LIVE: Get used to saying “hello” on city streets
Some call Detroit the biggest small town in America. While nearly 900,000 people live here, you start to recognize people pretty soon after moving in.
Living in Detroit, becoming a temporary resident, is a pivotal aspect of Semester in Detroit. By putting down roots for a semester, students become more deeply invested in ways that don’t happen when you commute in and out of the city.
SID students live in the Tower Residential Suites, Wayne State University’s newly built facility for upperclass and graduate students. This 11-story building is centrally located on Wayne State’s campus in the middle of Detroit’s cultural district and is within walking distance to the Detroit Institute of Arts, the main branch of the Detroit Public Library, the Detroit Historical Museum, and much more.
Enjoy all of the amenities of Wayne State students including access to the recreation center, computing/library facilities, cafeteria, and kitchens/exercise rooms.
LEARN: From faculty and community scholars
Semester in Detroit students are immersed in a wealth of knowledge about Detroit in the areas of history, urban planning, non-profit administration, community development, arts and culture, and much more. SID offers a rich array of curricular options from UM faculty in the College of Literature, Science and Arts, the School of Art and Design, and the College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
In addition, Semester in Detroit has a collaborative relationship with Wayne State University including the newly established Honors College wherein all undergraduate students are required to engage in substantive community-service in Detroit. SID students are eligible to take Wayne State classes in most circumstances.
Students meet and interact with dozens of Detroit’s community leaders and activists throughout the duration of the program – an essential component of the program’s educational strategy that enriches, supports and sometimes even challenges what is taught and learned in the formal classroom.
See the curriculum for the current 2009 SID program »
WORK: Immerse yourself in community
Students accepted into Semester in Detroit (in early May) are matched with Detroit community and cultural organizations (in October) through a interactive process guided primarily by the student’s interests and the community’s agenda. Successful student applicants play an active role in this process and choose from among substantive community projects where they spend 16 hours per week throughout the semester.
Previous program participants have:
- developed the capacity of a community collaborative on Detroit’s eastside to promote an ambitious Greenway development;
- assisted community organizing efforts in southwest Detroit focused on increasing parental involvement in local school community organizations;
- learned skills in radio journalism while contributing to the community-based mission of a Detroit public radio station;
- promoted collaboration between Detroit’s newest art museum and neighborhood-based community arts organizations.
- See a list of past community partners »
ENGAGE: History, experience, and promise.
Detroit, like much of America today, is at a critical crossroads. There is tremendous economic and political uncertainty here. But Detroit, if it knows anything well, knows the good promise in such struggle. This is a place that has experienced some of the highest highs and lowest lows of any modern-day American city. Such important experience fosters special wisdom and creative vision -- important skills to have in this moment.
Come to Detroit and engage this great American city -- its people, places and potential.
SID 2009 students enjoy dinner at the Lafayette Park home of UM faculty member, and poet, Lolita Hernandez.
U of M Professor Nick Tobier and his students help dig out and layer compost for Earthworks.
A view from your Detroit home in Wayne State's Tower Residential Suites.
UAW activists General Baker, Quill Pettway and Dave Moore speak to SID students.