Wear Your Mask

The Art in the Legislature Program displays and celebrates the work of excellent student artists from Michigan’s 15 public universities each year, and their respective works are displayed in the Anderson House Office Building, or the Binsfeld Senate Building, for one year.

State Relations Officers, university art department representatives, student-artists, their families, and the public at large are invited to attend the reception, at which time the new pieces of art will be unveiled and the students will be recognized.

Jacob Yu

Jacob Yu

“Covid-19 has affected so many people, and masks became part of our daily lives. Through this work, I wanted to show how daily lives have changed through the time of pandemic. The drawing shows a commute in the year 2020. Masks are on, and the train is almost empty. Because 2020 has been a very difficult year, I wanted to capture this feeling of isolation.

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The Umich Alumni Association catches up with one of our former LEAD Scholars, Jamie Thompson:

Following graduation, I returned to my hometown of Detroit to teach kindergarten in the Detroit Public Schools. While working full time, I returned to U-M to earn my teaching certificate and a master’s degree in education policy. In 2020, I worked on U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s reelection campaign, registering voters in Detroit while delivering absentee ballots and personal protective equipment, and assisting families in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, I am a legislative assistant for U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in Washington, D.C., focusing on education and issues related to women, children, and families, such as early childcare and college affordability. I attend congressional briefings and hearings, take meetings with organizations and constituents from our district, conduct research on current events and policy, and provide input on legislation that Rep. Stevens should support.

In 2006, Michigan voters passed Proposal 2, which banned, among other things, preferential treatment based on race or ethnicity in college admissions. In addition, universities could no longer accept donations for race- or gender-specific programs.

The following fall, one of the least diverse freshman classes in recent history enrolled on the Ann Arbor campus.

For these reasons, the Alumni Association established the LEAD Scholars program for those who embody leadership, excellence, achievement, and diversity. The scholarship is available to accepted students to help the best and brightest make their way to Michigan. The Alumni Association — independent from the University — takes full financial and administrative responsibility for this program.

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In the first episode of a special HPS Insights series on how recent college graduates can land jobs in DC, HPS Partner Matt McDonald sits down with Sadie Polen, Program Lead at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School; Lynn Halton, Supervisor of the University of Michigan’s Public Service Intern Program; and Ian Solomon, Dean of the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia. Each guest shares advice on what campus resources current college students can tap into to prepare them for a post-grad world.

“The University of Michigan has one of the largest and oldest DC Summer programs.” – Lynn Halton

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