Pursuing environmental justice in Detroit

When he was applying to colleges, Sean Killackey sought out education programs that would prepare him to teach diverse populations.

“But then, as I got deeper into the application process, I thought maybe I didn’t want to teach—I wasn’t sure,” says the rising U-M sophomore who ultimately joined the first cohort of LEAPS students. He was drawn to the program’s flexibility. Killackey figured that with a LEAPS major, he could teach if he wanted to, but he would also be prepared to pursue other areas of interest, like law or public policy.

“I knew I wanted to do something involving working with people. Even if I didn’t want to teach, I figured the program would give me a good foothold to figure out what I wanted to do next.”

Over the course of his freshman year, Killackey got to know the city of Detroit through learning from and collaborating with community partners including Founder/Executive Director of Umoja Debate League, Jerjuan Howard, and Darnetta Banks, a lifelong Fitzgerald neighborhood resident who serves as the President of the Ella Fitzgerald Park Conservancy. He also heard from guest speakers like City of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan. These engaged learning experiences helped him make meaning of the lessons he learned through reading and discussions in the classroom.

“The more time I spent with leaders in the community, on all sides of every issue, I felt like I gained a holistic understanding of the city,” says Killackey.

In the fall, he and his cohort helped clean up a lot where the Umoja Debate League aims to open a health center. Through a community engaged-learning course in the winter semester, Killackey had the opportunity to collaborate with Urban Neighborhood Initiatives in southwest Detroit. He and several classmates planned afterschool activities for kids in a multilingual classroom—exactly what he had aimed to do when applying to college. Through these experiences, he realized that the positive change he hopes to create will come about through creating public policy. He credits LEAPS with helping him arrive at that decision.

“I want to do something involving policy. I feel like that’s a really important thing for community change. You can’t get much done unless the law supports what you’re doing,” he says.

As a sophomore on the U-M Ann Arbor campus, Killackey plans to take sociology and African American Studies classes, and looks ahead to studying law. He will also continue working in Detroit, gaining hands-on experience with environmental justice and restorative justice work in the city he fell in love with during his first year at the University of Michigan.

In addition to emphatically recommending the corned beef sandwich at storied Lou’s Deli and studying at Detroit Vintage—both local establishments near the Marygrove Campus—Killackey offers this to prospective LEAPS students:

“Join LEAPS if you want to create real change, and if you have the dedication and sacrifice that real change requires. You will feel extremely rewarded being in a program like this.”