Got a craft you can teach to others? Always wanted to learn an unconventional skill, say, hula-hoop construction or spring foraging? The Ann Arbor Free Skool is dedicated to pairing knowledge with knowledge-seekers, free of charge.
And yet another set of national stats on public high schools, this one from Newsweek's Daily Beast, puts Saline High School, Chelsea High School, and Ann Arbor's Community, Huron, and Pioneer in the nation's top 1,000, with Skyline High School just a few slots behind. See the full list here.
Meadowlark Energy gets a lot of phone calls from homeowners who have lots of questions about energy issues in their homes. What the building performance company found is that many of them are missing basic information about how their homes work. "People are looking for knowledge about this and they don’t know where to go to get it," says Doug Selby, co-founder of Meadowark Energy. "We wanted to put something together so people could, in a relaxed setting, learn more about how their homes operate." As the home remodeling is picking up again, Meadowlark Energy is planning a free seminar series to provide homeowners with the basic knowledge they need to decide how they can make their homes greener. "We think people should be thinking about all of the opportunities for greening your home," Selby says. "It's the only remodeling activity that actually puts money back into your pockets." While Selby says the larger, longer-term solutions discussed in the seminar series will cover services offered by Meadowark Energy, other DIY approaches will also be included. The Smarter Home Seminar will take place once a month for three months beginning May 11. Source: Doug Selby, Meadowlark Energy Writer: Natalie Burg
When it comes to education, if you live in Ann Arbor you're likely to get a good one. Ann Arbor's Pioneer High School ranks 12th and Huron High School is a close 16th among Michigan's public high schools. See the U.S. News & World Report rankings here.
A sizable round of seed funding has gotten Ann Arbor-based Seelio onto Forbes' radar. Excerpt: "Seelio is especially popular with educational institutions for students to showcase their school projects. Today Seelio has announced that they have raised $900,000 in a seed round of funding from First Step Fund, Michigan PreSeed Fund, and several angel investors... Many institutions have been using Seelio non-traditional educational programs like boot camps and training programs. A couple of examples of these programs include the Digital Media Institute at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan Design Expo... Seelio is now being used by thousands of students across 500 campuses." More here.
The trio of U-M graduates behind the education start-up Qlovi see their venture not only as a business but as a social entrepreneurial experience. "We're really passionate about education," says Harlyn Pacheco, CEO & co-founder of Qlovi. "We have been educated in Michigan and have 5-6 degrees between us from the University of Michigan. We want to pay it forward as much as we can." The Ann Arbor-based start-up is developing a suite of literacy instruction and publishing platforms for the K-12 and digital publishing markets. Think digital educational content that is both instructive, engaging and easy to access from a computer or a mobile device. That's what Qlovi is aiming for. The 1-year-old start-up recently landed five figures' worth of financing from the Michigan Microloan Fund, which it is using to put the finishing touches on its platform. The company has 20 K-12 schools using the platform and plans to launch it nationally late this year. Source: Harlyn Pacheco, CEO & co-founder of Qlovi Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
The Language Link Institute is witnessing the comeback of the corporate American internationalist, mostly in its bottom line. The Ann Arbor-based business has watched its revenue jump 20 percent in the last year on the strength of more business in the corporate language training sector. It has also seen more executives seek out tutoring in learning another language. "Corporate training seems to be back," says Caroline Wojan, owner & director of the Language Link Institute. "We have a good number of interested parties and we have signed a number of new contracts." The Language Link Institute primarily helps people either learn foreign languages or master English. It also offers tutoring services for students, and cultural and language training for foreign nationals in local businesses. It has also seen an increase in its test prep and student tutoring work and is branching out into hosting foreign language summer camps this year. That uptick in business has allowed the Language Link Institute to hire three people over the last year. Its staff now stands at 11 employees and a summer intern. "We're hopeful the corporate work will continue to grow," Wojan says. "It has been good the last three months and we're hopeful it will continue through the rest of the year." Source: Caroline Wojan, owner & director of Language Link Institute Writer: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
While most kids are wasting their time mastering Xbox, high schoolers Albert Foo and Sharath Anand are developing a new fire-fighting technology, one that extinguishes interior flames from outside the building. So far ExtinBreachR has landed them top science fair awards and a couple of small grants. But they've got bigger plans.
With the middle class finding itself increasingly priced out of college for the kids, EMU is one of a few in the country that have clamped down on tuition costs. Excerpt: "In 2010, Eastern Michigan University led the way as one of the nation's most cost conscious colleges when it froze tuition, room and board and fees with its 0%, 0%, 0% campaign... This tuition restraint and other factors have recently earned Eastern a ranking of 54th out of 350 colleges for its affordability among the larger public colleges by AffordableCollegesOnline.org. There were 15 metrics used in the ranking, including tuition, admission rates, enrollment total, average grant dollars per student and average scholarship per student." More here.
Sometimes a step back in time can be a step into the future. At the Michigan Folk School in Superior Township, back-to-basics living isn't just seen as nostalgia for arts and crafts, but rather a community-based counterbalance to the alienating advances of technology.
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