'Tis the season for giving. But philanthropy means different things to different communities, and its impacts are equally varied. Concentrate's Constance Crump looks at Ann Arbor's culture of giving and how it fares in comparison with billionaire-fueled communities like Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.
Dave Strenski, founder and volunteer coordinator of Solar Ypsi, the network of solar installations around Ypsilanti that's becoming a worldwide household name, will bring solar to the students and other concerned alternative energy enthusiasts at a seminar at Eastern Michigan University. As a guest speaker contributing to EMU's Creative Scientific Inquiry Experience program, Strenski will explain the economics of solar power and how it works. The seminar is open to the public and will be held at Strong Auditorium from 4-5 p.m. on November 30. A commercial Google filmed on Solar Ypsi and projects of that ilk in the Detroit area has garnered over 210,000 hits on YouTube since its airing last month, Strenski says. Hits have come from every U.S. state and worldwide, from Cyprus to the Seychelles Islands. And advice-seekers have filled Strenski's e-mail in-box: "'How do I make a freestanding cellphone charger, how do I get panels installed in Haiti?' Some guy wanted to make solar panels and take that to Africa and show people how to make their own solar panels; all kinds of really off-the-wall questions," he says. "And I try to answer all of them." Solar Ypsi's capabilities are still growing. To go with the ongoing expansion plans for the Ypsilanti Food Co-op, Strenski is figuring out how to install another row of solar panels on the roof. He's got bigger things on his mind, too. Along with Brian Tell, president of Toledo-based Shade Plex, a maker of flexible solar-electric building fabrics, Strenski is looking into purchasing defunct local properties, placing solar installations there, selling the power generated back to the utility (DTE, in the case of Ypsilanti) and then re-investing the proceeds into property enhancements. "From a philosophical point it's interesting," he notes. "Could you use a solar farm or a solar installation, or the revenue from a solar installation to not only pay itself back but also to renovate an old industrial site?" We'll see. Other than the environmental give-back, the payback to communities could be off the charts. Source: Dave Strenski, founder and volunteer coordinator of Solar Ypsi Writer: Tanya Muzumdar
The last time we checked in with TorranceLearning, it had moved into new offices in downtown Chelsea and expanded to seven people. Today, the education firm has nearly doubled its staff to 13, thanks to a slew of new projects. "We about doubled our staff this summer," says Megan Torrance, president of TorranceLearning. "In fact, we hired five new people this summer." TorranceLearning creates educational material and courses for businesses and institutions. It found a number of new clients through promoting its eLearning products, including a how-to-prevent-concussions lesson for youth and high school athletes for the University of Michigan. Torrance expects her firm to keep growing, but not doubling in size again over the next year. She sees another five hires as new business continues to come in, and perhaps more in the future. "I don't know where I am going to put them all," Torrance says. Source: Megan Torrance, president of TorranceLearning Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Sometimes a little guidance goes a long way. U-M's Tech Transfer office along with its new Michigan Venture Center have started a mentorship program that turns technologists into entrepreneurs. As a result they expect to see a 20% bump in start-up launches.
Dual MBA / masters degree programs are very of the moment these days. (U-M's joint degree from the Ross School of Business and School of Natural Resources is a popular one.) Now the latest tagline you want after your name is an M.D. / M.B.A., according to the New York Times. They're still quite rare, but Dr. James Kuo, chief executive of Ann Arbor's Adeona Pharmaceuticals, has one. Get the full story here.
It was called the Perry Preschool Project, and it found that toddlers who attended preschool, even part time, go on to greater academic and job success in life than those that didn't.Excerpt:"You might not think of soft skills as skills at all. They involve things like being able to pay attention and focus, being curious and open to new experiences, and being able to control your temper and not get frustrated.All these soft skills are very important in getting a job. And Heckman discovered that you don't get them in high school, or in middle school, or even in elementary school. You get them in preschool."Read/listen to the rest of the story here.
FamilyMint is gathering followers, customers and traction as the little start-up that saves is beginning to significantly grow in Ann Arbor's Tech Brewery.The 2-year-old firm has developed a web tool that allows parents to teach their kids the lessons of saving and managing a bank account with the grownups actually holding the money and acting as the bank. The firm offers both web and mobile app options."Our user numbers have steadily grown," says Bob Masterson, co-founder of FamilyMint. "Our revenues are starting to pick up but we're still in start-up mode." He and his co-founder are full-time and have hired two part-timers. They expect to hire one or two full-time employees later this year.Making that growth possible is early adoption of FamilyMint's software by local credit unions. The company has half a dozen credit unions using its product and plans to bring another five online this summer. FamilyMint will also be bringing a local bank and some financial planners onboard, but credit unions look to be its most promising customer base."We'd like to see our strategy with credit unions take off," Masterson says. "We're expecting the number of credit unions to take off in January when they're looking at their budgets for 2012."Source: Bob Masterson, co-founder of FamilyMintWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Won't you give these books a home? It's estimated that hundreds of thousands of books, printed between 1923 and 1963, are in copyright limbo. U-M's Orphan Works project is looking to make access to these 'lost' writings a heck of a lot easier.Excerpt:"Orphan works are in-copyright but out-of-print works for which the current rights holders are unknown or unable to be located. The UM Library Copyright Office's HathiTrust-funded project to identify such works in the HathiTrust collection was first announced last month, as reported by LJ. It focuses on determining the status of works in the UM collection published between 1923 and 1963."Read the rest of the story here.
Caroline Wojan grew up in a small town on Beaver Island, near Mackinaw Island, before she went to the University of Michigan. She got bit by the travel bug during a semester abroad in Spain. It was a sequence of events that sent her around the world, skipping graduate school to work for a local English as a second language company after college. A few years after that she started her own business, Language Link."I decided I wanted to travel the rest of my life and make as much as I could," says Wojan, owner of Language Link. "Every place I went to I realized how big the world really is."The Ann Arbor-based business will turn 10 years old in September. Wojan's company employs 15 people (all on a part-time basis) today after hiring four in the last year. The company can do that thanks to a 25 percent jump in revenues from expanded service offerings.Language Link started out helping families of visiting scholars at the University of Michigan overcome language and culture barriers. It has since expanded those language and cultural services to families of foreign employees at major corporations, like the Big 3 and other automotive firms. It now offers tutoring services for students and cultural and language training for foreign nationals in local businesses."I call it the Dale Carnegie course for foreign managers," Wojan says.Source: Caroline Wojan, owner of Language LinkWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
Backyard Brains has been busy over the last year, scoring its first sale, two new hires and a $450,000 federal grant.The educational materials provider has now sold nearly 500 teaching kits that shows how the brain works. Its customers range from a few dozen high schools to universities to countries."We're pretty proud that we have real sales and real customers," says Tim Marzullo, executive director of Backyard Brains. Marzullo and his partner Greg Gage, both neuroscientists, started the company as a way to provide a cost-effective product that teaches grade-school students the workings of neurons in the brain. Its Robo Roach allows them to control insects via antennas. Backyard Brains plans to upgrade its educational materials to include software and data analysis. Other plans include a marketing upgrade so it can score sales in the 13 states where it doesn't yet have a presence. Marzullo also plans to expand staffing from four to six people this summer.Source: Tim Marzullo, executive director of Backyard BrainsWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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