|
|
Associate Professor Diann Brei (front row standing, far left) with colleagues participating in the Michigan Road Scholars Program. |
This spring Associate Professor Diann Brei boarded a bus with 23 colleagues representing more than a dozen U-M departments, schools and campuses. The group was bound for a five-day tour of the state of Michigan as part of the university's Michigan Road Scholars Program.
Developed and run by the university's Office of State Outreach, the program provides participants with firsthand experiences of the state's economy, politics, culture, educational systems, health and social issues, history and geography. It is designed to increase mutual understanding among U-M and residents and communities throughout the state, including many from which students hail. Through the experience faculty learn how they can address state issues through their research, scholarship and creative endeavors.
Day one had participants touring the city of Detroit, nonprofit organizations and the GM Truck and Bus Plant; day two, the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing; day three, a furniture manufacturing plant and a correctional facility, both near Grand Rapids; day four, a cherry farm and business in northern Michigan. During day five, the group met with The Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians in the state's Upper Peninsula and then drove more than six hours back home.
Several experiences both on the bus and off made a strong impression on Brei, including conversations with the chief executive of Detroit nonprofit Focus: HOPE, workers at a manufacturing plant who had been told the evening prior to the group's arrival that the plant would soon close and several prison inmates. "They were all just so inspiring," said Brei.
Equally influential were the conversations she had with fellow travelers, "musicians, a poet, an architect, nurses, engineers. For a university that really treasures diversity, this was definitely a good experiment in that. You had 24 different perspectives. You learn about other projects going on at the university, things you have in common with others and areas that present unique challenges.
"You learn where you can bridge the gaps," she continued, referring to a collaboration she hopes will soon be underway among faculty members from the College of Engineering, the School of Music and the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning to design a course about creativity. "The outcome or product we produce might be different, but the notion of teaching students to visualize abstraction is very similar."
Participating in the program also left Brei with an "appreciation of the human cost" of some of the more challenging issues facing the state. "People are losing their jobs, and its clear that innovation and new technology are what's needed. We're the perfect people to help." She plans to emphasize that message with students too. "They're members of the community, and as part of the profession they can do something--they don't even have to wait until they're out of college."