Like Son, Like Father

As a newly admitted student to the University of Michigan, Drew Arnson (BBA '22) was excited to come to Ann Arbor and visit his older sister Kate (BSE '17, MSE '18) on campus. He already knew he wanted to study business when he enrolled in the fall, but that weekend, one of his sister's friends raved about a course she was taking at the Marsal School, Education 118 – Introduction to Education: Schooling and Multicultural Society, a course that introduces students to the role of education in today's world. Raised by parents who consider literacy one of their core family values, Arnson's interest was piqued.

"I applied to business schools out of high school for my undergrad, but I always viewed that as a place to get a set of skills that could be transferable to other work," says Arnson. Recognizing what an enviable position he was in as a senior—to apply anywhere he wanted, and study anything he wanted—clarified his long-term goals. "I was like, that's it: I want to help other people get to where I am right now and really be in a position to take advantage of what higher education in the U.S. provides."

As it happened, the Marsal School was in the process of launching the Education for Empowerment Minor. Arnson was one of the first undergraduates to enroll in the minor, which is designed for students across the university who are interested in examining the critical role of education in building our individual and collective capacity to advance the aims of justice and democracy in society. For the program's internship component, he worked with professor Nell Duke, conducting research to provide evidence for the recommendations she was making to the State of Michigan's PreK-12 Literacy Commission, on which she served. His capstone seminar was taught by Dean Elizabeth Birr Moje, who was in the process of establishing the Michigan Education Teaching School at the new Detroit P-20 Partnership school, The School at Marygrove. Featuring a teacher residency that supports novice teachers through their first three years in the profession, the Teaching School draws from elements of the medical school model.

After he graduated, Arnson moved to New York to pursue a position with the Huron Consulting Group, a top firm that specializes in educational consulting. Working on the Strategy & Operations team within the broader Education & Research practice, Arnson has had the opportunity to serve higher education clients across the country. (He's even been part of a project for his alma mater!)

"I really love being in the university space. Even when the work days are hard and busy, it is better to think that we're helping a university, which means that more people will graduate and more research will get done, rather than we're just going to help a client sell more of their product."

In addition to enjoying his work, the company offers a program that matches employee charitable donations—an opportunity Arnson wanted to seize as the year drew to a close.

A year-end appeal from U-M spurred him to reflect on all that Michigan had given him and made him think "I should probably get on track with giving back as well." Although Arnson earned his degree from the Ross School of Business, he says "the large impacts I had seen in my undergrad career were really more connected to the Marsal Family School of Education. I thought, ‘What is something that will not only help Michigan students, but the broader community?' The Teaching School at The School at Marygrove is really the perfect intersection of those things."

"Drew in particular has always been very good at forward thinking," says his father, Eric Arnson (BGS '78), who like all his children graduated from U-M. He is proud of his son's sense of purpose, which he has watched develop over the years and carry through to his current professional role. When he asked his kids where the family might make a worthwhile donation at Christmastime, Drew made a pitch for supporting the Teaching School at The School at Marygrove. Enthused, his father took him up on it, increasing the Arnson family's total impact.

"There's a lot of research that shows new teachers are struggling, and that it's hard to even get people to choose the profession of teaching," says Drew Arnson. "Hopefully the residency model at The School at Marygrove continues to expand and become a nationwide standard for how we train teachers. I will continue to follow it, and hope to continue supporting it, because it is so practical and useful—not only for the U-M students who become teaching residents, but also for the students they'll end up reaching."