Spartan Bus Tour to explore strong bond between MSU and Detroit

On the northwest side of the city, Michigan State University Extension’s first urban agriculture center — the Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning and Innovation — is growing good food on a formerly abandoned site. Off Woodward Avenue in Midtown at the MSU Detroit Center, the MSU Community Music School – Detroit is providing high-quality music education and music therapy services for all ages, abilities and incomes. Downtown, the Apple Developer Academy is empowering Detroiters to master high-demand skills in the world’s most vibrant app ecosystem. And in the New Center neighborhood, the Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences Research Center, which will seek solutions for public health challenges, is currently under construction, set to open in 2027.

Naim Edwards (left), the Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning and Innovation’s director, and Stathis Pauls with a harvest at Michigan State University's first urban agriculture research center. Photo by Jacob Templin-Fulton.

For decades, Michigan State University has been working with partners in the city to support economic development, advance the arts, transform schools, improve health and protect the environment. And, after a successful, illuminating trip with visits along the western Lower Peninsula of Michigan in the fall of 2024, this May, the Spartan Bus Tour heads to Detroit.

Just as the inaugural Spartan Bus Tour demonstrated how Spartans are making a difference across the state, a tour of metro Detroit will illustrate how the partnerships between the city and Michigan State are changing Michigan for the better.

Taking place May 5 and 6 with stops at 12 locations in the Detroit area, the tour will be led by MSU President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., and a delegation of faculty and administrators who will explore the breadth and depth of the university’s research, outreach and education impact in a city that, like MSU, values resilience, hard work and a commitment to solving problems and empowering people for better lives.

“Detroit is not just a city we visit,” Guskiewicz said, “it is a vital part of who we are as Spartans. The Spartan Bus Tour is visiting Detroit because it is where innovation meets resilience, where community meets opportunity. MSU and Detroit work together to solve some of the world's most pressing challenges — from health disparities and economic equity to education and sustainability. When we collaborate with Detroit, we're not just imagining a better future — we're building it together.”

Partnerships for a better future

While the inaugural Spartan Bus Tour explored the west side of the Lower Peninsula, the tour of Detroit this spring — and future trips that follow — will set out to show that together, the university's alumni, students, faculty and staff impact every corner of the state, contributing to a future full of opportunity and economic growth for all who live here.

Michigan State generates a $6.8 billion total economic impact statewide, including $640 million in annual spending with local businesses. In the Detroit area, it contributes $413 million in economic impact and spends $20.6 million with Motor City businesses.

The university educates more Michigan students than any other school, and the Detroit region is well represented with over 16,000 current students. Plus, a majority of Spartan graduates start their careers in Michigan. Currently, there are over 288,000 alumni living in the state. Between Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, there are over 97,000 Spartan alumni.

The city is an extension of the MSU community — highlighted by MSU becoming a majority investor in the historic Fisher Building in 2023. This spring’s Spartan Bus Tour will not only explore that relationship but also dive into some of the research collaborations and outreach efforts MSU is making in Detroit.

Leaders from Henry Ford Health and Michigan State University kick off the Henry Ford Health + MSU Health Sciences Research Center groundbreaking in June 2024. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.

The Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences collaboration is a prime example of those efforts. In 2021, the two organizations signed a 30-year partnership agreement to deepen their work together, and this January formalized a new clinical agreement that aims to expand services, improve access to quality care for Michigan residents and implement best practices. With a joint research enterprise, plans for a premier cancer center, and a shared commitment to advancing academic health education, the partnership is focused on transforming how individuals and communities experience care — while working to eliminate health disparities that disproportionately impact vulnerable populations.

The bus tour will visit the site of the new  Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences Research Center, which celebrated its groundbreaking in May 2024, along with the nearby Henry Ford Hospital, where the partnership is treating patients as well as advancing research, combating cancer with its over 250 cancer investigators, evolving medical education and more.

The 2024 graduating class at the Apple Developer Academy. Courtesy photo.

The Apple Developer Academy, which is a joint venture between Apple and Michigan State University, illustrates MSU’s commitment to technological advancement and community engagement. Located on Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit, the academy offers a unique learning experience in which participants learn the essentials of coding, design and business with Apple tools in order to craft their own pathway in or with tech.

The site visit will feature a tour of the academy’s facilities and highlight some of the projects that have come out of the program. Sarah Gretter, director of the Apple Developer Academy, is excited to share the work taking place: “We hope to reinforce the collaboration between MSU and Apple. We’ll highlight shared goals in education and innovation, demonstrate how MSU's involvement contributes to local economic growth and the development of a skilled workforce in Detroit, and inspire innovation by encouraging faculty and administrators to integrate similar innovative approaches within their curricula and research initiatives.”

The partnership between MSU and Apple is extending beyond the Apple Developer Academy, as well: MSU and Apple are collaborating to open a manufacturing academy in downtown Detroit. The Apple Manufacturing Academy, the first of its kind in the U.S., will open this summer in the First National Building, offering both in-person and virtual programming to train and support the next generation of U.S. manufacturers.

Stops that tell Detroit’s story

Paola Smith, assistant director of the Community Music School - Detroit. Photo by Derrick L. Turner.

The Spartan Bus Tour will make 13 stops in the metro-Detroit area May 5 and 6, some with direct connections to the university and others that will provide participants with opportunities to engage with the people, places and culture shaping the city.

From cultural institutions like the Detroit Institute of Arts, Motown Museum and Arab American National Museum to emerging hubs of innovation like the Apple Developer Academy and electric vehicle manufacturer Magna International, tour participants will experience Detroit’s legacy and future in real time.

Magna International, for example, is a mobility technology company collaborating with the Spartan EV Scholars program, where students are awarded scholarships for internship and co-op opportunities with Michigan corporations in the electric vehicle and transportation mobility sector. MSU EV scholars accept internship offers and receive an initial $5,000 scholarship that qualifies them for the full $10,000 scholarship upon acceptance of a full-time job in Michigan.

Here’s a look at each location the bus tour will explore:

Follow along

President Guskiewicz believes this second iteration of the Spartan Bus Tour is a golden opportunity for faculty, staff and administrators to see the commitment and impact Spartans make in this region of the state. It may also spark new collaborations and projects among faculty and communities in metro Detroit.  

Photo by Derrick L. Turner

The tour will also provide a chance for communities in Detroit to engage with MSU faculty about Spartan solutions they’re already putting into practice as well as new challenges they may be facing.

“MSU is Michigan’s state university,” says Guskiewicz, “and I am eager to dive deeper into this part of our state to explore how the MSU community will continue to learn from and contribute to local challenges and opportunities.”

You can follow the Spartan Bus Tour on social media while it’s on the road by using the hashtag #SpartanBusTour and by following along on the president’s accounts. Now an annual event, future bus tours will travel to destinations in the Upper Peninsula and elsewhere around the state.