Io Triumphe! Spring-Summer 2015

Io Triumphe!

THE MAGAZINE FOR ALUMNI AND FRIENDS OF ALBION COLLEGE

MOTOR CITY MUSCLE Albion Britons stand at the forefront in Detroit’s resurgence

INSIDE 20 Faith Fowler, ’81, Bucks the Inner-City Status Quo 24 Boxing Champion Joe Louis’s Quiet Campaign for Equality 28 Researcher Jaime Fornetti, ’06, Takes Aim at Breast Cancer

SPRING-SUMMER 2015

D. TRUMPIE PHOTO

Contents

SPRING-SUMMER 2015

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Features BRINGING THE ‘D’ BACK FROM THE BRINK Albion alumni are upping their game in revitalizing Detroit.

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Family Man: Michael Williams, ’78 Industry Insider: Kurt Wiese, ’78 Mindful Millennial: Caroline Dobbins, ’12 Top Doc: David Wood, ’79 Business Maven: Maureen Krauss, ’84

RESTORING SOULS . . .

AND A CITY Faith Fowler, ’81, brings dignity and hope to the people of Cass Community.

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‘BOTH A NEGRO AND AN AMERICAN’ Historian Marcy Sacks assesses boxer Joe Louis’s impact on black and white America.

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TEAMWORK, DOWN TO A SCIENCE 28 Researcher Jaime Fornetti, ’06, taps sports skills as she takes on breast cancer.

Departments BRITON BITS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS

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ALBIONOTES 35

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COVER PHOTO: SPIRIT OF DETROIT / SUSAN MONTGOMERY / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

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BRITON BITS

Last summer, the Albion community made Judi and me feel right at home as we began a new relationship with a new hometown. And it has been such fun to welcome students, faculty and staff, alumni, and community members into our home on Michigan Avenue.

In my inaugural address, I pledged that Albion College would become a faithful partner in revitalizing this community that we all call home. As one sign of our renewed partnership, the College has launched a program that will give home an even deeper meaning for many students who grow up in Albion. The College’s first seven Build Albion Fellows will begin their studies on campus this fall. This program assists students with high financial need who would not otherwise be able to attend Albion and will also engage them in their hometown through summer work, volunteer service, and internships. Each Fellow will provide 3,200 hours of work over four years to enhance our campus and our community.

In October, we saw a local jewel rise—and shine—again. The reopening of the Bohm Theatre, its restoration funded through foundation grants and local gifts, was a pivotal moment in the rebirth of our downtown district. Now I am proud to say that with leadership from our Board of Trustees, Albion College will have a significant footprint downtown—a presence that will enrich our academic life and bring the creative ideas and energy of our students and faculty to community projects. Look for details as we finalize plans in the coming months.

Over the past year, Albion College has helped move our community forward in other

ways. An Albion education is a hands-on education—taking our students out of the classroom and into the broader world. Our students, faculty, and staff have successfully worked with the City Council, Board of Education, and District Library to introduce the Big Read, a community reading program underwritten by the National Endowment for the Arts, in Albion. The Class of 1960 Albion Community Intern for this year, Danielle Nelson, ’17, has worked closely with Albion City Manager Sheryl Mitchell and others on a new bicycling and trails program and has gathered data for the City’s master planning process.

Briton student-athletes have continued their nationally recognized community service activities. And through our newly created and Mellon Foundation-supported humanities labs, our students and their professors studied and presented exciting options for building a more sustainable community, explored ways to accelerate new business start-ups, examined issues of race and representation, and even planned, made, and shared a community meal for 150 people while considering the connections between what they eat and where they live.

Local friends have stepped up in important ways to assist the College too. This spring we announced that retired Albion businessman Bud Davis and his wife, Olivia, a community volunteer, have provided the leadership gift for Phase II of Albion’s campaign to improve its outdoor athletic facilities. In honor of their gift, the area encompassing the new and upgraded playing fields will be named

D. LAWRENCE PHOTO

Finding Our Place Our first Build Albion Fellows, introduced this spring, have begun their summer work projects and academic planning for fall semester. The program provides four years of tuition, room, and board in exchange for work and service in the Albion community. Pictured are: (left to right) Markeese Boyd, Robert Hays, Mercedes Pace, Demarcus Robinson, Dominique Givens, Cortazia Wilson, and Khaliah Roberts.

the Davis Athletic Complex. Thanks to their support and that of many other alumni and friends, work will begin in spring 2016 on a soccer/lacrosse complex, Champions Stadium at Frank Joranko Field, and improvements at Dempsey Softball Field. The Davises, who were awarded our Briton Medallion at May’s Commencement, explain that their giving to the College through the years has stemmed from their desire to see Albion College succeed and provide an exceptional education for current and future students.

One of my Albion colleagues recently said to me, “If America is a river, small towns like Albion are the headwaters.” How apt that thought is for us—literally and figuratively— from our vantage point only a few miles from the headwaters of the Kalamazoo. By that measure, we must work tirelessly to ensure the health of our College and our town, and thereby do our part in sustaining all of America.

Mauri Ditzler President

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Albion 24/7 ALBION’S CAMPUS IS BUZZING—LITERALLY. We humans are sharing our outdoor spaces with thousands of Italian honeybees from the active hives at the Student Farm in the Whitehouse Nature Center. Nature Center director Dave Green, a bee enthusiast, offers classes for would-be beekeepers, and this summer Albion College will host the annual conference of the Heartland Apicultural Society, expected to draw more than 500 bee lovers. Sweet.

Meteorwrong?

For years, everyone thought the strange-looking rock that inhabited the Observatory was a meteorite.

Legend had it that the object, donated by William Longstreet, had “zoomed out of the sky” and was retrieved by one of his servants. Well, physics professor Nicolle Zellner and Marci Howdyshell, ’08, have put the myth to rest. Find out more about this meteorite gone wrong at Zellner’s blog: campus.albion.edu/nzellner/.

10,000

meals were packed by more than 80 student volunteers during a Kids Against Hunger event this spring. The meals, each of which included a day’s worth of nutrition, were distributed locally and sent to Sierra Leone.

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Fantasy Reigns in Beguiling Earthsea Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea is the selection for the Albion community’s Big Read, a shared reading experience scheduled for October 2015. Educators and others from the College and the community with an interest in youth literacy designed Albion’s program, which received an $8,500 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, based on a proposal crafted by English professor Jess Roberts and students in her Practical Persuasion class.

Local organizations provided additional grants totaling $10,000.

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was the final tally for the best season in Briton men’s lacrosse history. After winning the MIAA championship at 6-0, the men advanced to the NCAA Division III Championship second round before falling to third-ranked Ohio Wesleyan, 12-11. Not to be outdone, the women’s lacrosse team completed its finest season with a 15-3 overall record, 7-1 in the league. As the MIAA tournament champions, they also competed in the second round of the D-III Championship where they faced a powerful Mount Union squad. The women also broke numerous team records this season.

VIRAL ‘DARK MATTER’ “If we take a swab from your nose and sequence every bit of DNA . . . we’ll find a lot of human genetic information, bacteria, and viruses. But what’s really amazing is there’s genetic information that doesn’t match anything that’s ever been seen before . . . a whole range of microorganisms that haven’t been explored.

What’s exciting is you have the tools available, you have the questions that are important, and you have the new [microbiological] space in which to explore.”

Virologist and 2015 Calvaruso Lecturer Nathan Wolfe

D. LAWRENCE PHOTO

ALBION COLLEGE ARCHIVES PHOTO

Signing Off Past Meets Present Audrey DeGroot, ’16, feels a kinship with Albion alumna Emma Thompson, Class of 1900, after working last summer with a treasure trove of historic photos, including this one of Thompson, from the College’s archives. DeGroot created new prints of the images starting with glass negatives and researched their provenance. This summer she is using large-format photography to document present-day Albion.

FRAUD ALERT Well, he wasn’t wearing a trench coat, but Nick Emery, ’15, did go undercover to nab a suspected identity thief this winter. It was all part of simulations intended to show accounting students how the Internal Revenue Service is combatting identity theft in tax fraud schemes. Stephen Moore, ’83, an IRS supervisory special agent in Detroit, led the students through simulations of the real-life criminal investigations the IRS pursues on a daily basis. The student “agents” conducted surveillance, interviewed witnesses, and even searched garbage cans in order to gather sufficient evidence for court orders.

Electronic tax filing has created new opportunities for identity thieves,

and Moore and his colleagues have stepped up efforts to detect and prevent this illegal activity using the tax system. “The crooks find ways to get your personal information, and then by claiming false business income, they file tax returns in your name, hoping to get money from the IRS,” explained Albion accounting professor John Carlson. “By the time you get around to filing, the thieves have collected the false refunds and are long gone.”

Throughout the exercise, students reviewed pertinent points of tax and criminal law with their IRS mentors.

“What I found especially valuable was the real-world application of concepts defined in the classroom,” said Alex Decker, ’15.

The time has come . . . after serving as editor of Io Triumphe! since 1978, I have wrapped up my final edition. When you receive this issue, I will have retired from Albion College.

Thirty-eight years, five presidents, and 143 editions of this magazine—I never would have imagined any of that when I began work on a cold January day long ago.

Though I am not an Albion graduate, I feel I have become a part of the Albion family in many ways—perhaps that has stemmed from the friendships I have enjoyed with our alumni, across three or even four generations in some families. I stand in awe of their achievements: Whether in positions of national leadership or devoted service in their home communities, Albion alumni have made our world a better place in countless ways.

And I have been fortunate to have worked over these many years with talented and supportive colleagues and with mentors like Joe Hatcher and Frank Bonta who helped my career along with their wise insights. They all have helped me become better at what I do, which is to communicate the essence of this institution and its impact on young people. I am confident that the current team in Marketing and Communications will carry on this work with spirit and dedication.

I have appreciated being a part of this impressive community of scholars and knowing legendary faculty members like John Hart, Julian Rammelkamp, Clara Dixon, Doc Stowell, and David Strickler. It is reassuring to see that their wholehearted commitment to both nurturing and challenging students continues in today’s faculty.

I have also learned so much from being a part of the local Albion community—particularly lessons about social justice and about what it takes to overcome the difficult obstacles that life sometimes puts in our paths. Certainly one of the most memorable moments of the campus and community coming together was in the joyous welcome that nearly 3,000 townspeople, students, faculty, and staff gave to Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu during his visit to our campus in 1993.

At its heart, Albion College is about transforming students’ lives, and it has been my great privilege to have contributed in some way to that transformation. I will treasure that always.

Sarah Briggs

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Shared History Reprinted with permission from the Battle Creek Enquirer. This is an expanded version of a column by Chuck Carlson that originally appeared in the Enquirer March 4, 2015.

“The last time I was here, I had to sit in the balcony,” she said. “Negroes, that’s what they called us then, could only sit in the balcony.

From balcony to stage, that was quite a leap.”

She relayed that story in January to a standingroom-only crowd at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation as part of a speech she gave titled “From Albion to America: Community, Civil Rights, Civil Wrongs, and the Dream.”

It’s a good bet that those in the crowd of a certain age could nod their head in understanding at Scott’s story while the remainder likely could not imagine such a thing. But for Scott, it was all too real.

“And my mom [Edna Holland] used to clean this theatre,” she said. “Every night that was one of her half-dozen jobs to keep food on the table.”

It was long ago and far away for Scott, who grew up in Albion’s predominantly black West Ward. . . .

“A lot of the time I wasn’t aware of [racism], and my dad [Robert Holland] was insistent we not look at race first,” she said. “He’d say, ‘Are you sure that’s the reason?’”

Sometimes, as she learned, it wasn’t.

Sometimes, as she also learned, it was. . . .

“I remember there was a home economics teacher my senior year in high school.

I received a C on a project, and all the other students, who were white, got A’s. I asked why, and she said, ‘I can’t give a grade above a C to a Negro.’ I didn’t bother my mother and dad because I told myself it was only home economics. It wasn’t a big deal. But that kept

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me from being salutatorian, so I guess it was a big deal.”

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Ruth Holland Scott remembered the last time she’d been in Albion’s Bohm Theatre. It had been a long time, in more ways than one, she said.

She laughs about it now, but she has used those memories to spur her to a successful career and [to become] a longtime national advocate of civil rights.

Scott went on to Albion College, assisted in part by her high school debate coach Ethel Fleenor who helped her prepare speeches and essays to win scholarship money for college.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she first went to Cleveland, Ohio to work as an English teacher. She met and married music educator Bill Scott, and eventually they moved on to Rochester, New York, where she worked as an educator and bank administrator. She was also the first African-American elected to the Rochester City Council and later became its president.

She earned a master’s degree from Kent State University, received the New York State Senate’s Woman of Distinction Award, was named Albion College’s Distinguished Alumna in 1975, and earned an honorary doctorate from the school in 2000. . . .

“My dad wanted me to learn as much as I possibly could, and that’s what was most important to me,” Scott said. . . . She also makes it clear that she received plenty of support from Albion’s white community too. . . .

[Her] memories are mostly of what her parents, and especially her dad, faced. And they remain today. She recalled how he fought for recognition that the education black kids were getting in the West Ward [Elementary School] wasn’t as good as in the rest of the city.

“He started doing it when I was five or six years old,” she recalled. “Eventually, he put the facts

Ruth Holland Scott, ’56, returned to her hometown to keynote the January 2015 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation, jointly sponsored by Albion College and the Albion branch of the NAACP. A standing-room-only crowd gathered at the downtown Bohm Theatre for the event.

about the school’s test scores on light poles.

He really researched things. At first no one knew who was doing it, but once the white population found out it was him, they asked my mom to ask him to stop. She just laughed.

She said, ‘First, I couldn’t stop him even if I wanted to, and, second, he’s right.’”

After leaving the Rochester City Council in 1989, Scott established a business consulting firm, assisting banks and other businesses as well as governments in developing strategies to address the unfinished business of the civil rights era through community reinvestment. She said her work also included “changing the organizations to create opportunities which would nurture, train, and reward employees on their skills instead of their skin color and gender.”

She noted that her concepts and work were lauded by local organizations and Working Woman magazine. “That is what made me realize that I had learned well the lessons taught to me by Edna and Robert Holland, and those in my high school and college careers,” she said.

Ruth Holland Scott has recently written a memoir, The Circles God Draws. The book is available from Dr. Scott at: rscott7535@aol.com.

PRESERVING A CULTURAL LEGACY

‘Sacred ground’ is how Albion history professor Wesley Dick describes Holland Park, land that has come to symbolize the local black community’s fight for civil rights.

“Why is this history important?” Dick muses.

“Knowing community history can instill pride and respect for the accomplishments of those who came before us. History needs to be truthful, and the truth sometimes includes racism, segregation, and cruelty. History also includes people who acted with courage, worked hard, and whose dedication made a better world. While the dark side of history is depressing, the noble side of history is inspirational.”

Supported by a $25,000 grant from the Michigan Humanities Council, the park transformation includes the creation of an oral history project, as well as landscaping and other physical improvements. Local residents’ recollections of West Ward School and the

As events of the past year have reminded us, achieving racial equality is still a work-inprogress in America, making these efforts even more timely. “The Holland Park Transformation Project,” Wes Dick says, “aspires to discover more of this history and to make it visible and interactive for young and old alike, motivating all of us to strive for justice.”

era of segregation, along with extensive historical information, will be shared on a website devoted to the civil rights struggle in Albion. A series of interpretive exhibits, to be built on the hill where the school once stood, will tell the stories of those who endured segregation and advocated for the continued transformation of Albion.

S. BRIGGS PHOTOS

What is now the park once was the site of the City of Albion’s segregated West Ward Elementary School. Activist Robert Holland (see accompanying story on his daughter, Ruth Holland Scott, ’56) led the campaign to close the school in the early 1950s during America’s emerging civil rights movement. The effort was successful: In 1953, classes ended at the school, which had offered “separate and unequal” education for black youngsters. The building was later demolished, and the park, created in 1974, was named in Robert Holland’s honor.

Now, through the Holland Park Transformation Project, people from Albion College and from the community are coming together to preserve this history and honor those who fought for racial equality.

members who came to Albion during the Great Migration and who grew up in Albion’s segregated neighborhoods. Wes Dick and his wife, Leslie, have assisted with the oral history project, with Leslie serving as historian and videographer.

Over the last year, Albion City Council member Lenn Reid and City Manager Sheryl Mitchell, assisted by Albion English professor Jess Roberts and other local residents, have secured grants from FireKeepers in Battle Creek and the Albion Community Foundation totaling $55,000 to add playground equipment and improve the park’s grounds. Another local group, the Philanthropic Women, has contributed $6,200 toward the project.

Reid says her involvement is driven by a desire to preserve this important local history and to ensure that the park remains a meeting ground for all of the community’s residents.

“I knew the Holland family and some of the history,” Reid explains. “I talked to people, read about the area, and walked it until I had the feel for what needed to be done to turn it into an intergenerational park that all could enjoy. Holland is a beautiful park with lots of potential. I can’t wait to see it completed.”

The work on the park grounds began earlier this spring. Historian and retired Albion schoolteacher Robert Wall has also been gathering the personal stories of community

May graduates took time out from other Senior Week activities for a “Graduates Give Back” service project at Holland Park, joining local residents, College faculty and staff, and alumni in the park’s current restoration. They also learned more about the park’s place in local history. (Top photo) Seniors Kye Bright (foreground) and Erin Boyle worked alongside alumna and area resident Karen Knudson Dobbins, ’74, in a painting project at the Park.

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Two Minutes with . . .

MICHAEL DIXON

Michael Dixon is an associate professor of art.

Io Triumphe!: Your art often addresses your own racial identity as a biracial person of color. What do you hope other people might gain from your personal exploration?

Dixon: I want my work to create opportunities for dialogue around the topics of race and identity.

I believe having an honest conversation about race can be transformative for individuals.

I don’t think we talk about race enough with each other. I want to be more inclusive of the biracial experience as we talk about these issues. How I’ve chosen to identify myself has changed throughout my life. My racial identity has never been static.

A few years ago, you started a portrait/research project on Afro-Turks. How does this relate to your other work?

I know what it’s like to be biracial in America, but I’m examining what that looks like around the world. I’m interested in finding a universal experience that cuts across cultures. Next year, I’m going to do this same type of study in France, and eventually I hope to go to South Africa and Brazil. I’m creating

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a visual culture that’s inclusive of these unique identities. It’s important to look at a magazine, or a television program, or a classroom with teachers and students and see yourself in the world.

Several years ago, you added an anti-racism workshop component to your Drawing I class. That doesn’t seem like obvious subject matter for that course.

When you start to talk about racism, there can be a lot of resistance—it’s difficult to have these conversations. Even so, at the end of the workshop most students tell me I should keep this as part of the class. I would have already stopped otherwise.

As part of this workshop, students research somebody whose life was affected by racism, and they present this to the class. They also draw a portrait, which forces them to sit with that person for a while and think about the significance of that life. We talk a lot about black leaders, but they look at white allies too. It’s good to see models of people who were white, who put themselves on the line for people of color.

This is also when I show the students my work and how this topic relates conceptually. I tell them, “Artists make work about something. This is my work—let’s talk about it.” The workshop gets them started on their own conceptual projects.

Your primary focus as an artist is portraiture. What do you hope to convey as a portrait artist?

I work from photography most of the time. I’ll take 50 or 60 candid shots, using the camera as a tool to capture this person, hopefully not in a staged way. Ultimately, capturing the essence or the energy of that person is something I try to do.

What’s your grading philosophy? Can you judge artistic creation and expression?

Learning to critique and to accept criticism is an aspect of studying art. I start with grading that’s as objective as possible: composition, values, colors, space.

Students in their first drawing class still have a hard time with critiques. I have to remind them, “You are not your work. When I say something isn’t working, I’m

Michael Dixon (with one of his paintings) says that when he’s not teaching or working in the studio, you might find him at the Detroit Institute of Arts studying canvasses by 20th-century artists like Francis Bacon and Alberto Giacometti, two of his favorite painters.

not saying, ‘I don’t like you.’” As students become more advanced, I can talk to them about what I like and don’t like, what works for me, what I think might work better for them.

Visual literacy is like scientific literacy—you have to learn it.

Interview by Jake Weber.

Bringing The

Back From The Brink Albion alumni are upping their game in revitalizing Detroit.

For years, we’ve heard all the negativity swirling around Detroit: bankruptcy, unemployment, poverty, crime. But there are plenty of people—many Albion alumni among them—who simply won’t give up on the Motor City. They aren’t shutting their eyes to the problems, but they are persistently optimistic about the city’s resurgence—and every day they see signs of genuine progress toward a comeback. So how to ensure that all of the city’s residents thrive as that future takes shape?

Caroline Dobbins, ’12, one of the alumni featured in the accompanying stories, sums it up well: “One of the biggest challenges facing Detroit moving forward is making sure that all 700,000 residents have access to the new and exciting opportunities that are emerging. We’re not necessarily creating a new Detroit—we’re just creating a better Detroit. We want to make sure that everyone’s included. What are their hopes and dreams? What do they want for their community?” Read on to learn how some Britons are meeting that challenge.

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Family Man

C. ARACE PHOTO

MICHAEL WILLIAMS, ’78

By Michelle Mueller

DETROIT WAS ONCE HOME TO 1.8 MILLION PEOPLE, WHOSE LIVES WERE LARGELY TIED TO THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY. AFTER THE CITY’S LONG AND INFAMOUS DECLINE—INCLUDING BANKRUPTCY—ONLY ABOUT 700,000 RESIDENTS REMAIN, MANY LIVING IN NEIGHBORHOODS BLIGHTED BY YEARS OF NEGLECT. SOME BELIEVE THE LACK OF JOBS IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE CITY’S PROBLEMS. And with unemployment stubbornly high at more than double the national rate, widespread poverty, and sobering health and violence statistics, comes stress on families. That results in the need for foster or adoptive homes for the many children who are abused, neglected, or troubled as a consequence. The widespread social and economic challenges also mean that families need additional support to stay together.

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Michael Williams has devoted his career to helping troubled children and families. His early work experiences in Albion led to his current position as CEO of Orchards Children’s Services in metro Detroit. He also served as mayor of Albion in the early 1990s and notes his ties to the city remain strong.

Denice, his wife of 30 years, is an Albion native, and his daughter, Jasmine, was born while they lived in town.

When Michael Williams joined Orchards Children’s Services as its president and CEO a decade ago, it had been serving as a beacon of hope to children and families in the Detroit area for over 40 years. He brought with him the experience he gained as president of StarrVista, a care management organization assisting Wayne County’s Department of Juvenile Justice, and as executive director of a Starr Commonwealth program based in Albion. He also served as Albion’s mayor in the mid-1990s.

When Williams took the reins, Orchards focused primarily on adoption and foster care services.

While those services are still important, he explains that the majority of their efforts are now devoted to family preservation. What made him lead Orchards through that shift in emphasis after his arrival? “It was inspired by my work in juvenile justice,” he says, “where more than one youngster had asked me, ‘Mr. Williams, why didn’t someone help us before we got here?’”

Now serving 10 southeast Michigan counties, Orchards works with children ranging in age from infants through young adults. Refusing to ever use the term “aged-out,” the agency often continues with them through their college years.

“We really try to see the children we serve as our ‘now’ and as our ‘future,’ to help them get a wholesome view of life,” Williams says.

While once nearly all of Orchards’ clients were African-American, that ratio is now down to about 65 percent, with the remainder quite racially diverse.

At its core, Orchards “seeks to protect and nurture children and youth by providing shelter, sustenance, life- and educational skills and opportunities.” The agency’s ultimate goal is to work with children and their caregivers— parents, relatives, and foster parents—to help the children grow into self-sufficient adults.

One of many success stories that Williams recounts is that of a young man named Taron Turner. Taron came to foster care at an early age. After graduating from high school, he wanted to go on to college but had no resources to do so. Orchards board member Barbara Goldberg took on this challenge and helped forge a relationship with Sergei Fedorov, the former Detroit Red Wings hockey star. Taron received the first Sergei Fedorov Scholarship.

With this financial assistance and Orchards’

continual support, he was able to graduate in four years from Central Michigan University.

Today, Taron—who still keeps in touch with his foster family—has two master’s degrees, works for a Fortune 500 company, and recently won a Father of the Year award.

“Taron is a great example of how we invest in the most vulnerable, making sure our children are educated and responsible,” Williams says

Among Orchards’ biggest supporters are Joe Serra, ’82, president of Serra Automotive in Grand Blanc, and his wife, Julie. They provide funding for projects, and services like finding jobs for recent college graduates or even getting them deals on a new car.

Orchards’ criteria for selecting foster parents have changed for the better, says Williams.

Because roughly a third of the children placed in foster care are adopted by those caregivers,

“WE REALLY TRY TO SEE THE CHILDREN WE SERVE AS OUR ‘NOW’ AND AS OUR ‘FUTURE,’ TO HELP THEM GET A WHOLESOME VIEW OF LIFE.” proudly. “But in Detroit, our challenges are many. . . . As we know, the auto industry had to do some major reengineering over the last five years. This is not a blame game: It was and is the reality of a great city which lost a lot of momentum due to the economic downturn.

The reengineering led to lower salaries and an increased need for education-based skills.”

Now Orchards focuses much of its work on helping the families that were most affected by the changing employment scene.

Part of his charge at Orchards is to advocate for state legislation that will strengthen Michigan families. However, change also must come at the individual level, he contends.

“For healthy families, we need to go back to individual accountability in the role you are playing,” he stresses. “We need to eliminate the label of ‘single mom’—there’s always a father.

And men can’t father children by different women and not be a dad. We have to challenge parents, teachers, everyone to do a better job.”

Williams appreciates the fact that Albion College “taught me the need to engage the community to change things,” and says it drives his work at Orchards. College mentors like coaches Mike Turner, ’69, Frank Joranko, ’52, and Dave Egnatuk, ’71, and community leaders Tillman Cornelius and Hazel Lias, as well as the group of amazing cooks who served as surrogate moms “helped me explore not only education, but who I was. They helped me grow and prosper.”

those selected as foster parents go through PRIDE, a mandated training program which emphasizes problem-solving techniques, he explains. A priority is placed on keeping all siblings together, versus putting a limit on the number of children per foster family.

Conjuring the spirit of Henry Ford who used to reward employees who spent time with their families with a raise, Williams developed an annual outstanding parent award, one of the few area agencies to do so.

And speaking of awards, the CEO boasts that Orchards was named “Best Workplace” by the Detroit Free Press. For his leadership in serving families, Williams was the recipient of the 2007 Hero’s Award, given by Michigan’s Children, a statewide advocacy group. He also received Albion College’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1997.

“I can’t say thank you enough to Albion College. I’m so glad that I made the choice— and the choice helped to make me. I better understand people, the country, and the world because I’m a Brit for life!” he says.

Because he believes that Albion College gives “the best education in the U.S.,” Williams encouraged his nephew, Carles Summerour, ’16, to enroll; they stay in close touch. “I can’t repay them enough with time, talent, or treasure,” he laughs.

Michelle Mueller is a freelance writer from Albion, Michigan.

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Industry Insider

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KURT WIESE, ’78

By John Perney

KURT WIESE MOVED AROUND A LOT GROWING UP, BUT HE HAS CALLED ONLY ONE PROFESSIONAL WORKPLACE HOME FOR 36 YEARS. SO EXCUSE THE GENERAL MOTORS EXECUTIVE IF HE BLEEDS A LITTLE GM BLUE. HE’S EARNED THAT RIGHT, AFTER WEATHERING THE COMPANY’S HIGHS AND LOWS OVER THOSE YEARS. “GM’s bankruptcy was a humbling experience. We failed in our mission and our charge,” says Wiese, referring to the automaker’s historic 2009 Chapter 11 filing. “We have learned from that and other recent challenges by facing the issues head on, taking responsibility, and redoubling our efforts to be the company our customers and stockholders deserve.

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Kurt Wiese has come up through General Motors’ manufacturing ranks to become vice president of global manufacturing engineering. The automaker’s recent challenges have made him even more committed to the company’s future. “It’s almost like a greater calling,” he says, “because of the economic impact of General Motors, . . . especially in the Detroit area and Michigan.”

“THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE. THIS IS OUR BUSINESS. THIS IS OUR COMMUNITY, AND WE BELIEVE A VIBRANT DETROIT IS VITAL TO THE LONG-TERM SUCCESS OF GENERAL MOTORS.” “Do I feel a passion or a need to support General Motors going forward?” Wiese asks.

“Absolutely. It’s almost like a greater calling, because of the economic impact of General Motors across the country, and especially in the Detroit area and Michigan. And I can assure you there’s a lot of senior management focus on what we need to do to ensure we don’t get ourselves in that kind of situation again.”

Wiese is a key player in the efforts to turn the automaker around. A year ago he was named GM’s vice president of global manufacturing engineering, a division that serves as a bridge between the product design studio and the manufacturing plant. According to Wiese, his team asks, “How do we influence product design and make it more manufacturable? We’ll play with the clay models in the studio in the Tech Center in Warren, and then we’ll have people execute those programs at our assembly plants, or stamping plants, or powertrain facilities.”

Responsible for more than 7,500 employees in 170 plants spanning 31 countries, with approximately 3,000 of those workers based in Michigan, Wiese’s management group needs to push the boundaries of what’s possible today in manufacturing to drive forward the vehicle possibilities of tomorrow. An example of that was an Innovation Challenge the company launched last fall with four large universities (one of them being the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor) to develop factory-floor applications for 3D printing and augmentedreality devices similar to Google Glass.

The company remains a major driver of the local economy. GM’s deep-rooted place in the heart of the Detroit riverfront—nearly 20 years after relocating its world headquarters to the Renaissance Center—serves as both a symbol and something more practical: GM posted more than 1,000 jobs in metro Detroit alone in the first quarter of 2015.

“We’re not walking away from Detroit,” Wiese says. “This is where we live. This is our business. This is our community, and we believe a vibrant Detroit is vital to the longterm success of General Motors.”

In his current role, Wiese has to maintain a global perspective as well. He follows progress “on the ground” by regularly visiting GM’s farflung operations. A recent three-month period saw him in Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, India, Korea, Poland, and Spain.

A liberal arts education no doubt provided a lot of the fuel to develop his executive skills. Wiese arrived at Albion in 1974 intending to pursue a pre-law track as the first step toward a career in corporate law. He says it didn’t take long to realize law wasn’t quite the right route for him, but he continued to pursue business, earning his economics and management degree as a member of the Professional Management Program’s second graduating class. (The program is now the Carl A. Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management.)

A recruiting letter from Charles Shearer, the program’s first director, served as Wiese’s initial draw to Albion, and professor Larry Steinhauer in the Economics and Management Department stands out. So does his four-year experience as a football tight end and co-captain, not to mention his three seasons playing first base for the Briton baseball team. He also served as president of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

“I had a very strong period of personal growth when I was at Albion,” says Wiese, who stays connected with Gerstacker through his service on the Visiting Committee. “When I went to Albion I was kind of shy, but I got a chance to do some things that I never would’ve had the opportunity to do at other schools. Attending Albion was a game-changer for me personally.”

Two well-known coaches had a hand in that, too, starting with Frank Joranko, ’52, who coached Wiese in both football and baseball. “Even today we maintain a very close relationship with him,” Wiese says of Joranko’s former players. “He was one of those guys who didn’t beat around the bush. If you didn’t play well, you knew you didn’t play well. But there was not a guy on that team who wouldn’t work hard for him.”

The other coach was actually retired from the football sidelines and working as a special assistant to President Lomas in the 1970s: Morley

Fraser. “He was responsible for Bellemont Manor at the time, and one summer I worked for him directly as an assistant for the conferences that came through,” Wiese says. “What a tremendous, tremendous opportunity—just his outlook on life, and the positives that he always brought to the job, and the discussions we had.”

Fraser also introduced him to J.D. Wisner, an Albion College trustee at the time . . . and an executive at General Motors. A couple of interviews later, Wiese landed in operations at GM getting to know the business. A few years after that, he had earned a graduate business degree from MIT as a Sloan Fellow, and was on his way in manufacturing engineering.

Looking back, he is glad he has focused on primarily one area of the business. Wiese says he has learned what he needs to know about automotive technology to manage it well, but it’s really his ability on the human relations side of his job that has been responsible for his success.

“A lot of young people today do not understand what manufacturing is all about,” Wiese says.

“Just like anything else, manufacturing depends on relationships with people.”

And just as the design, engineering, and manufacturing teams need to be on the same page to build a product the public wants to buy—at a cost the company can afford—the same principle will be needed to steer Detroit in the coming years.

Its bankruptcy has compelled GM to change, Wiese observes, adding “I think the bankruptcy in Detroit has helped galvanize the community as well.”

Are GM and Detroit in this together then?

“We firmly believe that,” he says. “For all the jokes you hear about Detroit, the funny thing is we thought we’d have a lot of difficulty drawing talent. But with the recent development bringing in residents, it’s not as difficult to sell as it once was. In our recruitment strategy— particularly for the Millennial generation—we are showcasing the cultural and entertainment opportunities Detroit has to offer. The positives of the city are there—and growing.”

Spring-Summer 2015 | 13

CAROLINE DOBBINS, ’12

By Jake Weber

FOR A STORY OF AN UNEXPECTED LIFE-CHANGING MOMENT, CAROLINE DOBBINS’ EXPERIENCE IS PRETTY HARD TO BEAT. “I WAS LOOKING AT ALBION TODAY [THE COLLEGE’S ONLINE BULLETIN BOARD], AND THERE WAS CHALLENGE DETROIT’S POSTING,” SHE RECALLS. “I HAD NEVER HEARD OF IT, BUT THEY SAID THEY WERE EXTENDING THEIR FIRST DEADLINE. IT FELT LIKE ALL MY FRIENDS ALREADY HAD JOBS, SO I TOOK THAT MESSAGE AS A SIGN THAT I MIGHT AS WELL APPLY.” That chance announcement was the first step toward Dobbins’ current career: helping Challenge Detroit attract visionary young thinkers with a passion for community, sustainability, and problem-solving. Embraced by the business sector, local government, and city residents, Challenge Detroit recruits talented professionals to work in the city and to assist local nonprofits seeking creative solutions for specific problems.

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Vibrant neighborhoods like the Villages on Detroit’s east side, along with expanding job opportunities, are attracting young professionals like Caroline Dobbins to the city in growing numbers. She joined Challenge Detroit, a next-generation revitalization program, as one of its inaugural Fellows in 2012 and has continued to live and work in the city ever since.

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Mindful Millennial

Selected for Challenge Detroit’s inaugural Fellowship program, the economics and management major and Gerstacker Institute member moved to downtown Detroit in 2012.

“Maybe I was a little naïve about the stigma of living in Detroit, but it made total sense to me to live here,” she says. “Fellows are immersed in the city. It’s really the only way to fit so many unique learning experiences into a relatively short period of time. To do their jobs, the Fellows have to understand what living in Detroit really is, in a positive way.”

Challenge Detroit is a next-generation revitalization program that fuses economic development, community service, and professional career experience—something like the Peace Corps meets The Apprentice.

Challenge Detroit Fellows “live, work, play, give, and lead” in Detroit, Dobbins says.

The Fellows work four days a week for a variety of employers such as United Way for Southeastern Michigan, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and Beaumont Heath System— “everything from large to small, profit and nonprofit, in and around Detroit,” she says.

“My job was in marketing for a tech startup— we provided resources to help companies with their hiring. It was very much the type of job I was thinking of as an undergraduate.”

Fridays are reserved for “Challenge” work.

Divided into small groups, the entire cohort of Fellows develops several solutions to a current issue or opportunity problem faced by a Detroit-based nonprofit. During Dobbins’ year, the Fellows worked with nine different nonprofits, devoting approximately one month to each challenge.

“It was a very fast-paced year but a great introduction to nonprofits that are doing work in the city,” Dobbins says, noting that the program spawned new ideas for these agencies and helped the Fellows develop their professional skills at the same time. “I didn’t have a huge base for creative innovation through my Albion curriculum, so these challenges allowed me to explore that.

I also honed some strategic skills that I use on a daily basis now.”

For instance, Dobbins recalls the food access challenge they worked on for United Way for Southeastern Michigan. “One group did a large-scale concept to bring major purchasers to urban farms, making Detroit a hub for local food distribution,” she says. “My group went small-scale—we designed a mobile grocery

store and a mobile community kitchen that would each fit on a city bus. Our idea was that the buses could travel to different neighborhoods so residents could get fresh and healthy foods and learn to prepare them.

“United Way has since taken all our ideas and used what’s feasible for them,” Dobbins continues. “Our team’s concept hasn’t become a reality, but I think it was a great response to the challenge of finding creative solutions to a problem. Challenge Detroit is still helping to find ways to bring local and fresh food to all the parts of the city.”

One project that did jump from concept to creation was done for Beaumont Health System. “Our small teams created a large assembly presentation on health and wellness for elementary school children,” Dobbins says. “We were invited to watch the program at an assembly. It was so special to interact with the children who were receiving a benefit that Challenge Detroit had created for them.

Seeing something come to life is inspiring and energizing, and it makes you want to continue doing great work.”

Dobbins acknowledges that Detroit has more than its share of problems, but working and living in the city has opened her eyes to equally diverse bright spots and resources. “I have friends who are working on education, public

“We have Detroit SOUP, a monthly dinner where people can give five-minute presentations about what they’re doing, and then we all choose one person who gets that evening’s proceeds,” she continues. “It’s so encouraging as a young professional, to sit across the table with peers, mentors, and professional connections and have them be excited about Detroit’s future.”

Now as one of four staffers for Challenge Detroit, Dobbins serves as event and operations manager, but “I wear a lot of hats,” she says. This spring she focused on recruiting the fourth cohort of Challenge Detroit Fellows (approximately 30 will be chosen from hundreds of applicants nationwide). She also organizes cultural activities for the Fellows and serves as a liaison with program alumni, nonprofit partners, host companies, and financial supporters.

Dobbins is the outgoing recent-graduate representative on Albion’s Alumni Association board and has presented about Challenge Detroit’s activities to the Gerstacker Institute’s summer school. As an involved alumna and proud native of Albion, she’s especially pleased that her work with Challenge Detroit has trickled back to her home community.

“Every time I talk to someone about the Build Albion Fellows program [the College’s new

“FELLOWS ARE IMMERSED IN THE CITY. IT’S REALLY THE ONLY WAY TO FIT SO MANY UNIQUE LEARNING EXPERIENCES INTO A RELATIVELY SHORT PERIOD OF TIME.” spaces, health care, or they ‘know people who know people’ who are,” she laughs. “I see a lot of capable and passionate individuals who are creating thriving neighborhoods for kids, places where they can enjoy their quality of life. It’s part of what makes living here so interesting.”

Indeed, Dobbins notes that “building a better Detroit” has almost become a 24/7 activity for many people she knows. “I can have coffee with someone and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we did this?’ and the other person might say, ‘Here are some people you should talk to.’”

local scholarship initiative] or the connections I see between Albion and Detroit in general, I get so excited. It’s an honor to be considered a resource for the Build Albion Fellows program.”

And while Dobbins admits to feeling the pull of revitalization in Albion, her home right now is definitely Detroit. “Yes, there are issues and opportunities that I encounter every day, but that’s what makes living in the city rewarding—I love living in the city,” she says.

“In Detroit, people want to know who you are, what makes you tick, why you want to be here.

That makes it a very inspiring place to live.”

Spring-Summer 2015 | 15

Top Doc

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DAVID WOOD, ’79

By Marian Deegan

DAVID WOOD’S FUTURE FOUND HIM WHEN HE WAS FOURTEEN. A BLOCK FROM HIS HOME, HE SAW A WOMAN CRUMPLE AND COLLAPSE. AS PASSERSBY AND POLICE WORKED FUTILELY TO SAVE HER, WOOD REMEMBERS WATCHING THE LIFE DRAIN OUT OF THE WOMAN’S FACE. THAT NIGHT OVER DINNER, HE ANNOUNCED TO HIS FAMILY THAT HE WANTED TO BE A DOCTOR. “I WAS CONVINCED,” HE RECALLS. “I’VE BEEN UNWAVERING EVER SINCE.” Today Wood serves as chief medical officer for Beaumont Health, headquartered in Southfield. Beaumont’s eight hospitals serve patients from throughout metro Detroit. Its newly formed clinics in underserved areas, including impoverished inner-city neighborhoods, demonstrate its vigorous commitment to caring for those

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As chief medical officer for Beaumont Health, David Wood has led the creation of new clinics in impoverished inner-city Detroit neighborhoods.

“We are helping to shape a new healthcare system.

Instead of building edifices for people to come to us, we are taking healthcare to our communities,” he says.

“WE TAKE THE PULSE OF A COMMUNITY TO UNDERSTAND AND PROVIDE THE SERVICES PEOPLE WANT AND NEED.” who are often at greatest risk of debilitating diseases and shortened lifespans. In many ways, Wood’s approach reflects a rethinking of how medicine should be practiced and an appreciation of the need to provide care for all segments of our population.

“We are helping to shape a new healthcare system,” he explains. “Instead of building edifices for people to come to us, we are taking healthcare to our communities.”

Wood’s vision of a medical career may have been clear, but his high school studies took a back seat to sports. “I was convinced I was going to be a doctor, but I didn’t have the academics to support it,” he says wryly. He applied to two colleges, and was deferred by both. At a high school college night, he met a representative from Albion and learned that Albion had a program for students like him. If he maintained a B average through freshman year, he could stay. He applied without ever visiting the campus.

Wood soon discovered that the academic expectations in college were far different from those in high school. When he failed his first calculus test, he met with his professor, John Wenzel, for help. Wenzel connected him with Dave Rausch, ’79, the student who scored the top grade on the test. Wood went to see Rausch, with a proposition in mind.

“I told him that if he’d teach me how to study, I’d—for lack of a better phrase—try to improve his social life,” Wood chuckles. Their partnership took off, and for Wood it proved to be life-changing. “If it wasn’t for Albion and professors like Wenzel, Winkel, and Hershel, who worked with me and supported me, I wouldn’t be where I am.”

After his graduation from the University of Michigan Medical School, Wood’s career followed an academic path, with a focus on cancer surgery. In addition to clinical practice, he conducted national research, authoring two books and dozens of published research papers.

From 2002 to 2011, he headed the urologic oncology program at the University of Michigan.

“I became increasingly interested in healthcare

quality and cost, and medicine’s attempt to address our unsustainable healthcare model,” Wood remembers. “I started to feel that there was something I could contribute to my community beyond a surgical practice.”

His interest in the business of healthcare prompted him to pursue an M.B.A. through the University of Massachusetts. When he heard about a new position being created at Beaumont, Wood applied.

“Beaumont was looking for someone to coordinate healthcare decisions and establish a culture that attracts and supports physicians committed to practicing high-quality medicine,” Wood says. “I decided to give up my endowed chair at the University of Michigan and accepted the position at Beaumont. Not many people get to start a brand new career at 54. I have enjoyed it immensely.”

Wood has cultivated a commitment to exceptional care within the Beaumont staff.

“Ultimately, the institution that excels at providing cost-effective, high-quality care is going to attract the best doctors and build the best internal and external reputation,” he says.

National healthcare rankings are a testament to the effectiveness of the model that Wood and the Beaumont executive team have developed.

In 2014, U.S. News & World Report named Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak the top-ranked hospital in Michigan.

Under Wood’s leadership, Beaumont Health System has launched groundbreaking initiatives that range from adopting new technologies to creating neighborhood clinics through innovative partnerships.

On the technology side, Beaumont is one of just a few health systems nationally to implement a bedside medication barcoding system to prevent medication errors, and construction has recently begun on a proton therapy center for cancer treatment that is the first of its kind in Michigan. Beaumont’s leadership in new therapies also encompasses more than 1,000 active research studies in 30 medical specialties.

The health system’s outreach efforts include hundreds of educational programs and health

screenings offered each year in schools, churches, senior citizen centers, and area businesses. “We take the pulse of a community, working with nurses, doctors, and community churches, to understand and provide the services people want and need,” says Wood.

“Our Brightmoor clinic is a good example. There, we offer screening, treatment, counseling, vaccinations, and nutrition classes. When children don’t have access to a healthy diet or regular exercise, obesity rates increase, leading to chronic health issues over time. Providing these underserved mothers and children with access to a healthy lifestyle at an affordable price pays big dividends in the future.”

Begun in 2013, the Brightmoor program is a novel collaboration that engages physicians, medical students, nurses, dentists, lawyers, social workers, and financial representatives in providing services to residents in one of Detroit’s poorest neighborhoods. Beaumont’s partners include a federally qualified health provider, two legal services agencies, Oakland University’s William Beaumont School of Medicine, and Cooley Law School.

Detroit’s recent revival has spurred new demand for accessible healthcare. “The downtown resurgence has been remarkable,” Wood says. “Population growth is one of the reasons we opened a primary care clinic in the Renaissance Center [the Detroit riverfront complex housing General Motors’ world headquarters]. Also, more employers are realizing the benefits of a healthy workforce.

At our clinic, General Motors employees now have access—at work—to the preventative health benefits their employer provides. These steps transform fragmented healthcare into consistent care that fills in the gaps.”

“Healthcare is moving toward a concept of population health, and a partnership between the healthcare consumer and the healthcare industry,” Wood concludes. “Instead of caring for people after they become sick, our emphasis is on keeping them well. I feel blessed to be in a position to help shape a new healthcare system to better serve our communities.”

Marian Deegan is a freelance writer from St. Paul, Minnesota.

Spring-Summer 2015 | 17

MAUREEN DONOHUE KRAUSS, ’84

By Michelle Mueller

TO BORROW A PHRASE FROM MARK TWAIN, REPORTS OF DETROIT’S DEMISE ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED—AND MAUREEN DONOHUE KRAUSS WOULD BE AMONG THE FIRST TO TELL YOU THAT. IN FACT, SHE MAKES A COMPELLING CASE THAT DETROIT CAN SERVE AS A MODEL OF HOW TO REVITALIZE A 21ST-CENTURY AMERICAN CITY. Krauss plays a key role in Detroit’s rebirth in her position as vice president of economic development, business attraction, for the Detroit Regional Chamber.

A recent announcement in Detroit reinforces the team approach and long-term nature of developing an important prospect. Sakthi North America said they will expand their castings operation which supplies parts to the auto industry and potentially the construction industry. Over 350 employees will be added with this

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From her office at One Woodward Avenue in the heart of Detroit’s financial district, economic developer Maureen Krauss reaches out to firms around the world to persuade them of the advantages of doing business in Detroit. “We need to own our story, and not let someone else tell our story,” she says.

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Business Maven

expansion, and the total investment will reach nearly $60 million. The Chamber and Krauss visited Sakthi several years ago to plant the seeds that are now taking off. This project is just one of the great stories coming out of Detroit recently.

Krauss, who joined the Chamber in 2011 following 13 years in a similar role for Oakland County, now oversees a regional business attraction effort encompassing the city and 11 adjacent counties, bolstered by a new Chamber branding and marketing program she is developing with her regional partners.

She travels all over the nation and the world to convince businesses to bring their investments and jobs to the Detroit area.

“I’ve been to China five times, but have never seen the Great Wall,” she says a bit wistfully.

“And I recently spent a week each in France and Italy. We are so busy while there that we don’t get to do any sightseeing. But it’s a phenomenal opportunity that I didn’t anticipate while I was at Albion!”

In a data-driven presentation, Krauss makes sure that those she is pitching to clearly understand her “product” and its diversity.

“The image of Detroit is a challenge. But the last few years, people have been intrigued by what is happening,” she says. The American auto industry’s recent resurgence has made it easier to persuade businesses to consider coming to southeast Michigan, so it makes sense that much of her focus is on auto-related firms, especially for Detroit itself.

Krauss points out that the technology infrastructure that has developed in and around the auto industry also lends itself to other manufacturing opportunities, such as defense systems and medical devices.

The area’s workforce assets are also a strength.

“We graduate over 6,000 engineers annually, giving us the largest concentration of engineers in the U.S.,” Krauss boasts. “Tool and die workers, too. Education continues to pay off for us in having a well-rounded workforce.”

She regularly consults with local educational institutions on “workforce of the future” issues.

The vibrant Krauss observes that her work is most decidedly a team effort. “No one does this by themselves.” Besides officials from the city of Detroit and the surrounding counties, she partners with private and public economic

development organizations, including the Michigan Economic Development Corp. “We have developed protocols to work together collaboratively and serve the customer, which makes the state look its best.”

The Chamber also has a strong contingency of international partners. “A number of big international projects we’ve landed have brought the right people to the table,” she explains.

The Chamber executive is confident that Detroit can once again become a leading city.

It will take time, Krauss concedes, but she believes that the opportunity for growth in Detroit is stronger now than it has been in decades. “The city has done an impressive job of determining priorities. They’re looking at every key function, then determining how to deliver the best service at the lowest cost.

The mayor [Mike Duggan] will ensure that the city of Detroit is a good partner for companies looking to invest.”

As an example of Duggan’s effectiveness, Krauss points out that before his arrival, the city only replaced some 500 street lights in a

Krauss sees Detroit starting to catch up with other cities in the region, but says that “something that we need to do is to own our story, and not let someone else tell our story. The story of Detroit is that we have an extraordinarily diverse and productive workforce, a strong global footprint, and an extra-affordable location for people looking at where to go and where to invest.”

A former member of the Gerald R. Ford Institute for Leadership in Public Policy and Service, she says her most important influence at Albion College was Ford director Mike Dively. “He got me excited about public service.

Albion College made it so easy to be engaged. I got to meet President Ford, ambassadors, and policymakers,” Krauss says enthusiastically.

She also appreciates how different the four full-time faculty in the Political Science Department at that time—Connie Cook, Elaine Martin, Charlie Schutz, and Bruce Borthwick— were from each other and that they all had realworld experience. “Each was very impactful,” she reflects. “The thing I love about Albion is that you get so much closer to key figures who really

“THE IMAGE OF DETROIT IS A CHALLENGE. BUT THE LAST FEW YEARS, PEOPLE HAVE BEEN INTRIGUED BY WHAT IS HAPPENING.” year; since Duggan took office in early 2014, 30,000 street lights have been replaced. “It’s all heading in the right direction. You can really tell the difference—better services for residents and businesses are key to future growth.”

Detroit is in the midst of an historic comeback, making it one of the most exciting places to operate a business, in Krauss’s view. Long known for its loyalty to its professional sports teams, Detroit saw construction begin this spring on the Red Wings’ hockey arena and nearby entertainment district, a $650-million investment that will complement the Tigers’ Comerica Park and the Lions’ Ford Field. Other downtown bright spots are the Campus Martius Park, a spectacular new riverfront, residential loft and condominium construction, and the opening of numerous restaurants, bars, and retail shops.

Then there are the historic structures, like the Westin Book Cadillac hotel, that have recently been refurbished to new elegance.

embrace the student.” But, Krauss stresses, she was also allowed to make her own path.

She continues to stay connected to the Ford Institute, occasionally hosting groups of students and speaking on campus, and she now has another reason to return to Albion, since her daughter, Natalie Krauss, ’18, enrolled last fall.

The learning experiences she had in the Ford Institute still inspire Krauss today. In a recent “State of the Region” report, the Chamber president observes that “Detroit’s historic exit from bankruptcy has changed the city from a symbol of urban decay to the nation’s underdog upstart.” Driven by her commitment to public service, Krauss says that, for her, promoting this ‘underdog upstart’ is more than a job. It’s a mission—a mission she gladly accepts.

Spring-Summer 2014 | 19

RESTORING SOULS . . .

AND A CITY

Workers employed by Cass Community Social Services make “Detroit Treads” sandals from illegally dumped tires reclaimed from vacant lots around the city by Cass staff and volunteers.

In the first seven months, the agency sold 4,000 pairs or $100,000 worth of sandals. Orders have come from 47 states and four foreign countries.

FAITH FOWLER, ’81, BRINGS DIGNITY AND HOPE TO THE PEOPLE OF CASS COMMUNITY.

No coverage of the revitalization of Detroit would be complete without recognition for Faith Fowler, senior pastor of Cass Community United Methodist Church and executive director of Cass Community Social Services. In her new book, This Far by Faith: Twenty Years at Cass Community, she reflects on her work in Detroit’s inner city through stories like those excerpted here. Detroit Free Press columnist and author Mitch Albom has written: “The world waits for people like Faith Fowler. When we most need them, they come along. This memoir, like the author herself, is funny, poignant, moving, beautifully stated, and oozing with a commitment to a simple yet profound idea: that other people are worth the trouble.”

After 20 years at Hull-House, Jane Addams wrote a memoir describing her life and work. In so many ways, I am no Jane Addams.

She was obviously stationed in Chicago, and I’m in Detroit. She dealt with the abhorrent conditions in factories and child labor abuses while I have become preoccupied with creating employment. Her settlement house was situated in a crowded neighborhood composed mostly of immigrants from European countries. My city has experienced an exodus of biblical proportions, and AfricanAmericans make up the majority of the remaining residents.

Addams dealt with the Industrial Revolution. I have struggled with the onslaught of information, the technological revolution, and globalization. Jane Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and I operate a haunted house.

Still, I feel a kindred spirit with the reform leader. I gravitate toward Addams because she wasn’t afraid to work at the grassroots level. She spent 36 years in Chicago’s 19th Ward, most of it in tireless activity as if she understood that only a fraction of the things that cry out to be done can be accomplished in a lifetime even for those granted longevity. I hold her in high

esteem because she was appalled by the injustice and indifference she witnessed. She reached the conclusion that poverty is complex but that its multifaceted nature is no excuse for failing to solve the toughest problems. Her bestselling book, Twenty Years at Hull-House, still provides a window through which to watch her personal development as well as the struggles and triumphs of her neighbors.

It is my hope that Twenty Years at Cass Community will install a window in much the same way. The short stories included are meant to reveal some of my incremental changes while they provide a fuller picture of the people of the community—their obstacles, foibles, tragedies, triumphs, and tenacity. So often, poor people get reduced to numbers or graphs. When they are not treated like research data, they tend to be either vilified or regarded as helpless victims. One of my goals is to give a sense of them as three-dimensional, flesh and blood people.

My Twenty Years book will also describe the evolution of the Cass organizations. It is important to note first that Cass Community

United Methodist Church was involved in outreach and advocacy before I was born. . . .

[The church’s separate nonprofit organization, Cass Community Social Services (CCSS) formed in 2002,] has grown exponentially. By 2013, the Food Program prepared and served a million meals annually. The Activity Center for Adults with Developmental Disabilities had increased to 125 participants, five days a week. In addition to the Warming Center and the Rotating Shelter, Cass added all of its transitional housing and permanent supportive housing so that 325 homeless men, women, and children stay in one of our buildings every night. In response to the financial crisis, Cass began offering employment in 2007. Eighty-five permanent Green Industries jobs have been created and linked to sustainability. Finally, seven of the agency’s 10 buildings are located within five blocks, establishing a pedestrian campus for residents, staff, and volunteers.

The ‘this far’ [in the book title] implies that we have been on a long, often arduous journey and that we have made it to this point because God has been faithful, never failing us. It reminds us

also that there is further to go.

As long as poverty persists and opportunities are limited or denied, our work is unfinished.

MISS CASS [One day, Sarah, our CCSS program director,] said she wanted to establish a beauty pageant.

That was the day we started drug testing our staff.

“Are you out of your ever-loving mind?” I thundered. “What a sexist, draconian suggestion. The whole world objectifies women, and I will not be a part of it.”

Sarah averted her eyes by looking down at her shoes, “They don’t have any milestones, Rev. Fowler.”

I mulled over her comment.

Most men and women with developmental disabilities don’t graduate from high school. Next to none learn to drive a car. . . . For the most part, they don’t marry or have children. They don’t land a dream job or get big promotions that involve a substantial pay raise or an office with windows.

Men and women who are developmentally disabled never close on a house. They don’t buy a

Spring-Summer 2015 | 21

cottage, plan a once-in-a-lifetime trip, or spoil their grandchildren. Sarah was right. They miss out on celebrations. They don’t receive the recognition that all people need and deserve.

“All right,” I conceded, “you can have the beauty contest, but there better not be any swimsuits in my sanctuary.”

[The first year, women on the CCSS staff donated the formal wear from their own closets.] On the night of the Miss Cass pageant, 27 women sauntered down the center aisle of the church in their long dresses with hose and high heels, manicured fingernails, styled hair, and professionally applied make-up. Each was escorted by one of the 10 gentlemen who were wearing tuxedos.

In addition to being judged on the evening wear, the female contestants performed individual talents. One led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. She remembered every word in order, even if she confused which hand to place over her heart. Another recited a poem that she had memorized. Jackie delivered The Lord’s Prayer. After she finished, she added a knock-knock joke, thinking that it might help her win. A few women played musical instruments. There was plenty of singing, too.

Patty, who isn’t developmentally disabled, but a senior citizen with Alzheimer’s, surprised the attendees when she took center stage to croon.

She spends hours each day wandering the Cass Corridor streets, cradling a baby doll or a stuffed animal in her arms. When she opened her mouth to sing “Ave Maria” at the Miss Cass pageant, her perfectly pitched voice sounded like Adele, and the crowd erupted with wild, effusive applause.

The majority of the contestants, though, preferred to dance. This wasn’t a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers routine. The women became Tina Turner. The DJ started the musical numbers each contestant had pre-selected.

One after another, they lit up the raised chancel “stage” and electrified the audience with their lip-synching, hand motions, footwork, and sometimes overly suggestive body movements.

Twirling, swaying, hip rolling, shimmying, even the splits were performed to Motown favorites and romantic classics. Sometimes it was hard to hear the music over all the cheering and clapping. . . .

After the celebrity judges cast their votes for beauty and talent, a smaller group of finalists was selected to answer questions. Then the

22 | Albion College Io Triumphe!

final votes were tabulated. A second runnerup and first runner-up were announced, and, finally, Miss Cass was crowned. She stood, waving like Queen Elizabeth, before taking a final walk up and down the “runway” as the crowd applauded.

Over the years, the audience has swelled to more than 300 spectators. . . . Just as many of the contestants and escorts lacked opportunities to be in the spotlight, their families and friends had gone without events that allowed them to publicly express their love, support, and pride. The Miss Cass pageant provided their relatives a time to celebrate their accomplishments and talents.

It wasn’t until the third year that we understood what the pageant meant to the contestants. That year our winner received her tiara before her adoring fans, and she refused to take it off. For nearly three weeks, it remained bobby-pinned to her head—she wore it to bed, in the shower, to shop, and on the city buses. She wore it to church and to the Activity Center. She was Miss Cass, and she wanted the world to know.

YOU KNOW YOU ARE HOME WHEN Returning to Detroit from Metro Airport, you know you are home when you pass the gigantic [Uniroyal] tire on I-94 in Allen Park.

Illuminated, it stands out even at night, as I imagine it did as part of an 8-story Ferris wheel in the 1964 New York World’s Fair.

The gondolas were removed and a tread installed in their place when the tire arrived in Michigan. Beyond that, there have only been a few minor changes over the years. But the treads are deep, and the black rubber never went flat. Metropolitan Detroiters tend to see the mammoth tire as a symbol of the local automotive industry’s might.

When you drive into the city proper, you know you are home when you pass not one, but numerous illegally dumped tires. They litter almost every neighborhood. They are scattered two or three deep on a curb or vacant lot. In some spots, they are piled higher than your head. It is not uncommon to see a few hundred, heaped helter-skelter like an urban mountain.

In the city, tires are not a symbol of strength, but of blight and scurrilous activity.

Pickup trucks snake along the city’s side streets in the middle of the night and unidentifiable people toss the tires out of the rolling vehicles.

Brazen box trucks do the same, dumping their heavy loads, without even bothering to hide the signs that bear their company names. . . .

It won’t take you long to conclude that tires never make for good neighbors. They are unsightly. They are heavy and grimy and costly to clean up. If you don’t dispose of them, their curves will collect rainwater, and they become breeding grounds for mosquitoes in the summer. Rodents reproduce in them the rest of the year. Moving mounds of tires to cut the grass each week is an impossibility. What’s more, tires retain heat and can easily ignite.

Occasionally, someone deliberately sets a pile on fire. Then you will discover that tires are stubborn and hard to extinguish. Burning tires fill the air and your lungs with poison.

One day, I read an article about a new cottage industry in Oklahoma that recycled tires into doormats. Given the infinite supply of illegally dumped tires in Detroit and the desperate need for jobs, I reached out to the agency that works with Native American people, most of them of the Cherokee tribe. “Would you tell me how you got started with the doormats and how the business is doing?” I asked.

The gentleman on the other end of the phone was extremely generous with information and his time. Their employment program sounded like a perfect fit for what I wanted to start in Michigan. . . .

An anonymous donor provided the $4,000 needed for startup. The funds allowed us to purchase a saw and punch, some wire and spacers. Ten men, homeless and formerly homeless, were hired to make Cass mud mats from discarded tires. Since the program’s inception, up to a dozen men have worked in the Cass program without interruption. All of their wages have been covered by mud mat sales.

In 2009, Magic Johnson served as the honorary chair at a Cass fundraiser. The program manager asked if one of the workers would make a mat in Michigan State colors to be presented to Magic at the event.

Albert volunteered. He set up wires in his workstation. Then he painstakingly selected the pre-punched strips of rubber, collected enough green and white spacers, and finally he wove the wires, rubber strips, and spacers into a perfect mat. When he was done clamping the ends, Albert attached a metal Cass logo tag on the front before he flipped it over. We thought he was going to hoist up the

Thousands of volunteers help us gather illegally dumped tires. We call the collection process “tire hunting,” but no hounds or weapons are required. An empty truck and a passenger van go out together. Sometimes the search is random, meaning the team just drives until they find enough raw materials to fill the truck. At other times, neighbors, community groups, government offices, or even news stations will alert us to particular areas that are rich in illegally dumped bounty.

Either way, the repurposed rubber has helped us marry reducing poverty and protecting the planet. The hunters and laborers turn blocks of unsightly blight into an attractive, environmentally friendly Detroit product of which both groups are proud.

EPILOGUE Detroit is changing in some exciting ways. It is reinventing itself even as others are stuck in reciting the litany of negative changes that began in the 1950s. Take development, for example. In the last 20 years, Hudson’s Department Store was imploded, and Tiger Stadium was razed, but during the same period, the Gem Theatre was moved a few blocks rather than demolished. Comerica Park was built. Ford Field was developed, and the Lions came back to the city. . . .

Campus Martius was redeveloped into an urban oasis complete with a fountain, sculptures, and the “point of origin” plaque. . . .

Thousands of people enjoy the Motown Winter Blast there. Come in the summer and you will hear jazz bands or watch movies at night projected on a giant screen.

A quiet revolution has occurred in the last decade. A biking culture now permeates Detroit. A section of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad line has been converted into the Dequindre Cut. . . . On Monday nights, thousands of people participate in long, leisurely group bike rides through the city, thanks to Slow Roll co-founders Jason Hall and Mike MacKool. This would have been unthinkable 20 years back.

R. GARZA/DETROIT FREE PRESS PHOTO

mat to show off his work. Instead, he signed his name to the back of the mat using a silver Sharpie permanent marker. No one had ever done that before. Since that day, all of the workers have repeated the act of signing the mats they create.

Described as a ‘prophetic voice,’ Faith Fowler is a champion for Detroiters—and Detroit. In her role as executive director of Cass Community Social Services, she leads an organization that provides meals, shelter, employment, and compassion for many of the city’s neediest citizens, and she rallies thousands of volunteers annually to join her in this work.

The composition of residents has changed.

Everyone has written about the depopulation of the city, but new people are arriving. The influx of transplants from southern states and European countries has virtually stopped, but Hispanic and Middle Eastern immigrants are choosing southeastern Michigan and Detroit in record numbers. They add to the area’s already rich diversity. Michigan’s Republican governor has even set a goal of attracting 50,000 immigrants to help repopulate the city in the next five years, given their strong drive, solid work ethic, and entrepreneurial skills. This is a radical change.

Young adults are moving into Detroit once again, too. They are educated, energetic, and ambitious. Scores of them are artists and business leaders. Quicken Loans’ Dan Gilbert deserves a great deal of credit for luring thousands of young professionals to work and live in the D. Occasionally these young adults rub the old-time residents the wrong way by implying that they have come to “save” the city, but no one can argue that there is room enough for everyone in Detroit. Certainly everyone benefits from the income taxes and property taxes paid by the latest arrivals. They also benefit the larger community by shopping, entertaining, and frequently providing leadership in the community.

Are there still urgent issues? Absolutely.

How many of the young people will stay once they have school-aged children? The Detroit Public School system is in disarray.

The charter schools, which were touted as the answer to the public education system,

aren’t performing measurably better. Private schools and parochial schools are expensive, and suburban schools require travel time. Change can’t come soon enough for education in the city.

The drug trade and its related violence continue to plague Detroit. . . . For years, people protested so that folks wouldn’t be confined to the back of a bus, but today we remain largely silent as our citizens, many of them children, are put in the back of a hearse.

The economy itself is changing. The recession taught us all about the volatility of the stock market, the instability of mortgages and foreclosure, banking bailouts and bankruptcy.

We have also been properly schooled about the shrinking middle class, CEO compensation, and the ever-expanding gap between the rich and the poor. . . .

Still, there has been a positive change in Detroit. We’re hand-making watches and bikes at Shinola. Detroit Denim is producing blue jeans. TechTown is steadily launching new startups. Area gardens are selling fresh produce at Eastern Market. Stroh’s has been replaced by Atwater Brewery. Trendy new restaurants have popped up, like the Green Dot Stables and Slows Bar-B-Q. Some existing large businesses have moved back into the city, too, like Compuware and, more recently, the Lowe Campbell Ewald advertising firm.

Detroit is open for business.

This Far By Faith is available at amazon.com.

Spring-Summer 2015 | 23

‘Both ‘BothaaNegro Negroand andananAmerican’ American’ History professor Marcy Sacks probes issues of race and identity in her new study on boxing champion Joe Louis.

C. VAN VECHTEN/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PHOTO

Joe Louis won his first 27 professional fights, 23 by knockout. He went on to hold the world heavyweight title longer than any other boxer in history (19371949), earning nearly $5 million.

In her forthcoming book, Joe Louis: Sports and Race in Twentieth Century America, Marcy Sacks, John S. Ludington Trustees’ Professor of History, provides a new perspective on Joe Louis’s life in the context of America’s troubled racial history. In this interview, she reflects on Louis’s impact on both black and white Americans and how his story remains relevant for us today.

Io Triumphe!: Can you help us understand the status that boxing had in the first half of the 20th century—Americans viewed the sport quite differently than they do today.

For a moment in 1938, legendary boxer Joe Louis appeared to have achieved the elusive dream articulated by W. E. B. DuBois: he became “both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.” The grandson of freed slaves, the son of Alabama sharecroppers, Joe Louis grew up in Detroit where he began his boxing career. He fleetingly gained acceptance as his nation’s standardbearer when he resoundingly defeated the German boxer, Max Schmeling, in front of a jubilant, 80,000-strong crowd at Yankee Stadium. Whites and blacks alike hailed Louis’s accomplishment as an American victory. However, rather than produce a genuine amelioration of race relations, Louis’s success ironically helped to entrench whites’ belief in their own racial superiority.

Marcy Sacks: Boxing starts to become popular among all classes in America during the 1870s and 1880s. Teddy Roosevelt and other social critics were concerned with the loss of masculinity among American men. Boxing seemed to be a particularly effective way to make men out of boys—because you’re on your own in the ring, one-on-one with your opponent.

You have to be mentally strong; you have to absorb the pain; you have to take someone down. From this notion that boxing makes men comes the idea that boxing therefore represents the epitome of manhood. The man who would become the heavyweight boxing

champion must represent the best that there is of men. Gaining that title brings esteem to him and by extension to his whole group, whatever that group might be.

To put boxing’s popularity in perspective, by the 1920s you could get gate receipts of more than a million dollars and crowds of upwards of 50,000 at the big matches. The numbers fell off at the beginning of the Great Depression, but when Joe Louis started attracting national attention in the mid-1930s, fans came back to the sport in huge numbers. They were captivated by the talent of this young African-American boxer.

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BURTON HISTORICAL COLLECTION/ DETROIT PUBLIC LIBRARY PHOTO DETROIT FREE PRESS PHOTO

Joe Louis (left) and Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens were among the first African-American athletes to achieve worldwide recognition. They both also played central roles in combatting the Nazi claim of Aryan supremacy, Owens with his four-medal triumph at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and Louis with his knockout of German boxer Max Schmeling in 1938 at a sold-out Yankee Stadium.

An enthusiastic amateur golfer, Louis (shown at the Rackham Golf Course in Huntington Woods, Mich.) hired black golf professionals as his golf tutors, organized a national golf tournament, and advocated for PGA membership for black golfers. His efforts helped create opportunities for other black players who eventually broke the PGA color barrier.

Joe Louis was the world heavyweight boxing champion for 12 years. What was the significance of an AfricanAmerican athlete achieving this celebrity status in a sport with such a broad following?

The first black heavyweight champion was Jack Johnson, who first earned the title in 1908.

He’s an interesting man—smart, astute, and incredibly defiant for his time. He didn’t back down from anybody; he consorted quite openly with white women, to the absolute horror of white America.

He is clearly the best boxer out there when he wins the title, but he eventually is forced to flee the country and that ends his boxing career. Whites vow that there will never be another black heavyweight champion.

When Louis began rising through the amateur ranks in the 1930s, most black observers assumed that he would have no shot at a heavyweight title because of Jack Johnson’s legacy. In an effort to

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overcome whites’ lingering fears, Louis’s handlers cautioned the young boxer about his behavior, instructing him to avoid being seen with white women, not to gloat over his fallen opponents (who were usually white), and to leave most of the talking with the press to them.

His cause was helped by world affairs. White Americans were eager to assert their nation’s superiority over Hitler’s crude Aryanism, and supporting a black boxer offered them an easy foil for their own racism. In addition, Louis’s unmatched talent helped to ensure that the heavyweight title would be held by an American, further demonstrating American preeminence.

How did Joe Louis’s achievements in the ring—and his personal influence—help break down the color barrier in professional sports?

Joe Louis becomes influential in a number of ways. Because Louis

makes the white public feel a bit more comfortable with the idea of a talented black athlete achieving success, other black boxers start to get more chances. He breaks down other barriers too. Beginning with his first widely-promoted fight, a June 1935 match against the former champion, Primo Carnera, he insists on allowing black sportswriters to be at ringside in his fights, which had not been permitted in the past.

During World War II, Louis joins the Army and primarily engages in entertaining the troops through a series of exhibition matches. Even there, in spite of the Army’s policy on segregation at that time, he insists that black servicemen must be allowed to attend along with whites.

He deliberately works to integrate the sport of golf, which he particularly loved, and bowling. He doesn’t succeed in integrating golf, though he does succeed in getting himself onto PGA courses, with the help of friends like Frank Sinatra.

His fights on behalf of civil rights often were behind the scenes, but his efforts were emblematic of his broader sense of what was unjust about American society, and he saw he had an opportunity to do something about it.

He has an impact on baseball as well. When Branch Rickey makes the decision to integrate the Brooklyn Dodgers, and wants to bring in Jackie Robinson, Rickey

goes to Joe Louis and asks for his help with coaching Robinson about the difficult challenges he would face.

The media often portrayed Louis one way in the boxing ring and quite another in his life outside the ring. How was this disparity a reflection of the times?

Louis came on the scene in 1930s America when Jim Crow laws were deeply entrenched. There was an absolute conviction among white Americans, in the North and the South, that black people were inferior and needed to be controlled in order to keep the social order intact.

So along comes this black fighter who’s incredibly strong and levels his opponents, almost all of whom are white, and whites have to figure out how to deal with this.

They go through some interesting contortions. It is amazing how white sportswriters craft his biography. They talk about his Alabama sharecropping roots. His family is depicted as physically strong but not mentally strong. His mother is shown to be God-fearing and raising her children to be obedient. The image projected of Louis is one of a simple boy-man from the backwoods of Alabama.

But when he is in the ring, winning easily against his opponents, the language changes—it focuses on his life

in the urban North. He becomes the “Detroit Destroyer.” They talk about him being savage, driven by his primordial African impulses.

They use vicious stereotypes that conform to whites’ ideas that blacks are primitive and must be controlled. It’s pretty stunning.

The perception is that Joe Louis didn’t pay much attention to how he was being portrayed in the media. But he did notice. It upset him that they talked about him being stupid. It frustrated him that they thought he was surly because he didn’t respond to their questions. Louis didn’t like to speak in public; he knew he would be misinterpreted. And he thought there was nothing to be gained by complaining about his treatment in the media.

Part of the story I want to tell is that he recognized the injustices he personally faced and the broader social injustices that all black people faced, and he dealt with them in the only ways that he had. He didn’t just ignore them.

What did Joe Louis mean to African Americans generally, and particularly black Detroiters, at a time when segregation was still pervasive?

While the adulation for Joe Louis among black Detroiters was not universal—one woman I interviewed told me that her parents thought that actor and scholar Paul Robeson was a better role model—most black people saw many great things in Joe Louis.

They followed his boxing triumphs closely. They felt incredible pride that their guy was the heavyweight champion of the world. This was visceral pride—Louis is knocking everybody out, and by extension, black people could feel they were maybe wreaking some revenge for their own mistreatment.

Joe Louis was also a glamorous person. He loved to dress well.

His wife was stylish too. In a

world where everyone is telling you that you’re ugly, that you’re not worthy, and that you’ve got nothing to contribute, here’s this beautiful young couple—strong, popular, impressive to whites— what’s not to love about that. In Detroit, they adored him—they claimed him as theirs. And Joe Louis loved being popular. He would stand on the corner in his old neighborhood and hand out dollar bills. For Louis, boxing was not so much about the money he earned—which was considerable for his day. It was more about the fame that came along with his success. The quiet boy from a large family thrived on feeling important and special.

You took boxing lessons in order to understand the sport better. How has that helped you in writing this book?

Early on in this project, I spent a lot of time reading all of this commentary from white reporters about Louis boxing instinctively.

They suggested that because he was of African descent he had this ability that white boxers didn’t have to box instinctively—it was their way of minimizing his accomplishments. I felt I needed to know whether you really could box without skill and training.

I needed to learn firsthand about boxing to understand Louis better and understand the commentary about his fights better.

So I found this boxing gym in Brooklyn, Michigan, in the basement of a church. I went there and had no idea what to expect.

The guys at the gym were very welcoming—they embraced me.

They called me “the professor.”

What I learned is that you cannot box mindlessly. I’m physically fit— I’m a marathon runner. But I found nothing I have done athletically was harder than learning to box. There is the physical talent required plus the constant need to keep yourself protected and get your moves right. There is so much thinking

involved in this sport. It was a great challenge, and I loved it. And this experience gave me an even greater respect for Louis as a boxer and the skill and strategy that he brought into the ring—you need to train intensively, and you need to be savvy. All the claims about Louis only being successful because he had this supposed African savagery were simply not true.

What insights will readers gain from your book—about Joe Louis as a person and about our evolving attitudes on race?

There are two things about Louis’s story that are important and have not been accurately portrayed.

First, the studies I have seen—and many books have been written about Louis—pretty universally claim that Louis and his success in the ring helped usher in a new era in race relations. I think that is a misguided story. Some of the crudest forms of racism became less acceptable—it’s a lot harder to use racial epithets about somebody like Joe Louis. But in terms of actually improving race relations and particularly whites’ notions about white supremacy, I don’t think Louis accomplished that. That’s important to tell. In the United States today, a lot of white people want to feel that racism is dead and that proof of that lies in part in the integration of sports. Even with the gains that have been made—including the election of a black president—the claims that racism has ended are patently untrue.

Whites used Louis during the Nazi era to make the explicit point that the American way of life was better. Louis proved, they said, that anyone who has talent and is willing to work hard can succeed. Here was this son of a sharecropper who had made it to the pinnacle of the sporting world.

In making that claim, whites were also saying that anyone who hasn’t made it must be to blame for their own failure. That belief ignores

the systemic obstacles that were in place for large groups of people.

So I want to tell Joe Louis’s story because of the ways that racism evolves because of him but does not end.

I also discovered along the way that Louis is a much more impressive person than comes across in most accounts of his life. Portraying him as dumb does a terrible disservice to him, and more broadly to black people. He was not well-educated, but as an adult he hired a tutor to learn what he missed in school— and he enjoyed it. He was not stupid. He was more astute than most writers have recognized.

Why is Louis’s story still important today?

I think his story remains important for black people today. Muhammad Ali was the first to criticize Joe Louis publicly—he called him an “Uncle Tom.” Because we don’t teach African-American history very well and because African Americans often don’t have a chance to learn the complexity of their own history, there has been a lot of acceptance of that criticism.

Louis was only accommodating to whites within the confines of what was necessary. That story has not been well-told. It leaves black people perhaps believing that there has not been enough done by their own people on their behalf. I think knowing the history—the stories of people like Joe Louis—can instill a lot of pride among black Americans in their legacy of protesting different forms of injustice.

Marcy Sacks is also the author of Before Harlem: The Black Experience in New York City Before World War I (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Spring-Summer 2015 | 27

TEAMWORK

down to a science Skills acquired in college sports help researcher Jaime Fornetti, ’06, tackle her biggest competition: breast cancer.

By Rachel Stark, NCAA

The scientist, these days, doesn’t play much basketball.

Her home court is now her lab, her uniform a crisp white coat reaching down to her knees. Memorized experiment protocols have replaced memorized game plays. Victories, in most cases, no longer garner cheers.

She works in silence on this January afternoon, hurriedly writing in a notebook and glancing occasionally at a timer nearby. The Oklahoma City sun shines through the window, highlighting the sterile white walls and assorted chemical-filled jugs decorating the shelves around her. On her desk sits a pile of journal articles, their titles featuring terms like “macrophage-stimulating protein” and “recombinant retroviruses” and “RON receptor tyrosine.”

It’s a language—and a world—in which Jaime Fornetti thrives. Four months into a post-doctoral fellowship with a breast cancer research lab at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Fornetti is searching for a route to target breast cancer bone metastasis. At 31, she has already worked in some of the most influential labs among some of the greatest leaders in this realm of research—people tackling questions about a disease estimated to claim more than 40,000 American lives in 2015.

[She was recently reunited] with one of these leaders, Pepper Schedin, who runs a research lab on postpartum breast cancer at the Oregon Health and Science University Knight Cancer Institute. There, Fornetti put the finishing touches on a project started when she worked for six years in Schedin’s lab, previously located in Colorado.

But her visit to Portland [was] a rare chance to reconnect with a special mentor. Schedin first welcomed Fornetti into her lab while the young scientist pursuing her Ph.D. wasn’t far removed from days balancing time in the classroom with time on the basketball team at Albion College. And although Fornetti left her playing days behind when she graduated from Albion, and although Schedin—a self-proclaimed “science nerd”—struggles to differentiate one sport from another, a collaboration developed between the two scientists that is more common in athletic arenas than laboratories.

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Science, for centuries, was an individual sport.

Bright minds plowed their own paths to breakthroughs, not needing a team effort for light-bulb moments. Research was personal— one person per project. Science labs didn’t mesh with social butterflies. Then came the Information Age. Advancements in technology led to an explosion of information that a single scientist simply couldn’t absorb. The study of science, silos and all, demanded an evolution; collaboration among experts became crucial.

Team science slowly began to emerge in the lab. But evolution takes time, and teamwork takes training—the type of coaching most scientists didn’t yet have.

Fornetti, of course, wasn’t aware of any of this while growing up in the small town of Iron Mountain on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

With a dad in construction and a mom working for the school district, Fornetti for most of her life didn’t know anyone could build a career in research. Most days, the young girl, thrilled by discovery, hoped to become an archaeologist.

Sports entered the picture early. As soon as she could swing a bat, Fornetti played baseball in the yard with her dad. There was no softball team in town, so she hit the field with the boys until she was 12. She later picked up soccer and basketball, but when high school came her athletic choices were pre-determined: She joined the basketball and track teams because women’s soccer and softball weren’t offered.

Fornetti’s interest in basketball and science grew during those formative years. She decided to pursue both at Albion College, where her schedule quickly filled with daily practices, biweekly games, a full slate of classes, and preparation for medical school. Fornetti majored in biology and minored in chemistry with a concentration in neuroscience. Outside of the classroom and the court, Fornetti spent time in the lab, performing genetic experiments on fruit flies. She became known as the “Energizer Bunny.”

On the basketball team, Fornetti, a guard, established herself as a leader. During timed

30 | Albion College Io Triumphe!

miles, Fornetti was the one who told stories to struggling teammates to distract them from the pain. She caught the eye of the track coach and later joined the team for two seasons, running any sprint event shorter than 400-meters.

“Jaime was always positive,” said her basketball coach, Doreen Carden. “She knew how to balance her academic side and her athletic side—she really embodied the true meaning of studentathlete. And I don’t say that about many kids.”

Fornetti, like many athletes, cherished the team camaraderie. She relished the challenge of working with different people with different personalities toward a common goal. That lesson gave Fornetti an unexpected advantage when she joined the Schedin research lab [during graduate school].

Pepper Schedin knew nothing about sports.

Basketball or baseball, forward, linebacker, or shortstop—the words to her didn’t mean a thing.

But she noticed that Fornetti brought something unique to her breast cancer research lab in Denver when she joined in 2008. The young scientist was sharp, of course, and paid close attention to detail. The characteristic that really stood out, though, was the way she united the diverse people around her. Not only would she write a smart experimental plan for her own project, but she would offer to review the plans of other scientists in the lab. She would nudge her peers toward strategic thinking. How can you make this experiment as interpretable as possible? she would ask. What would your controls be?

Schedin saw Fornetti stop for “everybody and anybody” to help them sort through the details, ensuring they wouldn’t waste time, money, or resources. To the veteran scientist, the rookie seemed mature with this knack for teamwork already developed. “It’s a difficult thing to learn, especially in science,” Schedin said. Schedin may have lacked sports knowledge, but she still spotted the source of this skill: Fornetti had acquired it through athletics. “Before, I didn’t think of an interaction between sports and science,” Schedin said. “Now I appreciate team sports from a scientific perspective.”

Her appreciation grew in 2011 when Schedin applied for and received a $100,000 grant from the Kay Yow Cancer Fund in partnership with The V Foundation for Cancer Research. The grant is awarded annually to a cancer research facility in the host city of the NCAA Women’s Final Four Basketball Tournament. The 2012 tournament was held in Denver, also home to the University of Colorado Cancer Center and, at the time, Schedin’s lab.

Fornetti was working in the lab when Schedin walked in to tell her the news. “Jaime! We got money from the N… C… A… A…” Schedin spoke each letter slowly, as if they were foreign.

Fornetti stared blankly, confused. “Pepper, I don’t know what that is.”

“Yes you do,” Schedin prodded. “It has something to do with basketball.”

“Oh, you mean the NCAA,” the younger scientist realized, laughing. “Like, college sports.”

Fornetti began to explain. She told her mentor about college sports’ governing body and its connection to her basketball career. In return, Schedin told her mentee what she knew about the research-supporting missions of the Kay Yow Cancer Fund, formed in honor of the former North Carolina State University women’s basketball coach who died from breast cancer, and The V Foundation for Cancer Research, a tribute to the former NC State men’s basketball coach Jim Valvano.

The organizations that supported Fornetti’s favorite game were still supporting her life in a new way.

“She conveyed how important it was that we received this money,” Schedin later recalled. “To see this connection for her was just powerful.”

Schedin’s lab, which focuses specifically on pregnancy-related breast cancer, used the grant money to start a collection of breast tissue from women in their reproductive years.

They hope it will help identify biomarkers of risk. Fornetti used some of the acquired tissue in her individual projects. . . .

The timer on Fornetti’s desk beeps, and like the start of a new half, she snaps into action. She pulls on her blue gloves and walks to the refrigerator to retrieve a plate of cells.

Then she’s off to the incubation room to see the fruit of this day’s cell-staining, solution-stirring, calculated labor under the lens of a microscope.

She turns off the lights before analyzing the cells—a trick she discovered after trial and error. Then, in the darkness, her answer appears: Clusters of fluorescent green dots light up the microscope display, confirmation of a successful cell staining. She grew these cells over a period of 10 days on a matrix designed to resemble bone, all in an effort to better understand the way breast cancer can spread to and damage that part of the body.

It is her latest project in her new research home at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, a lab run by breast cancer scientist Alana Welm.

Though she’s only been with her lab since October, Welm says Fornetti has already proven to be resourceful and collaborative. Early on, she volunteered to present the project she developed in Schedin’s lab to her new Oklahoma City teammates, in case it would be helpful to their research.

As Fornetti studies her cells, another scientist walks up behind her, peering at her screen.

“You see the osteoclasts better in the dark?” the woman asks. “Maybe that’s why I have trouble seeing mine.”

B. DEERING/OMRF PHOTO

Just before Fornetti accepted her new postdoctoral fellowship in Oklahoma City last June, Schedin moved her lab from Denver to Portland. The Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University had recruited Schedin for her skills in building teams. Schedin welcomes people of all types whenever she searches for the next collaborative scientist to join her new group.

But the candidates who get her most excited, she admits, are the ones whose résumés include college sports.

The 2005 MIAA defensive player of the year, Jaime Fornetti, ’06, helped lead the Britons that season to the NCAA Division III Sweet Sixteen. The team will be inducted into Albion’s Athletic Hall of Fame in October.

Yes, Fornetti explains. It was a simple solution—just a flip of the light switch—but it solved a pesky problem in her experiment.

Perhaps it would do the same for the others.

Somewhere in the new Oklahoma City home Fornetti shares with her husband, a special basketball sits in a display case in a not-yetunpacked box. It’s emblazoned with the logo for the 2012 Women’s Final Four in Denver and signed by Jim Valvano’s brother.

Schedin first caught sight of it during the weekend of that Final Four, the year her lab received the research grant in conjunction with the tournament. She was still no sports fan, but this commemorative ball had her hooked.

So the accomplished scientist, outside of her comfort zone, had to work up the guts to ask for it. “You have to hear why I need this ball,” she told organizers.

Schedin knew all along what she would do with it. But she let the years pass without a word and kept the ball in her lab office. Then, last spring, the mentor finally made the pass. Schedin walked into Fornetti’s graduation party holding the ball in its display case. The younger scientist beamed.

“I was hoping all along it was mine,” Fornetti said.

“Who else’s would it be?” Schedin replied.

Once she settles into her new home, Fornetti knows exactly where she’ll put the ball. It will go in her basement, next to other sports mementos, mostly from Albion . . . for now.

Fornetti still has a few years to go before completing her postdoctoral research. But she can envision the day when she will run her own research lab. She will build her own team of collaborators and give young scientists their first shots. She will fill her office with test tubes and laboratory notebooks and journal articles.

But first she will make space for the basketball.

Reprinted with permission of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

This article and accompanying video originally appeared in February 2015 as part of the NCAA’s After the Game™ series online at: www.ncaa.org/formerstudentathlete.

Spring-Summer 2015 | 31

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION NEWS

From San Francisco to Sarasota . . . and points in between

Purple-and-gold has been popping up across the country in recent months. At events ranging from a San Francisco Symphony performance to a Kalamazoo Wings hockey game to a Broadway production of Jersey Boys (and many more), Britons were enthusiastically connecting with each other and with President Mauri Ditzler.

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To learn more about past and future alumni events, go to: www.albion.edu/alumni/events.

Go get ’em, Tigers!

Join Albion alumni, parents, friends, and students at Comerica Park Tuesday, August 4 as the Detroit Tigers take on the Kansas City Royals. Come early for a pre-game picnic inside the park.

To purchase tickets, visit www.albion.edu/alumni/grandslam.

For additional information, contact the Office of Alumni Engagement at 517/629-0448 or collegeevents@albion.edu.

32 | Albion College Io Triumphe!

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1. In November, 41 Washington, D.C., area alumni and friends met at the Haworth Showroom for a reception and a College update from President Ditzler.

2. Alumni and friends gathered in sunny Sarasota, Fla., to meet President Ditzler and root for the Detroit Tigers at a spring training game in March.

3. Thirty-one guests were on hand for the Northern Michigan Alumni Chapter’s Traverse Symphony Orchestra outing in April.

4. In May, a group of East Coast alumni gathered at the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms in Morris Plains, N.J., for a reception and tour of the estate, a National Historic Landmark.

THE BRITON NETWORK: IT’S ALL HERE FOR YOU

Professional Mentoring Internship Opportunities Career Openings The Briton Network is a two-way street: For those alumni and parents with established careers, it is access to a pool of highly talented individuals for your company or organization.

For current students and recent graduates, or for those making a career change, it is your foot in the door at some of the most preeminent companies, graduate schools, and organizations in the world.

To learn more about the Briton Network, go to: www.albion.edu/careerdev or e-mail careers@albion.edu.

Board Newcomers The Alumni Association Board of Directors welcomes these new members:

James Anderson, ’83 Chicago, Illinois

Letitia Watson Kotas, ’98 Albion, Michigan

Alissa Castellanos, ’14 Battle Creek, Michigan

Zachary Kribbs, ’15 Mason, Michigan

Andy Harder, ’80 Naperville, Illinois

Ronald Lessard, ’82 Pleasanton, California

More information on the Alumni Association Board of Directors is available at: www.albion. edu/alumni.

Kudos!

Nearly 100 alumni, friends, faculty, and staff were on hand April 24 to celebrate the 2015 Alumni Awards which for the first time included recognition for both the Distinguished Alumni and Young Alumni honorees in a single ceremony.

The Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award recipients shared their thoughts about their Albion experience.

Kathy Look, M.D., ’75, a senior medical director at Genentech, said she was inspired to come to Albion for its strong pre-medical program, noting medicine was how she wanted to make a living.

Her history degree, however, “was about making a life. More than making a living, you have to inform your life. For that, I thank the school. It was the right place for me.”

Kroger executive Rick Going, ’77, noted, “At Albion, I learned how to present arguments like you think you’re right, but to listen like you think you’re wrong. That really made me a lot more open to others’ points of view.”

Bill Payne, ’75, Amway’s vice chairman, said, “The Bible teaches us that you build your house on rock, not sand. Albion was an incredible rock for me when I started building my life. In terms of learning management skills, what could be harder than leading a group of 18-22-year-old men? But it was an incredible experience I had at Sigma Chi [as president], and they’re still lifelong friends.”

To learn more about our 2015 honorees or submit a nomination for the 2016 Alumni Awards, go to: www.albion.edu/alumni.

President Mauri Ditzler (third from left) with Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award recipients Rick Going, ’77, Bill Payne, ’75, and Kathy Look, ’75.

Young Alumni Award winners (from left) Danni Wysocki, ’10, Jon Reynolds, ’09, Katie Kirsch, ’12, and Cindy Cardwell Fast, ’08, reflected on the important influences that led them to their current career paths during a panel discussion moderated by President Ditzler.

Spring-Summer 2015 | 33

HOMECOMING HIGHLIGHTS

October 16-17, 2015

Reconnect with classmates, share memories of your student days, and create new ones at Homecoming 2015. This year’s events include programming in downtown Albion, yard games and lunch on the Quad, family activities and welcome tent, the football game against Adrian College, and the Hall of Fame dinner and induction ceremony.

ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES INDIVIDUALS Badger Beall, ’85 Track

Travis DePree, ’05 Basketball

Brice Drogosch, ’83

Look for a detailed schedule of events to arrive as the weekend approaches. We look forward to welcoming our alumni back to campus this fall!

Football

William Johansson, ’91 Football and Track

Britton Johnson, ’01 Swimming and Track

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 16

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17

3-5 p.m.

Briton Career Connections Kellogg Center, Gerstacker Commons Network with current students and up-and-coming professionals; share career advice and insights in a career-fair format.

10 a.m.

Alumni Volleyball Game Kresge Gym

6 p.m.

Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner and Induction Ceremony Upper Baldwin Hall

Go to www.albion.edu/ homecoming for more information on all of the weekend’s events.

34 | Albion College Io Triumphe!

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Lunch for Alumni, Parents, Faculty, and Students Campus Quadrangle 1 p.m.

Football vs. Adrian College Sprankle-Sprandel Stadium 3:30 p.m. (Post-game) Class Giving Celebration Upper Baldwin Hall 8 p.m. Music Department Homecoming Collage Concert Goodrich Chapel Class Reunions Classes celebrating reunions this year will receive event details throughout the summer.

Sarah Caskey McAlister, ’05 Basketball

James McMillan, ’70 Football

Kevin Nixon, ’77 Football

Robert Taylor, ’96 Football

Bruk Weymouth, ’93 Baseball

TEAMS 2005 Women’s Basketball 2005 Men’s Basketball

Success!

ADMISSION AMBASSADORS HIT IT BIG WITH REFERRAL PROGRAM.

By Angela Sheets, ’82 Chair, Admission Ambassadors Program There’s nothing quite as gratifying as a high school student—whom you have come to know— choosing to attend Albion College.

By that measure, Albion’s new Admission Ambassadors Program has been very gratifying indeed.

Alumni, parents, faculty, and staff embraced the new Admission Ambassadors Program by referring more than 500 high school seniors to the College this year. The program­— with its cornerstone of a $1,000 Referral Scholarship for each of four years—helped generate interest in the College among students who may not have considered Albion otherwise. Combined with other new admission efforts, deposits are up almost 20 percent over 2014.

Thank you to all who took a leap of faith with this program—who sent referral forms and newspaper clippings on highachieving students; who kept in touch

with their referred students and even brought them to campus; who worked college fairs and spring receptions; and who made phone calls and sent e-mails.

Your efforts made a huge difference!

Now is the perfect time to refer next year’s high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors, and encourage them to attend the July 24 “Albion 101” program on campus or to schedule a personal visit and tour this summer. We welcome your referrals starting today!

Please note: You must refer seniors before they complete their admission application, as it is an incentive to apply. Submit referrals online at www.albion.edu/referral or contact the Admission Office at 800/8586770 to have referral forms sent by mail. Albion will begin accepting applications for the fall 2016 entering class September 1.

Angela Sheets has served as the volunteer chair for the Admission Ambassadors Program since May 2014.

I firmly believe that the student I worked with is attending Albion College because of the Referral Scholarship Program.”

Teresa Sannes, parent of Ryan, ’13, and incoming freshman Joshua, ’19, says the Referral Program is a very valuable tool.

“First, $1,000 a year is a significant financial benefit to the student. Second, the College can increase its awareness of students who might not be on its radar. And, third, it directly connects the school and the student.”

Teresa, who lives in Manchester, Mich., explains. “What the admission referral did was to connect the student to Albion in a far better way than casual conversation.

He began getting mailings from the College, and his counselor, Molly, worked tirelessly to provide support (as she also did for my son). And now my referral student has paid his deposit as a member of the Class of 2019!”

532 senior referrals

358 referred student applications

147

referred student deposits FIGURES AS OF MAY 15, 2015

To Holly Williams, ’12, the Referral Scholarship is a lowpressure way to start a conversation about Albion. “My advice: Fill out referral forms for students even if you only know them peripherally. Don’t be hesitant—the fact that you would refer them opens their minds to considering Albion College.”

Holly referred six students from Chesterton (Ind.) High School where she teaches math and is a swim coach. “Obviously, I have a big advantage, as I see so many high-potential students each day. I have told many kids, ‘You’d be so great at Albion College—you should apply.’

“But this Referral Scholarship got them more excited than anything else,” Holly admits. “It’s the power of a reference with the money behind it. I’ve told them I believe in them, and the College is willing to put money on it, too. Plus, they think it’s cool to earn a scholarship in the name of their teacher or coach.”

Holly has some great results, as two of her referrals have committed to Albion and another Chesterton student applied before she could refer him/her.

Spring-Summer 2015 | 39

Io Triumphe!

EDITOR Sarah Briggs CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Marian Deegan, Michelle Mueller, John Perney, Jake Weber CLASS NOTES WRITERS Luann Shepherd, James Fiorvento, Matthew Kleinow DESIGNER Katherine Mueting Hibbs MARKETING/COMMUNICATIONS John Thompson, John Perney, David Lawrence Io Triumphe! is published twice annually by the Office of Marketing and Communications.It is distributed free to alumni and friends of the College.

Letters to the editor may be sent to: Office of Marketing and Communications Albion College 611 E. Porter Street Albion, MI 49224 communications@albion.edu www.albion.edu ABOUT OUR NAME The unusual name for this publication comes from a yell written by members of the Class of 1900. The beginning words of the yell, “Io Triumphe!,” were probably borrowed from the poems of the Roman writer, Horace.

In 1936, the alumni of Albion College voted to name their magazine after the yell which by then had become a College tradition.

For years, Albion’s incoming students have learned these lines by heart: Io Triumphe! Io Triumphe!

Haben swaben rebecca le animor Whoop te whoop te sheller de-vere De-boom de ral de-i de-pa— Hooneka henaka whack a whack A-hob dob balde bora bolde bara Con slomade hob dob rah!

Al-bi-on Rah! FIND MORE ONLINE: www.albion.edu

Connect with students, faculty, staff, and alumni through Albion College’s social media channels.

Enhance the Albion Experience Albion College changes lives. Whether you are a graduate, a parent, or a friend of the College, we ask you to support our students and their hands-on learning experiences that equip them with the skills required to be our future leaders. Every gift has a direct impact on our students and our College.

Give online at albion.edu/give or call 517/629-0347.

Office of Marketing and Communications

D. LAWRENCE PHOTO

611 East Porter Street Albion, MI 49224

Albion (and Michigan) Proud Chances are you’ll see Albion’s new “Hands-On” campaign at a location near you in the coming months: It’s on billboards, in schools and malls, and online. The campaign promotes the hands-on learning experiences our students have from their first day on campus through graduation, while giving a nod to our location in the Mitten State. Check it out at www.albion.edu/hands-on.