Equity and Engagement
Learn With Communities, Not Just About Them
You can't understand a community from a textbook.
LEAPS students learn by listening, participating, asking questions, and building relationships with the people and organizations that make communities work.
Through your experiences in Detroit, you'll develop the perspectives you need to understand complex challenges—and the relationships you need to begin creating meaningful solutions.
Start with Understanding
Societal challenges rarely have simple solutions.
Before you can address a challenge, you need to understand the people experiencing it, the organizations working to address it, and the history and systems that shaped it.
LEAPS helps you develop that understanding.
You'll explore questions like:
- How do communities learn and change?
- Why do some solutions work in one place but not another?
- How do different perspectives shape the way we understand a problem?
- What happens when people with different experiences work together?
- How can organizations and communities build on the strengths they already have?
These questions don't have one right answer. Learning to navigate that complexity is part of becoming a LEAPS scholar and leader.
Learn WITH Detroit
Detroit has a substantial ecosystem of organizations working on real-world challenges, which provides a unique environment for exploring these questions.
As a LEAPS student, you'll interact with educators, nonprofit leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, civic leaders, community organizers, and others working to make their communities stronger.
You'll experience Detroit through community organizations, cultural events, neighborhood activities, courses, projects, and relationships.
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View Students talk with former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan
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View Three students build a wooden frame with a power drill
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View Students tour the mural room at the Detroit Institute of Arts
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View Two students on a boat hold up a small measuring device
The goal isn't simply to learn about Detroit.
It's to learn with Detroit.
From Service to Partnership
LEAPS takes a different approach to community engagement.
Rather than thinking about community work as simply “giving back,” we think about what it means to become a fully engaged member of the community.
That means listening before acting. It means understanding what an organization actually needs. And it means making sure that the presence of LEAPS students creates value for the community—not just for students.
You won't be asked to “save” a community or solve a problem that isn't yours to solve.
Instead, you'll learn how to contribute to work that is already happening and help strengthen the efforts of the people and organizations leading that work.
Develop the Perspective to Lead
Effective leaders don't just have good ideas. They know how to listen, build trust, communicate across differences, and bring people together.
Through the equity and engagement lens, you'll develop skills in:
- Listening and relationship building
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Cultural awareness
- Systems thinking
- Perspective-taking
- Creative problem solving
These are skills you can carry into any career.