A year-long series featuring Detroiters who are driving positive change in their communities.
Driving Community Sponsored by Ford Motor Company Fund
Racheal Allen Chief Operating Officer Marygrove Conservancy This Marygrove alumna has returned to the campus to continue the institution’s legacy of educating the community and preserving history.
A s of December 2019, Marygrove College is no more. But the northwest Detroit campus remains – and will continue to prioritize education under the tutelage of Marygrove Conservancy, established in 2018 to oversee operations for the 53-acre campus. Chief Operating Officer Racheal Allen is a graduate of Marygrove College, and she’s returned to the historic grounds determined to keep the party going. Marygrove’s groundbreaking P-20 partnership is inching closer to completion. The campus will become an interconnected web of cradle-to-career educational institutions and programs. An early childhood education center is scheduled to open fall 2021, and a K-8 elementary and middle school is under construction now. A high school – The School at Marygrove – opened with an inaugural ninth grade class last September, and, come fall, they’ll launch 10th grade. The School at Marygrove is currently a Detroit Public Schools 6 BLAC • JULY 2020 • BLACdetroit.com
Community District application school that grants preference to students from a two-mile catchment area. Allen says, “It really is meant to attract students from the neighborhood, although it’s a magnet school that attracts students from all across the city. (DPSCD) really wanted to give priority to those who are of the neighborhood, because that’s what the Marygrove campus is about. Although we serve those from all over the city, the conservancy is really making a concerted effort to prioritize programming for those in the Fitzgerald and Bagley communities.” She says partnerships, like the one with DPSCD, have been crucial. Also at the table is the University of Michigan School of Education, Detroit Collaborative Design Center, IFF, Starfish Family Services and, of course, The Kresge Foundation, whose headlinegrabbing $50 million endowment is making it all possible. “Having those organizations as partners is
