Hamilton says they’re already discussing some exciting renovation ideas. On the exterior, the east side of the building will be getting a new, more welcoming entry. And inside, the team will be rethinking the two auditoriums. In conjunction with the Registrar's Office, the facilities team recently completed a space utilization study and found that there is diminishing need for this once-quintessential style of college classroom. (She says COB doesn’t use this classroom style at all anymore.) In a portion of these spaces, the plan calls for removing every other row of fixed theater seating so the new wider terraces can host fixed tables and moveable chairs, suitable for case study use. The design team is also investigating making a portion of these rooms ground level to house the college’s labs, including its flagship Bloomberg Lab. Similar to the lab’s current location in the Fairlane Center, you can expect lots of glass, so passersby can look in on the action. The SSB’s main hallway will also be widened to carve out more informal hangout and collaboration spaces for students, as well as space for events.

With both the AB and SSB, Hamilton says the facilities team has collaborated closely with the colleges to create designs that best serve their needs. Work on the AB is currently out for bid and will begin this summer. Because the SSB is being used to temporarily house the administrative units, work won’t start on that project until the AB renovation is complete.

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Want to learn more about ��-Dearborn’s plans to reshape its physical campus? Check out our recent story on the Comprehensive Campus Plan. Story by Lou Blouin

Faculty and Staff

University-wide

College of Business

Facilities Planning

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Wed, 04/23/2025 - 12:16

It’s been two decades since all four of ��-Dearborn’s colleges were on the main campus. One of the first big steps in the plan to bring COB and CEHHS back is kicking off in June.

The Administration Building is set to become the new home of the College of Education, Health and Human Services. The renovation includes several new informal hangout and collaboration spaces for students. Rendering by Neumann/Smith Architecture

Natalie Sampson named Distinguished Professor of the Year

lblouin — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 12:32:16 +0000

Natalie Sampson named Distinguished Professor of the Year lblouin Wed, 04/16/2025 - 08:32

Anyone who knows Natalie Sampson knows one of her more endearing (and perhaps Midwestern) traits is her reluctance to be in the spotlight — even when the attention is obviously due. Whenever we interview her about her work, which often has some connection to grassroots community organizations, she is quick to play up others’ hard work and contributions and lower the volume on her own. So it’s unsurprising that it's been a little uncomfortable for Sampson since the Michigan Association of State Universities shared that she had been selected as one of three Distinguished Professors of the Year for 2025. The news wasn't even public yet and Sampson was already sweating whether the invitations for her allotted guest list of seven for the Lansing awards ceremony should include her colleagues. "I didn’t want to bug them — ask them to drive to Lansing. They’re busy!” Sampson says, laughing. Luckily, her longtime friend and collaborator, the straight-talking Associate Professor of Sociology Carmel Price, told her to get over it. "She was, like, ‘They’re going to be upset if you don’t ask them.’”

Sampson’s aversion to attention is perhaps amplified a bit by the fact that, for much of her life, she’s not always been exactly comfortable in the world of academia. She says she definitely did not grow up with an eye on becoming an academic. Her father, who was an airline mechanic, and her mother, who was a customer service representative, grew up in an era where college degrees weren’t necessarily seen as prerequisites for solid, well-paying jobs. But both she and her older sister excelled in school, and their parents were huge cheerleaders when their daughters landed at the University of Michigan. In retrospect, Sampson sees it as a moment of generational transition in her own family — and one that also says something about the region. “My parents grew up at a time when it was Papa Ford and Papa Chevrolet, and people did quite well for a very long time without going to college,” Sampson says. “So for my family, this college thing was a different trajectory — especially because my sister studied sociology and I did environmental studies. I was lucky because my family was always very supportive. But I think there was this curiosity about what this would translate to.”

It took a little exploration during her undergraduate years at U-M to find her niche. Sampson says she gravitated to her major because she liked the outdoors, but not all of the coursework clicked: “I remember taking the woody plants class and memorizing all the different Latin names and the different kinds of acorns and thought, ‘Well, I’m definitely not going to be a conservationist,’” she says. However, through U-M’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, which is akin to ��-Dearborn’s Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, she found something that was a little more her speed. She got paired with a faculty member who was doing research around the health impacts of truck traffic on people living in neighborhoods near Detroit’s Ambassador Bridge. During her assignment, she got to talk with dozens of people in the neighborhood and witness some of the inner workings of grassroots community organizations. “I remember thinking, ‘This is research? If this is research, then I like research,’” she says.

It was indeed research — or a particular brand of research that was coming of age in the public health discipline at that time. Sampson says beginning in the late 1980s, some academics in the field were going through a bit of a what-is-it-all-for moment. There was an impulse to not simply use research to document, say, epidemiological trends, but to try to more deliberately use the data to actually improve, well, the public’s health. This sometimes meant interacting more directly with community organizations who were taking on big corporations or government agencies, or interrogating long-held assumptions about academic research, like the value or validity of “objectivity.” During her master’s program at Portland State University, Sampson got exposed to more examples of this kind of “action-oriented research.” During one of her internships, she collaborated closely with a small nonprofit that was working with residents on issues related to asthma. “I saw faculty listening to residents, and their experiences were shaping the research. I started to see, ‘Oh, this is how it works,’” she says.

Today, it’s easy to see the imprint of this approach on Sampson’s work. Along with Price and several partners, she co-created Environmental Health Research-to-Action, the flagship program of which is a summer academy that teaches high school students to do things like air and water quality monitoring, and to understand how environmental health science can support policy work. She’s also been working with community organizations and other academics on a plain language initiative, which is pushing government agencies like the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy to use language that is understandable to everyday people, so they don’t feel alienated from decision making processes. And a few years back, during the planning stages of the Gordie Howe International Bridge — a project that promised to bring a vast amount of truck traffic to a neighborhood already burdened by poor air quality — her team’s community health survey of residents in Southwest Detroit helped push the city and state to agree to a landmark $45 million community benefits package. That agreement included an unprecedented relocation program that provided some residents of Detroit’s Delray neighborhood with the option of moving to a renovated Detroit Land Bank home. In typical Sampson fashion, she’s quick to point out that, in her opinion, her work made an impact because the timing was right. “This result is 100% due to the fact that this group had been organizing for 10 or 20 years, but they took that data and used that to support their argument for this community benefits agreement,” she says. “At that moment, the data just fit into that story.” Now, she says, another group, which is trying to get the city to design truck routes that don’t go through residential neighborhoods is using similar data that their community-academic teams are continuing to collect. The organizers’ work recently prompted the city to propose a new truck route ordinance.

Several years ago, Valeria Cossyleon, right, and Janine Hussein, left, were among the students who helped Sampson collect door-to-door health surveys in Detroit's Delray neighborhood. Photo by Lou Blouin

That community organizations, who are good at community organizing, and academics, who are good at collecting and presenting data, could collaborate in practical ways to improve the public’s health is something that makes intuitive sense. But in practice, Sampson says it doesn’t always work smoothly. As she sees it, the key ingredient is trust: University researchers who aren’t from the community, and who might speak in technical jargon, are often greeted with a healthy degree of skepticism by local residents, who don’t know how durable or broad their allyship is. Sampson says there were plenty of times early in her career where her status as an academic made her feel out of place in community meetings. But that has changed over time — and because of time. Trust, she says, is built through relationships, and relationships don’t arise out of thin air. Nowadays, she rarely feels that kind of awkwardness, namely because she’s been working with the same communities for years, sometimes decades. “That’s one reason I feel like it’s been a blessing for me to come to ��-Dearborn. I got to come back and work with people that I worked with as an undergrad when I was 20 years old,” she says. “Simone Sagovac, who now runs the Southwest Detroit Community Benefits Coalition, I know I have a picture of us somewhere at some meeting and I’m 20 years old, and I have an eyebrow pierced, and I’m not dressed professionally. And now here we are, a couple decades later, and we’re older ladies, some of us with gray hair, still working together, still trying to collect the data, because there’s so much frickin’ work to do.”

In the classroom, Sampson is always nudging her students to think about the practical applications of environmental health science too. She says she’s benefited greatly from teaching the same two courses — Community Organizing and Introduction to Environmental Health — for years now, which has enabled her to continually refine the curriculum. One of her go-to assignments in her environmental health class is to ask each student to bring in their municipal drinking water quality report, which local utilities are required to provide to residents. It’s a simple but powerful prompt. For one, many students discover for the first time things about their drinking water that aren’t great. And even the sheer challenge of deciphering these technical reports reveals that government documents aren’t always presenting important scientific data in ways that are easily understood — which in turns, stunts residents’ abilities to push their public officials when there is a problem. And for many semesters in her community organizing course, it’s been a staple assignment for students to partner with community groups on practical projects, like a collaboration a few years ago where students helped a group in south Dearborn write a grant proposal to support their work around air quality. She also recently did something she thought she’d never do: create a textbook. It has a benign sounding name: “Environmental Health: Foundations for Public Health.” But the content, featuring contributions from a diverse range of leading voices in the field, is far edgier, emphasizing the broad scope of the discipline, including the community-based approaches that originally inspired her.

Now a couple decades into her own public health journey, Sampson senses she might be entering a moment of transition. She says it’s a little weird to look around and see that she’s now one of three senior faculty members in the Health and Human Services Department. One of her colleagues, who’s just a little younger than her, recently recoiled when she casually referred to them both as “middle age.” And she’s also increasingly interested in exploring other approaches in her quest to make environmental health science universally accessible, including ones that utilize the arts. She’s also feeling more of a generational divide in the classroom, especially the past few years. In particular, she’s observing an increasing reluctance of students to talk — “like, at all” — in class, something she attributes a little bit to COVID, but mostly to the fact that young people’s lives are increasingly lived online. It’s something she can sort of relate to. “I never talked in class as an undergrad,” she says. “And I’m definitely sympathetic to students who are feeling anxiety about that. But many of them are going to be clinicians. A huge part of their jobs is going to be talking to people. So you have to practice. Definitely, one of my biggest priorities as an instructor is just creating any opportunity to make them talk.”

She also tries to keep their spirits up. Public health can, frankly, be a depressing subject much of the time, and she does feel like younger generations are living with a different kind of weight on their shoulders as they realize most of their lives will be lived in the climate change era. During her periodic efforts to bring them up to speed on current events, she makes sure to find at least some good news from the world. And it’s now one of her standard assignments to challenge them to do something for their mental health. (This semester, they are listening to a playlist of songs, crowd-sourced from the class, that get them pumped up.) She concedes that this kind of positivity can sometimes be a “performance.” But it’s also something that keeps her own motor going. “It’s funny: Sometimes I feel like I’m just getting started. And some days I feel like I’m ready to retire!” she says. “But there are always opportunities to reinvent.”

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Story by Lou Blouin

Off

Wed, 04/16/2025 - 12:30

The associate professor of public health talks about her sometimes uncomfortable relationship with academia, the politics of community-centered research and the challenge of getting today’s students to talk in class.

Associate Professor of Public Health Natalie Sampson, far right, says she loves that she's been able to teach the same two courses for much of her career, which has allowed her to both experiment with and refine the curriculum. Photo by Annie Barker

Class of Spring 2025: CEHHS graduate Marjani Abdur-Rahman

lblouin — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 14:41:21 +0000

Class of Spring 2025: CEHHS graduate Marjani Abdur-Rahman lblouin Mon, 04/14/2025 - 10:41

Growing up, there was never much doubt that Marjani Abdur-Rahman would go to college. In fact, in high school, she dreamed, probably in more detail than most students, about what that experience would look like. Her mom, a social worker who graduated from Michigan State University, was her academic and professional role model, which is why Abdur-Rahman planned to major in clinical psychology. And she was excited to soak up many of the other quintessential parts of college life: living in the dorms, joining a sorority and partying on the weekends with her friends.

Abdur-Rahman enrolled at ��-Flint in 2008 and got off to a fast start. She took advantage of the fact that the university had just built on-campus housing and moved into the dorms. She declared a major in clinical psychology and a minor in Spanish. She also threw her energy into numerous student organizations — including lobbying successfully to charter a new chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho, a historically Black sorority, on the Flint campus. She was also intent on not taking on more debt than necessary, so she balanced a full-time course load with several part-time jobs: one at the university restaurant, another as an assistant manager at rue21 in the local mall, and a third working the night shift at a Speedway convenience store.

The night of Dec. 9, 2012, though, abruptly brought an end to that busy, but hopeful rhythm of life. Abdur-Rahman was out with her friend when they ran into the friend's ex-boyfriend. While they were at the club, Abdur-Rahman got into a heated argument with him over the man’s past treatment of her friend. Emotions were running high. Everyone had been drinking. At one point, Abdur-Rahman says she tried to get her friend to leave with her, but her friend wanted to see if she could smooth things over. The argument then escalated further, with the man threatening to pull a gun on Abdur-Rahman, at which point she went back to her car and retrieved a small knife from her glove compartment. She says she had no intention of using it; she thought it might get him to back down. But the argument intensified, the two yelling at each other until it reached an unimaginable moment: “Like a reflex,” Abdur-Rahman stabbed him once in the chest. After it happened, she didn’t think he was seriously injured, and she and her friend left in their car. But Abdur-Rahman learned later that he had died in the hospital. She was eventually arrested and charged with open murder, a crime carrying a potential life sentence. She ultimately agreed to a plea that reduced the charge to manslaughter, with a sentence of seven and a half to 15 years. In December 2013, after being held for 10 months at the Genesee County Jail, she began serving her sentence at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Ypsilanti, Michigan’s only women’s prison.

She says the first two years of being incarcerated were the most difficult. She describes herself as a “bubbly, fun-loving person,” but prison wasn’t a place where you could show that kind of emotion. Personal contact between people, for example, was prohibited. One day, upon seeing a friend who she knew was going through a difficult time, Abdur-Rahman reflexively reached out and embraced her — only to get sanctioned for sexual misconduct. And, of course, there was a hurricane of emotions to deal with: The guilt that came from being responsible for taking another person’s life. The nagging thoughts that if she hadn’t been drinking or hadn’t had a knife in her car that night, none of this would be happening. The fear of not knowing what the rest of her life would bring once she got out.

Even within that setting, Abdur-Rahman eventually found a rhythm. As she did when she was a college student, she participated in lots of clubs and activities in the prison. She practiced yoga and did strength and conditioning classes. She facilitated AA meetings and sang in the church choir. Through these activities, she says she developed a lot more compassion for people. “I used to be a very judgemental person, particularly with people who had substance abuse issues. I just thought, ‘Why don’t you stop? Why are you doing that to yourself?’” she says. “But after housing with a lot of women who had those issues, and speaking with them through AA and NA, I realized we had a lot in common, a lot of the same trauma. Sexual child abuse, divorced parents, abusive relationships. The only difference between me and these women is the way we coped.” She also met women who didn’t fit any of the common stereotypes of incarcerated people. People who didn’t have previous criminal records, histories of violence or challenges with addiction. People who she thought of as “good people,” who, like her, had made “one big mistake.”

At a certain point, Abdur-Rahman also started to regain some of the hope she once had for her future. She understood that it was going to be “damn near impossible to be a felon and be a psychologist,” but she started to think about adjacent careers, particularly in social work. While in prison, she met many inspiring, compassionate social workers. One woman even shared with her that she was also a felon and later got her degree. Later, when she saw that ��-Dearborn was offering free college classes in the prison and one of them was an introductory social work course, she didn’t hesitate to sign up. There, she learned just how broad the social work field was. She could be a therapist. A case worker. Someone who worked with people with addiction issues. There were even social workers who specialized in working with formerly incarcerated people. Some time after that, she saw a flyer for ��-Dearborn’s SOAR program, which provides an array of support services and scholarships for adult learners and returning students who are pursuing their first bachelor's degree. It all started giving her a feeling that her deferred college dreams maybe weren't out of reach.

When she was released on parole in June 2021, her initial hope was to return to ��-Flint, which was much closer to her home in Saginaw. But when that didn’t work out, she immediately thought of ��-Dearborn. She felt “ecstatic” the day she got the acceptance letter from the university, calculating that she could finish up in just a couple of years. But heading back to college after a 10-year break posed certain challenges. “When I got arrested, we were on iPhone 4. When I got out, it was iPhone 14,” she says, adding that the tech learning curve was a bit steep. In prison, even in college classes, she could only use pen and paper. Now, students lived attached to their laptops and tracked assignments, grades and discussion groups via online learning management systems. You could even take most of your classes virtually if you wanted to. Being in a college classroom was also a bit of a culture shock. “I went from taking college classes where everyone’s in their prison garb and all you have is your pencil and paper. And, now, here I am in a classroom wearing normal clothes with a bunch of normal people. You know no one’s psychic. But you still sort of have that paranoia, like, do these people know? Can they tell? Would anyone take the time to Google me?”

At first, Abdur-Rahman says she didn’t tell anybody anything about her past. But gradually, over time, she got more comfortable talking about her experience. She credits a lot of that to her involvement in the Prison Creative Arts Project, a long-running U-M program that brings creative arts workshops into prisons. When she got out, she stayed involved with PCAP’s Linkage Community for returning citizens. She jokes that both programs have kind of made her a poster child. “I’m all over the website,” she says, noting that it’s difficult to put yourself out there like that and not end up talking about your story, at least certain parts of it. Last semester, she really stepped out of her comfort zone. The instructor of her Vulnerable Populations course, Assistant Professor of Health and Human Services Vitalis Im, who’s been working with the PCAP program for years, asked whether she’d be interested in doing a class presentation on her prison experience and some of the challenges of her post-prison life. “I was really scared to do that. I didn’t want any of my peers to look at me differently, to change their whole mindset of me. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I think people see me as a likeable, friendly person, and I didn’t want those qualities to be overlooked after sharing my story,” she says. But Abdur-Rahman says sort of the opposite happened. Afterward, she got several comments from her fellow students, basically sharing their admiration for her ability to stay so positive. And she says it’s still hard to talk about what Im’s respect and validation has meant to her without tearing up. “He’s somebody who’s only recently become part of my journey, who’s rooting for me, and wants me to succeed and has my best interests at heart,” she says. “He knows I’m a good person that just made a bad decision.”

As Abdur-Rahman approaches her graduation, she says she’s filled with a mix of emotions. On the one hand, she’s obviously feeling a huge sense of accomplishment and is excited to share the moment with all the people who’ve stuck by her. On the other hand, she’s worried about the very real possibility that her past could still get in the way of her dreams for her future. She frequently gets some reminder of that. Right now, she’s living with her mom in Saginaw, which she’s doing, in part, because her mom has some health problems. But now that she’s finishing her degree, she’d love to get her own apartment, maybe move to a new city. She knows, however, that she’ll probably have to find a place that doesn’t require a background check. And just recently, while working at one of her jobs, a sales floor position at a national chain store, her manager asked if she could chat with her in the office. The manager explained that her background check had been flagged and that a woman on the phone from the company’s HR department wanted to ask her some questions about the events of Dec. 9, 2012. Put on the spot at work, Abdur-Rahman took the phone and calmly explained what had happened, as well as all the things she has been doing with her life since. She also noted that if the job application had asked about criminal history, which she says it did not, she would have volunteered that information. After the phone call, she then turned to her manager, who had heard the conversation, and expressed that she hoped that she didn’t think differently of her now. The manager responded that she did not, and reiterated what an excellent worker she was and that if it was up to her, she'd be happy to send Abdur-Rahman right back to work. Nonetheless, she was going to be suspended pending a decision from HR, though she ultimately got to keep her job. “That’s just sort of my reality now,” she says. “I feel like no matter how hard I try, it’s two steps forward, and then five steps back. It’s hard not to get discouraged, but I’m trying to stay positive.”

Going forward, Abdur-Rahman still very much desires to have what she calls a “big girl job,” which she defines as “a job of substance with good pay and a 9 to 5.” Ideally, she wants to find a position where she can help people with substance abuse issues. But she also anticipates it will be hard for many employers — even those in the social work field — to look beyond her past, especially if they have other talented candidates they could hire. She also knows she’ll likely need to continue her education. A bachelor’s degree in the field doesn’t take you as far as it used to, which is why she’s applied to ��-Ann Arbor’s master of social work program. She recently received news that she’s been put on an alternates list. “So it’s not a ‘no’ and not a ‘yes,’” she says. She should know in a couple months whether she got in. Some parts of her life are still a waiting game.

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Story by Lou Blouin

Student Success

Off

Mon, 04/14/2025 - 14:41

As she approaches a milestone that once seemed out of reach, the health and human services major is trying to not let the worst mistake of her life define the rest of it.

Photo by Annie Barker

Meet the Spring 2025 CECS and CEHHS Medallion winners

lblouin — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 12:45:24 +0000

Meet the Spring 2025 CECS and CEHHS Medallion winners lblouin Mon, 04/07/2025 - 08:45

This year’s Dean’s Medallion winners from the College of Engineering and Computer Science and College of Education, Health and Human Services are an inspiring bunch — with stories about everything from participating in advanced biomedical research to conquering the unique challenges of returning to college in your 30s as a single parent.

The award recognizing students' academic achievements, leadership and contributions to the community is given to three students in each college, with one student receiving the Chancellor’s Medallion, the university’s top student honor. Here are the Spring 2025 Medallion winners from CECS and CEHHS. You can also meet the awardees from the College of Business and College of Arts, Sciences and Letters, including this year’s Chancellor’s Medallion winner.

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Shams Fatma Ahson

Degree: Bachelor of Science in cybersecurity and information assurance (cybersecurity and privacy concentration), minor in law and society; certificate in practical aspects of computer security (2024)

Awards, Honors and Distinction: ��-Dearborn Difference Maker (2024); James B. Angell Scholar (2023, 2024); William J. Branstrom Freshman Prize; Dean’s List (F21-F24); University Honors (F21-F24), Honors Scholar (2025)

Scholarships: Alan Mulally Leadership in Engineering Scholarship (2023)

Academic Achievements and Internships: Shams has excelled through high-impact academic and professional experiences in cybersecurity, demonstrating technical expertise, leadership and innovation. Shams’ outstanding leadership was recognized with the 2023 Alan Mulally Leadership in Engineering Scholarship, a competitive award honoring students worldwide for exceptional leadership in academic or community settings. Shams conducted research in the Information Systems, Security and Forensics Lab under the supervision of Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Hafiz Malik. She played a pivotal role in implementing an automotive ethernet testbench featuring simulated electronic control units. Shams also led the CanQuest capstone project, where her team developed a mixed-reality cybersecurity game to educate engineers on protecting CAN bus communication. Shams served as a supplemental instruction leader beginning in January 2022, supporting her peers and reinforcing her own mastery of complex cybersecurity concepts. Shams has also been a cybersecurity testing intern at ETAS since May 2023 and served as a product cybersecurity intern at Bosch from May 2022 to May 2023.

Extracurricular and Community Projects: Google Developer Student Club (president); Women in Cybersecurity (chapter president); co-led CECS’ 2025 Engineering Week

As president of the Google Developer Student Club, Shams helped secure over $100,000 in funding for campus hackathons attended by students across Michigan, the Midwest and Canada. As co-lead of Engineering Week, she helped launch several innovative initiatives, including two new engineering games. In Chefgineering, student organizations formed teams to build a common solution using mystery “ingredients.” In the Engineering Escape Room, teams tackled a series of puzzles, such as decoding Morse code signals and reverse-engineering a Caesar cipher, to unlock the key and “escape” the room. “Shams is an expert organizer and an inspirational leader. She is quick to volunteer for community outreach activities, especially those that help make STEAM more accessible to younger students,” observed Professor of Computer and Information Science Bruce Maxim.

Future Plans: Shams’ ultimate career goal is not just to be a CEO within the cybersecurity industry, but to be a great leader who reflects the values, ambitions and spirit of her community.

Hawraa Ismail

Degree: Bachelor of Science in Engineering in computer engineering

Awards, Honors and Distinction: Dean’s Honors List at the Lebanese International University, Lebanon (F22); ��-Dearborn Honors Scholar (2023)

Academic Achievements and Internships: Hawraa has actively contributed to projects spanning safety, technology and education throughout her college years. Such experiences have allowed Hawraa to develop innovative solutions, mentor emerging talent and give back to the community. In her two-semester capstone project, Hawraa led the development of an accident alert system that detects risky driving behaviors and delivers real-time alerts. By integrating multiple sensors with advanced artificial intelligence models, this system significantly enhances driver safety. In the Embedded Systems course, Hawraa engineered a GPS-based speed limit warning system that notifies drivers when they exceed limits in designated zones, further demonstrating her passion for technology-driven safety innovations.

Extracurricular and Community Projects: Peer tutor at the Engineering Learning Center; Michigan Aeronautical Science Association hardware and avionics team member; Eternal Light Organization volunteer

In her role as a peer tutor, Hawraa assisted students with programming, circuit design and problem-solving, boosting their confidence in challenging engineering subjects. “Hawraa has jumped in with both feet to support our students. Hawraa needs no supervision as she is a self-starter and wants to assist where she can. She enjoys sharing her knowledge of the electrical and computer engineering course material and you can hear her passion in her voice,” observed Elizabeth Edenstrom, assistant director of the ELC. With MASA, Hawraa helped develop flight telemetry system software. Her contributions included creating a real-time data monitoring dashboard that automates flight operations and streamlines data processing. Hawraa also served as a student staff member at the university’s Early Childhood Education Center, where she supported classroom activities and helped craft engaging learning experiences for young children.

Future Plans: Hawraa plans to leverage her expertise in embedded systems and artificial intelligence safety applications to develop smart systems that enhance community welfare and drive technological innovation. She envisions pursuing industry roles in embedded security, earning relevant certifications and advancing her graduate studies to further specialize in this field. Ultimately, Hawraa aims to earn a PhD and become a professor, using her experience as a peer tutor at the ELC to inspire and empower students. Her commitment to giving back stems from her gratitude toward ��-Dearborn, an institution that has profoundly shaped her journey and one that she hopes others will also experience.

Nicole Kormos

Degree: Bachelor of Science in Engineering in bioengineering

Awards, Honors and Distinction: Dean’s List (F21-F24); William J. Branstrom Prize; James B. Angell Scholar (2023); University Honors (F21-W23, W24); Honors Scholar (2024) Scholarships: Chancellor’s Scholarship; Honors Scholarship; James and Jeraldine Poe Research Assistantship

Academic Achievements and Internships: Nicole’s academic excellence drive extends beyond the classroom. During her studies, Nicole actively pursued a series of research projects, all aimed at understanding the male predominance observed in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Her research focuses on investigating sex-based differences in the mechanical responses of pulmonary fibroblasts — a challenging endeavor that has led her to achieve significant new results while mastering advanced techniques such as cell culture, qPCR, cell staining and imaging. What began as a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience project at ��-Dearborn following her junior year evolved into an ongoing project supported by the James and Jeraldine Poe Research Assistantship during her senior year. Nicole presented her findings as a poster at both the SURE Showcase and the Biomedical Engineering Society Research Symposium, where her project earned second place. Her promising results are slated for submission for publication at the end of the Winter 2025 semester. “Nicole is an exceptional student whose dedication and work ethic set her apart. As an undergraduate researcher, she not only excels in her own experiments but also goes above and beyond to support and train others, demonstrating leadership beyond her years. She is truly a rock star in every sense, and her future in research is incredibly bright,” observed Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Caymen Novak. Besides her commitment to advancing bioengineering research, Nicole served as a lab assistant for the Biosensors and Instrumentation course, further demonstrating her commitment to advancing research and her field.

Extracurricular and Community Projects: Society of Women Engineers; Biomedical Engineering Society; Tau Beta Pi, the Engineering Honor Society, Michigan Iota chapter (vice president, media coordinator)

Nicole’s involvement in Tau Beta Pi will be recognized at the chapter’s initiation this semester, where she will be invested into the chapter for her significant contributions as a leader.

Future Plans: Nicole plans to continue her education in the PhD program in materials science and engineering at ��-Ann Arbor. Her dissertation research will be on functional materials and biomaterials. Following graduation, she plans to pursue a career in applied research in the field of application of biomaterials to medical devices and wearable technology.

College of Education, Health and Human Services

Chaymaa Nehme

Degree: Bachelor of Science in health and human services (social work concentration)

Awards, Honors and Distinction: University Honors (W24, F24); Dean’s List (F23-F24)

Academic Achievements and Internships: Chaymaa has demonstrated academic excellence at ��-Dearborn, earning a place on the Dean’s List as an honors student every semester since transferring from Henry Ford College in Fall 2023. Passionate about community engagement, she partnered with the Dearborn Public Health Department on a tree equity project through one of her courses, focusing on environmental justice and sustainability. Through this initiative, Chaymaa engaged with the community in meaningful ways, addressing disparities in tree coverage and advocating for greener, healthier neighborhoods. This included taking the initiative to translate all social media posts about the program into Arabic, greatly increasing the outreach of the posts to target communities.

Extracurricular and Community Projects: Seeking to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others, in addition to her academic achievements, Chaymaa has been actively involved in community service through organizing initiatives, supporting public service programs and by contributing to outreach efforts. These experiences have reinforced her passion for civic engagement and dedication to advocating for inclusive and equitable communities. Chaymaa remains committed to using her skills and knowledge to drive positive social change through social impact and advocacy, integrating psychology, sociology, and health and human services into her work in order to create meaningful change in both individual lives and broader communities. Assistant Professor of Health and Human Services Finn Bell, who taught Chaymaa in two courses, stated, “Chaymaa is consistently one of the most engaged students, who regularly makes connections for how the materials connect to ‘the real world.’ Chaymaa is an exemplar of what it means to be a good academic citizen with noteworthy curiosity and impeccable integrity.”

Future Plans: Chaymaa currently works at a school as part of the administration team. Following graduation, she plans to apply her knowledge and social work skills to support both students and staff. Her goal is to create a positive environment, providing resources and assistance to help students thrive academically and emotionally. She remains passionate about using her social work education and experiences to build a supportive school community and to make a meaningful impact in the lives of those she works with.

Darci O’Neil

Degree: Bachelor of Science in health and human services (public health concentration)

Awards, Honors and Distinction: University Honors (W24, F24); Dean’s List (F23-F24)

Academic Achievements and Internships: Darci has demonstrated academic excellence at ��-Dearborn, earning a place on the Dean’s List as an honors student every semester since transferring in Fall 2023 and receiving University Honors in both Winter and Fall 2024. Prior to attending ��-Dearborn, Darci was a student at both Schoolcraft College and Wayne State University. “Before returning to school as a single mom in my 30s, I was a perpetual college dropout and thought that school just wasn’t for me,” Darci said. Initially, she returned with the intention of only completing certification for her pharmacy technician license. Once introduced to the idea of public health, however, she realized that she had a passion for the field. A six-month certification turned into an opportunity to participate in research with cancer patients and she ultimately continued on for her BS. Darci completed a capstone course project and has continued to work with Associate Professor of Health Communication Nick Iannarino on a research project looking at young adult cancer programs and how they address social support needs. Her contributions have included interviewing health care professionals and analyzing data. Health and Human Services Lecturer Timothy Michling, who has taught Darci, stated, “I’ve very much enjoyed working with Darci. She has a combination of intelligence, determination and compassion that will make her a tremendously effective public health professional.”

Extracurricular and Community Projects: Peer mentor with Wolverine Mentor Collective; Public Health Society (treasurer)

Future Plans: Darci is currently seeking a position in the field of epidemiology and plans to gain work experience before seeking a master’s degree. Darci believes that some experience in the field will help her decide whether to seek further education in epidemiology or, possibly, in public health policy.

Assma Ali Said

Degree: Bachelor of Arts in children and families

Awards, Honors and Distinction: University Honors (W24, F24); Dean’s List (F23-F24)

Academic Achievements and Internships: Prior to attending ��-Dearborn, Assma was a student at Henry Ford College and Wayne State University. While studying at ��-Dearborn, Assma participated in two internships: M&M Academy Great Start Readiness Program classroom in Fall 2024 and a ��-Dearborn Early Childhood Education Center practicum in Winter 2023.

Extracurricular and Community Projects: Assma volunteers at a local mosque and helps organize events during Ramadan to promote unity, spiritual growth and community support. One such initiative is Girls Night, a women-only event designed to foster a sense of belonging and empowerment, especially for women who face cultural and social challenges. In addition, Assma provides tutoring for preschool students after school, helping them build foundational skills while fostering a love for learning. For the past three years, this role has enabled her to support young children in the community, ensuring they feel seen, heard and encouraged to thrive. She is committed to using her skills and story to uplift others and create lasting change within the Arab and Muslim communities. Assma believes her personal journey has empowered her to create positive change and advocate for those who may feel marginalized or unheard. She strives to create a space where women can come together, share their experiences and find strength in each other.

Future Plans: Following graduation, Assma plans to further her education by pursuing a master’s degree in early childhood education, with the goal of becoming a professor and educator who can make a lasting impact in the field. Her experience as a preschool teacher has ignited a deep passion for shaping young minds and she wants to contribute to the development of innovative educational practices that can be implemented in classrooms across the country.

Awards

Student Success

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Off

Mon, 04/07/2025 - 12:45

Three students from each college are being recognized with the Dean’s Medallion for their outstanding academic achievements, leadership and contributions to the community.

Spring 2025 Commencement: A guide to the big day

lblouin — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 11:58:30 +0000

Spring 2025 Commencement: A guide to the big day lblouin Wed, 04/02/2025 - 07:58

More than 1,000 graduates will earn degrees at next month’s commencement ceremony on April 26. As in past years, the full day of spring graduation festivities will be split into three ceremonies. Undergraduates from the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters and College of Business kick things off at 9 a.m., followed by undergrads from the College of Education, Health and Human Services and College of Engineering and Computer Science at 1 p.m. The final ceremony for doctoral and graduate students from all four colleges is at 5 p.m.

Here are a few more good-to-knows for the big day.

Speakers

James Scapa, a graduate of Columbia University and an ’83 U-M MBA grad, will be the featured speaker at both undergraduate ceremonies. Scapa is founder, chair and CEO of Altair, a global leader in computational intelligence software and technology. He founded the company in 1985 with two partners when he was just 25 years old. Altair now employs more than 3,000 scientists, engineers and creative thinkers across 28 countries and serves more than 16,000 customers across a broad range of industries, including automotive, aerospace, government and defense, finance, energy, technology, life sciences, architecture and construction. Under Scapa’s leadership, Altair also sponsored the #OnlyForward Scholarship, which awarded $25,000 scholarships to ��-Dearborn students pursuing a four-year degree in computer science or engineering.

Tim Yerdon, an executive leader with SAE Industry Technologies Consortia, will be the featured speaker at the 5 p.m. ceremony for graduate students. Yerdon is an experienced mobility leader with a track record of driving breakthrough technology change through collaboration and innovative thinking. He holds a key role within SAE International, a global association of more than 128,000 engineers and related technical experts in the automotive, aerospace and commercial vehicle industries. Prior to SAE, Tim ran the consulting firm Plymouth Technology Advisors, after serving in executive positions with Ford Motor Co. and Visteon Corp. At Ford, he served on the company's dedicated team for electric vehicles, which developed the Mustang Mach-E SUV, F-150 Lightning truck and E-Transit van. He also chairs ��-Dearborn’s CECS Industry Advisory Board.

Asil Khanafer, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in behavioral and biological sciences, with a minor in applied arts, is the student speaker at the two undergraduate ceremonies. During her time at ��-Dearborn, Khanafer was president of both the Pre-Professional Health Society and the Lebanese Diaspora Relief Organization, as well as vice president of the National Arab American Medical Association student chapter. In addition, she conducted research on bonobo cognition as a research assistant in Associate Professor of Psychology Francine Dollins’ lab. She also served as a chemistry and psychology supplemental instruction leader and vice chair of the Student Organization Allocation Council. Khanafer plans to pursue a career in veterinary medicine and will continue her studies at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in the fall.

Mohsen Chaaban, who is graduating from ��-Dearborn with a Master of Science in cybersecurity and information assurance, will address his fellow graduate students at the 5 p.m. ceremony. Chaaban earned his bachelor’s at ��-Dearborn in 2023 and currently works as a software controls engineer at General Motors. Throughout his time at the university, he actively engaged in student organizations and mentorship programs. During his undergraduate years, he was a member of Student Organization Account Services, where he helped student organizations with financial services and event planning. He has also been active in community service efforts in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, taking part in initiatives such as toy drives, as well as Easter and Ramadan essential drives.

Commencement stats

This spring, the university is awarding a total of 1,067 degrees to 1,049 graduates. Among undergraduates, the youngest is just 17 years old and the oldest is 68. The average undergraduate GPA is 3.4. Spring graduates represent 26 Michigan counties and 13 states.

Tickets

Each student receives four tickets to their ceremony for guests. Graduating students participating in the ceremony do not need a ticket for themselves. Students can currently pick up tickets at the One Stop, located on the first floor of the Renick University Center, Monday-Wednesday and Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and Thursday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Students must show their Mcard or government-issued ID (driver's license or passport) and a receipt that they purchased their cap and gown to pick up tickets. All guests at the commencement ceremonies must have a ticket, except for children under 2 who will be sitting on the lap of a guest. Tickets can also be placed at Will Call and picked up the day of the ceremony.

Students should email umd-commencement@umich.edu with the number of tickets they would like held (up to four). All tickets must be claimed (either picked up or Will Call request) by Friday, April 11. Those who don’t need all their tickets can pick up their tickets and give them to friends or classmates who need additional tickets. Students can also return tickets they will not need to the One Stop so other students can claim them. Students are not permitted to sell tickets. More information about extra tickets will be shared on Monday, April 14.

Volunteering

If you are a staff member and would like to volunteer at the ceremonies, please email Campus Event Planner Mandy Earl. Tasks include distributing Will Call tickets, checking in graduates, helping direct the crowd and other activities.

How to watch

If you won't be attending commencement in person, you can still watch online on the university’s YouTube page.

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Still have more questions about Spring 2025 Commencement? Check out the university’s commencement page. Story by Lou Blouin

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

University-wide

College of Business

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Off

Wed, 04/02/2025 - 11:58

Meet the commencement speakers and get ceremony details for the April 26 festivities.

This spring, the university is awarding a total of 1,067 degrees to 1,049 graduates. Photo by Michigan Photography

Serving women who’ve served their country

stuxbury — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 18:08:46 +0000

Serving women who’ve served their country stuxbury Wed, 03/26/2025 - 14:08

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bipartisan bill to create a Michigan license plate for women veterans last November. The request for the license plate came from women veterans themselves — and grew from a ��-Dearborn-facilitated effort.

Students Katie Dreher and Hannah Stovall participated in the “Same Mission, Many Stories: Dialogues with Women Veterans” project at ��-Dearborn. They helped facilitate conversations with women veterans, giving them opportunities to share their experiences and listen to the stories of others. The students shared their findings at the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency’s Women Veterans Conference in fall 2023.

“We presented a list of what women veterans wanted during a statewide veterans conference, including the license plate,” Dreher says. “These women have already given so much. I was proud to give them a voice in front of all those people.”

“Same Mission, Many Stories” — an initiative of Michigan Humanities’ Community Conversations program — took place at ��-Dearborn and Saginaw Valley State University in 2023 and included women veterans from all branches of the military.

At ��-Dearborn, 25 metro Detroit-area veterans participated in facilitated discussions — led by Professor of Sociology Francine Banner, Professor of Health and Human Services Lisa Martin and students — about challenges they faced while serving in the military. ��-Dearborn’s Veterans Affairs Coordinator Tom Pitock reached out through his many military service-related networks across the state to let women veterans know about this opportunity.

Professor of Sociology Francine Banner

Martin — who is also ��-Dearborn’s Women and Gender Studies program director — says the “Same Mission, Many Stories” project not only reached policymakers, it also documented the history of challenges facing women veterans. “We need to record these narratives to better understand people’s life experiences so that they can be properly addressed. With the erasure that is happening in today’s society, work like this is so important. We don’t want to lose history, even when it’s a difficult topic to look at. We need to learn from it,” says Martin, noting that all participating veterans were assured anonymity since many of them talked about traumatic experiences.

“These veterans have experienced difficult emotional fallouts from their workplace that includes silence, shame and isolation. Sharing stories in a group setting builds connection and trust and reduces isolation,” Martin continues.

Stovall, a senior who transferred to ��-Ann Arbor last year and is majoring in public health, says the six weeks of facilitation training and practice she received prepared her to guide discussions. Stovall learned methods to move conversations forward in engaging and productive ways, such as using open-ended prompts, demonstrating nonverbal cues like nodding, and redirecting discussions when they stray too far from the topic at hand. For example, Stovall and Dreher used a picture of a service person coming home from deployment and being greeted by family to encourage the veterans to open up about their experiences. Martin notes that this technique is one way to spark a deep, complex conversation without making any one person’s feel too vulnerable.

Professor of Health and Human Services Lisa Martin

Banner — who, along with Martin, supported the students during the sessions — says the photo elicited feelings of reconnection and concerns about reacclimation. It also brought up challenges women veterans face after coming home. “The need for child care and women's health care services was frequently brought up,” she says. “Many of the conversations had a similar theme — there need to be more resources that focus on the needs of women veterans.”

There are more than 230,000 women actively serving in the military today. “Women are serving in combat zones in very dangerous situations. When looking at the contemporary military and the women who are actively serving, that’s more than 17 percent, but they are still marginalized and their service is not recognized at the same level,” Banner says. “But they have challenges that men do not because they have to navigate a very masculine environment while in the service and afterward when working with the VA. As more women continue to join the military and serve their country, it’s important to look at ways to help these service members and veterans be supported and seen.”

Other recurring themes in the conversations included sexual harassment and assault, the improper fit of male-designed equipment, the job pressures of post-pregnancy weight loss, a lack of women-focused health care services and interacting with people who assume a male partner is the veteran.

Ashley Ross, the former director of programs and a current facilitator with Michigan Humanities, says the work that took place at ��-Dearborn impacted programming across the state. “During the 2023 conference, the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency took note. They realized that these conversations were getting people to listen and to share their needs. The MVAA became interested in expanding this work,” she says.

A second phase of the project will expand to all 10 of the MVAA’s regions — which covers the entire state — and will include additional underrepresented populations in the military. Banner will continue to be involved with the program as an advisor. “We are going to use the dialogue model we used at ��-Dearborn and expand it so we can bring different voices into the conversation, for example the experiences of African American veterans and LGBTQ veterans,” Banner says.

Ross says the intent is to continue to connect veterans with government agencies and policymakers. “We know that change cannot always be made, especially right away,” Ross says. “But if people listen to each other and a trust is built, more productive conversations can take place that can lead to a place of understanding. This project shows how important it is just to be heard and acknowledged.”

And that is where the license plate — which will be out in November 2025, according to the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency — comes in.

“The women wanted a license plate because it is one tangible way for these veterans to feel seen. One veteran told us about how she has a standard veterans license plate on her car and people often tell her to thank her husband for his service. When she shared her story, others said the same thing had happened to them,” says Dreher, who graduated with a degree in psychology last semester and is preparing for graduate school while working as a Michigan School of Medicine Research Assistant intern in pediatric neuropsychology.

Dreher and Stovall saw how beneficial the “Same Mission, Many Stories” project was and say it was a memorable experience that will guide them as they enter therapy-based careers in health settings.

“With a future career in public health, I want to learn about different interventions that benefit people — and veterans are such a huge part of the population,” Stovall says. “Hearing the experiences these women have had let me know that extra support is needed to lift them up. The ‘Same Mission, Many Stories’ program helped me see how I could do that by creating a community, encouraging people to share their stories and advocating for their needs.”

Story by Sarah Tuxbury

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Behavioral Sciences

RSVP: Working towards Environmental Justice

Off

Wed, 03/26/2025 - 18:08

“Same Mission, Many Stories” gave women veterans a safe place to share their experiences and needs, while providing ��-Dearborn students with therapy-based skills to use in their future careers.

Students Hannah Stovall, left, and Katie Dreher participated in the “Same Mission, Many Stories" project. In this 2023 photo, they presented at the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency’s Women Veterans Conference. Photo by Lisa Martin

Time is NOW: Working Towards Environmental Justice

shumwong — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 20:34:38 +0000

Time is NOW: Working Towards Environmental Justice shumwong Fri, 03/21/2025 - 16:34

Learn about current challenges and opportunities for ensuring a healthy environment for all in Metro Detroit.

Light refreshments will be provided. Open to all!

Limited Capacity. RSVP now!

2025-04-08T18:00:00-0400 to2025-04-08T19:30:00-0400

Environmental Interpretive Center

EIC

4901 Evergreen Rd
Dearborn, MI 48128
United States

https://goo.gl/maps/XpZNtb71UUrNfWTQ8

��-Dearborn Environmental Interpretative Center

United States

On Campus

��-Dearborn Environmental Interpretative Center and College of Education, Health, Human Services

Natalie Sampson - nsampson@umich.edu

Everyone

Environmental Interpretive Center

Environmental Health and Safety

Class project sparks new student club for future educators

lblouin — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 11:39:03 +0000

Class project sparks new student club for future educators lblouin Wed, 03/19/2025 - 07:39

Identifying and creating a solution for a real community need is one of Education Professor Chris Burke’s go-to project-based learning assignments in his place-based education course. Students form small groups and then brainstorm ideas, after which they pitch them to the larger group and the class votes on which project they’ll work on that semester. During the Fall 2024 semester, when McKenna Shelide was a student in the course, her small group came up with an idea to start a student organization for pre-service teachers. “It’s kind of surprising, but there wasn’t a club for us. And we really thought there was so much we could be doing,” Shelide says. Students ended up picking another idea for their class project. But after class, Burke pulled Shelide and the other students in her group aside and told them if they were really serious about starting a club, he could connect them with some folks who could help. Shelide and the other students jumped on the idea, and within a couple weeks, they had their own campus chapter of Aspiring Educators, the student arm of the National Education Association and Michigan Education Association.

Shelide, who’s currently serving as the group’s president, says one of their primary goals is to provide learning and professional development opportunities that complement their formal coursework, and the affiliation with the MEA has proven to be an effective way to do that. For example, at one of the club’s first meetings, a representative from the MEA talked about the ins and outs of teachers unions. And last November, the students attended an MEA conference that included sessions like “The Tea on Teaching,” which featured early-career teachers sharing their honest takes on finding their footings in the profession. Kamryn McCutcheon, the club’s vice president, says she found the session on prep for the state certification exam particularly helpful. “We got to talk through some sample questions, what to expect on test day and how the exam is going to be laid out,” McCutcheon says. “It’s obviously pretty stressful thinking about that test because you have to pass in order to get a job. So it just makes you feel better going into it when you know what to expect.”

Shelide and McCutcheon say the club is also focusing on service projects. For example, for Valentine’s Day, they got together to make homemade valentines for children in foster care. And they recently received a $2,000 grant from the NEA to partner with an elementary school in Allen Park to fulfill a student and teacher “wish list” of supplies and resources. Shelide says these service projects are obviously about giving back. But they also provide a venue for visiting schools, networking with teachers and getting more practical experience working with kids.

For one of their recent service projects, members of Aspiring Educators made valentines for children in foster care. Photo by Serena Cowette

Of course, the group is also providing some much needed camaraderie. Teaching is not the easiest profession to be going into these days. It’s demanding and stressful, the pay isn’t great and the hyper-partisan politics in America have spoiled some of the trust that used to exist between parents, teachers and students. With all of those challenges, Shelide says you have to really want to do it, and having a solid group of people around you who have similar worries and aspirations helps a lot. “My mom was a teacher and she had such a great group of friends at her school and I always kind of hoped I’d have the same thing — like, the people you go to chat with after the bell rings,” Shelide says. “With this club, I’ve met a bunch of great friends. Really, Kamryn’s probably like, ‘Can this girl stop texting me?’ So to be able to share your excitement — or if you need to complain about something — it’s just been so nice to have this group to rely on.”

Burke is excited to see the group is taking root. Student clubs can be hard to maintain long term, and he says the college has had a few iterations of student groups for pre-service teachers over the years. But those were all organized by faculty and failed to gain enough traction with students. “I think that’s the main reason you’re seeing a lot more success with this group. They have this core group of members and now they’re connecting with their classmates and friends, so you have this natural networking effect,” Burke says. “Plus, because it’s coming from them, they know what they need. We faculty have good intentions, but we can just kind of make guesses at it.”

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Story by Lou Blouin. If you want to learn more about the club, email McKenna Shelide.

Campus Life

Volunteer or Community Service