From left to right: Craig Lindwarm (APLU), Madeline Nykaza (UofM), Sen. Peters, Thomas Stephenson, Mollie Benz Flounlacker (AAU), and Jacob Courville (MSU).

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Thomas Stephenson, of Greenville, Michigan has a passion for politics. When Thomas was eight years old his grandmother took him to Washington, DC to meet with legislators from Michigan. That trip kindled his desire for a firsthand look at the political system. Thomas, who was diagnosed with a congenital cardiac condition, is now eighteen years old. On Tuesday, July 10th, U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) partnered with Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic to fulfill Thomas’ wish to be U.S. Senator for a day. Thomas joined Senator Peters’ for a full day, and participated in the Senator’s weekly coffee with constituents, meetings with stakeholders, a floor speech, briefings, media interviews and more.

Thomas will be attending MSU in the fall and plans to study nursing while remaining actively engaged in the political process – the cost of college being one of his top policy concerns. For that reason, Sen. Peters invited U-M, MSU, APLU and AAU to his office to discuss what colleges are doing in Michigan and nationwide to make education more affordable and accessible. Madeline Nykaza from the U-M D.C. office attended the meeting and discussed programs on U-M’s campus aimed at achieving that goal, such as the Go Blue Guarantee and Wolverine Pathways.

It’s exciting to see young people like Tom who are interested in public service and want to learn more about our democratic process,
said Senator Peters.

Welcome, Wolverines. You are among 583,000 friends.

New York 6th District Congresswoman Grace Meng addresses the UMDC 2018 Annual Meeting.

University of Michigan alumni are part of the largest living alumni body of any university. The UofM Club of Washington, D.C. (UMDC) is a community of over 18,000 alumni in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

On June 26th, UMDC held their 2018 Annual Meeting. This year the keynote speaker was Congresswoman Grace Meng (’97). Congresswoman Meng represents the 6th District of New York, sits on the Appropriations Committee, and is Vice Chair of the DNC. She is also a board member of the University of Michigan Alumni Association.

Congresswoman Meng spoke about her time at UofM and how it instilled in her a desire for public service. She discussed her bipartisan work in Congress, including a bill to reduce the number of spoofing phone calls and texts that affect millions of Americans. She also spoke about the importance of mentorship and encouraged the meeting attendees to help mentor others.

“Nothing can bond two strangers quite like a tie to U-M.”

As the Director of Licensing for U-M Tech Transfer, Bryce supports the Licensing Staff in working with faculty from around campus to commercialize inventions created at U-M.
(Photo by Mike Waring, Washington Office)

Bryce Pilz (second from left) speaks at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday at a conference about how current patent laws and regulations are stifling innovation. Pilz, director of licensing for U-M’s Office of Technology Transfer, cited two examples of medical diagnostic tests developed at U-M that failed to get patent protection, hindering the development of those technologies. The conference focused on ways Congress and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office can improve the situation.