Ypsilanti Mayor Paul Schrieber was the recipient of the Community/University Collaboration Award presented by the Office of Academic Service-Learning, Nonprofit Leadership Alliance and the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Community in an awards luncheon held Friday.
Schrieber said he was confident Ypsilanti would not only survive, but was over the economic hump.
He acknowledged that while Ypsilanti’s manufacturing base is gone, Eastern Michigan University continues to be a major resource.
“Ypsilanti is transferring from a manufacturing town to a destination university town,” Schrieber said.
Schrieber also mentioned the tragedies and newfound collaboration between the university and city after the recent deaths of students Demarius Reed and Julia Niswender. Schreiber said the university had made a big investment but was confident that the net benefits of overlapping police jurisdiction would be very positive.
The luncheon was a celebration of community engagement projects accomplished in the previous academic year.
“This event is EMU’s opportunity to honor and celebrate the many collaborations between the University and the community,” The AS-L said in a press release.
Jessica ‘Decky’ Alexander is the campus director of the AS-L office.
“I’m always very grateful and always really amazed at the end of the semester,” Alexander said.
“The office of Academic Services-Learning has been at this institution for twenty years … It is a place that provides support and training for faculty training, to facilitate their training and cultivate community relations.”
Professor of public administration and director of the NLA program Claudia Petrescu praised the students participating in the program.
“The students are doing internships. They are also volunteering on a regular basis with the community organizations,” Petrescu said. “We adopt an organization per month that we have volunteering projects for.”
Awards given included the Dale Rice Award for Academic Innovation in AS-L and Community Engagement. Susan Badger Booth in Arts Management and Ethan Lowenstein in Teacher Education won it.
Daryl Holman Jr., a senior from Kalamazoo, received the John C Herron NLA Student Leadership Award.
“Daryl is ready to hit the ground running… As soon as he got involved a year ago, he got involved in everything,” Petrescu said.
Mentor 2 Youth, an organization intended to assist youth to a path to an academic institution, received the Outstanding NLA Internship Provider Award.
Heather Neff received the Outstanding NLA Advocate Award for her work as director of the McNair Scholars program. The McNair Scholars program assists students in completing their Bachelor’s degree, and aids them in gaining admission to graduate schools.
Mike Corbin from ACCESS organization received the Outstanding NLA Board Member Award.
The Haiti Nursing Foundation received the Student Funders Group Grant, a group of NLA students providing grants to the community. The group helps Haitian nurses get their education. It also helps them to stay in Haiti instead of staying in the United States.
The organization received a $5,000 grant.
“I’ve got a four-year-old laptop,” Marcia Lane, a representative for the Haiti Community nurses association representative said. “We never have enough money. And to apply to this grant, and to get it, is very exciting for us. We are very grateful.”
If you are interested in joining one or more of these programs, Petrescu and Alexander encouraged the audience to go to www.emich.edu/engage.
