Community Engagement and Public Service Activities

In Fall 2022, Spanish professors and RSO La Mezcla organized a field trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts, inviting community members from Brilliant Detroit.

The purpose of this course is to expose students to social entrepreneurship concepts and theories to help them learn how community leadership can facilitate the social entrepreneurship process for positive community change (i.e. social impact). This experiential learning course is designed for students who wish to integrate entrepreneurial problem-solving skills with strategic social innovation concepts to affect positive social change in underserved communities. This course appeals to students who have a strong desire to become, advise, or support social entrepreneurs, or work in a start-up, early stage, or entrepreneurial-minded company or community organization that creates positive social impact using a for-profit business model. Note that this is an academic service-learning (ASL)/Community-Engaged PBL (project-based learning) course, where students will interact with entrepreneurs and organizations in the community to develop a comprehensive business plan to address a pressing social problem.

Help Yourself Win Academy (HYA) is an afterschool program with a profound mission: to transform the lives of underprivileged elementary school children by establishing after-school academies on college campuses. HYA believes college should be an attainable expectation for all children, including those facing adversity. HYA aims to bridge this gap by providing the necessary support, knowledge, and skills to empower these young minds and unlock their potential.

Students from different classes at UM-Dearborn explored the empty historical prison known as the Ohio State Reformatory (OSR) or Mansfield Reformatory, located in Mansfield, Ohio in the United States.

The goal of this project is to widen the audience and enhance the impact of the workshop series "Arts and Agency from the Inside Out" (A&A), while also developing new partnerships-specifically with Inside-Out Literary Arts, and acclaimed Detroit-based program that brings creative writers into more than 100 schools and community settings every year. By doing fewer workshops with more intensive preliminary planning and cross-promotion, inviting a range of different participants, from public school students and teachers to police and state legislators, we intend to bring the transformative experience of IO/A&A to a bigger stage, while maintaining its intimacy.

GirlsGetMath@Dearborn is a summer mathematics program at the University of Michigan - Dearborn that is open to high school students who live in Southeast Michigan.

• GirlsGetMath@Dearborn invites high school students to explore topics in applied mathematics such as image processing, graph theory, mathematics of voting, recommendation systems, and cryptography. 

• Engaging and expert mathematical instruction expands participants' understanding and knowledge of mathematics through fun games, interactive lectures, experimentation and daily computer lab activities. 

• The non-competitive and affirming environment supports participants' confidence and interest in the mathematical sciences. 

• Students participate in a career panel in which they are introduced to a variety of career opportunities where sophisticated mathematical ability plays a key role. The panelists are successful women working in the STEM fields, and have included guests from MathWorks, TE Connectivity, NSA, Ally Financial and U of M - Dearborn.

• Also included in the program are information sessions about college applications and admissions, life in college, as well as a tour of our beautiful campus.

Mathematical topics explored in the program include Matrix Algebra, Recommendation Systems, Image Processing, Cryptology, Graph Theory, Apportionment, Voting Systems, and Group Testing. Students use the MATLAB programming language and Excel spreadsheets to apply and experiment with the new concepts they learn.

D-SHINES, a program dedicated to improving the health of school-aged and early childhood youth and their families in the Dearborn Public Schools district reaching 15 DPS elementary and middles schools and the district’s early childhood center. Through a combination of increased physical activity and healthy eating opportunities, garden builds, parent, principal, and teacher engagement, and policy and systems-level changes we will decrease risk factors for obesity and nutrition-related health problems and chronic diseases and create a culture of health in the Dearborn community.

To offer service opportunities in honor of King's legacy, UM-Dearborn hosted the annual MLK Day of Service and Week of Events, which is a partnership with Henry Ford College, on Jan. 15, 2024. There were several volunteer opportunities available on campus, in the community or remotely at home, with partner organizations such as Capuchin Soup Kitchen, Project Sunshine, Auntie Na's House, and more.