Michigan State University Spartans have spent years collaborating alongside communities in Flint, Saginaw and Bay City — working to improve public health, supporting industries and exploring cultures throughout the state. This spring, the Spartan Bus Tour will spotlight those partnerships and the impact they continue to have across the region.
From May 6 through 7, President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., will join faculty and university leaders on a two-day tour, visiting over a dozen stops across Flint and the bay region to meet with partners, visit key sites and explore new opportunities to collaborate. Previous tours have traveled through West Michigan, metro Detroit and the Upper Peninsula and portions of northern Michigan.
“Flint and the Great Lakes bay region of Michigan are vital parts of Michigan State’s connection to the state,” Guskiewicz says, “and I’m eager to build on the collaborations we’ve developed across this area. We’re working in local communities to address health disparities, advance agriculture, support sustainability and more as we, together, build a better future for all.”
Bus tour participants will visit places like the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health, which has a mission of eliminating health disparities in diverse populations in local and global communities while attaining the highest level of health for all individuals and groups — with a particular emphasis on its home community of Flint. In Frankenmuth, the Saginaw Valley Research and Extension Center is at the heart of Michigan’s nationally renowned sugar beet and dry bean production. In Bay City, participants will learn about MSU’s work to protect lake sturgeon populations from extinction.
Spartans deliver in Flint and beyond
MSU’s work generates significant impact across Michigan. Statewide, MSU accounts for approximately $9.7 billion in total economic impact, which includes $108 million in Genesee County, $52 million in Saginaw County and $28 million in Bay County. In those three counties, MSU contributes over $11.4 million in spending with local businesses.
The region is also home to many Spartans. MSU educates more Michigan students than any other school, and Flint and the bay region are well represented, with over 1,600 current students enrolled. And over 11,000 of the state’s more than 306,000 Spartan alumni live in the area.
Modeling community-led public health
Several stops along the tour will highlight how MSU partners with communities to improve quality of life, especially through public health.
Part of the MSU College of Human Medicine, the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health is a unique academic department. It is the first to be codeveloped and cogoverned in partnership with the community it serves. It was built with help from Flint community members and continues to thrive and grow with a focus on population health.
Based at the College of Human Medicine’s Flint campus, the department’s close ties with the community enable faculty and researchers to gain insight into the community’s strengths and needs while addressing its most urgent public health issues.
“We are thrilled to have the Spartan Bus Tour coming to visit Flint and the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health,” says Jennifer E. Johnson, the founding chair of the Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health, University Distinguished Professor, and the first C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health at MSU. “Flint has a long history of organizing and advocacy for good. People who live here care deeply about the city. I hope that the Bus Tour participants can feel the energy, vibrancy, beauty and wisdom in Flint and begin to understand what we love so much about the city. There is nowhere in the world I would rather be.
“I also hope that attendees understand that our department has been successful because we built and lead the entire department with community. Building this way leads to more impact and to more success, even in traditional academic metrics. I would love to see other departments or colleges use this model; it creates energy, enthusiasm and mission that supercharges our work.”
Johnson, who is also a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology, and professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine, came to MSU in 2015 and has been thrilled to watch the program grow and make a difference in the Flint community.
MSU also supports the Flint community through partnerships with the Flint Farmers’ Market. Through the MSU-Hurley Children’s Hospital Pediatric Public Health Initiative, programs like Fruit and Vegetable Prescription and Flint Kids Cook programs focus on healthy habits for families and children. The fruit and vegetable program increases access to healthy, locally grown produce by providing children with prescriptions for fresh fruits and vegetables when they visit their pediatrician. The cooking program is led by chefs and registered dieticians who introduce children to new cooking skills and recipes that promote nutrition and cultivate a love of cooking.
Flint is also home to Rx Kids, the nation’s first community-wide initiative that prescribes cash to growing families, which, since launching in 2024, has expanded to over 40 communities in Michigan.
Advancing Michigan agriculture and industry
North of Flint, the Bus Tour will stop at the Saginaw Valley Research and Extension Center in Frankenmuth. The center is an agricultural research and outreach facility operated by MSU that advances crop science and farmer education in Michigan’s Saginaw Valley and Thumb region.
As part of MSU’s AgBioResearch and MSU Extension network, the center — which works with partners such as the Michigan Bean Commission — conducts field-based research on key rotational crops like dry beans, sugar beets, corn, wheat and soybeans. The center also provides programming, demonstrations and resources that support growers, industry partners and the broader agricultural community.
“The staff and I here are so glad that the Spartan Bus Tour will be coming to our center,” says Tom Wenzel, farm manager at the Saginaw Valley Research and Extension Center. “The Michigan Sugar Company, the Michigan Bean Commission and the Michigan Wheat Program have helped support and shape this place, and it is important people know this. The work being done here is important not only to their industries today but also to their long-term future.”
Bus Tour participants will also tour the Michigan Sugar Company in Bay City to see how sugar is produced and learn more about the region’s agricultural economy.
Experiencing culture, history and the environment
With stops at museums, monuments and local landmarks — including the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth — participants will experience the character of the communities they visit. Sites such as the UAW Sitdowners Monument Park and the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum showcase the region’s rich history and artistic contributions.
The tour will also include a lake sturgeon release, as MSU works with partners like the Department of Natural Resources to enhance the Great Lakes ecosystem. For over 20 years, MSU and the DNR have partnered to protect the species from extinction. The sturgeon release is organized by the Michigan Sea Grant, a statewide research, education and outreach program focused on protecting and sustaining Michigan’s Great Lakes and coastal communities.
Building connections across Michigan
Now in its fourth iteration, the Spartan Bus Tour is a terrific opportunity for faculty and administrators to see the commitment and impact Spartans make in yet another region of the state. One of the tour’s goals is to spark new collaborations and projects among faculty and communities they visit.
“We are ‘Michigan’s state university,’” Guskiewicz says, “and it’s important that we understand our impacts across this great state, while examining how we can improve and collaborate even more.”
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 a biannual event, the tour will head to the southern Lower Peninsula in the fall.
