2026 Community Forum Recap
“Volunteering for Change”, “Oral History as Stewardship”, “Super Soil Worm Squad”, “Voices for Our Future” – these are just a few of the 40 youth-led presentation titles from this year’s SEMIS Coalition Annual Community Forum. On May 21st, we gathered at the EMU Student Center with over 200 young people from across Southeast Michigan who had prepared presentations for their peers, teachers, and over 100 community members on their place-based learning and action projects from the past year. This year’s youth presenters ranged in grades from kindergarten to high school juniors, subject areas included science, math, social studies, manufacturing, and ELA, and came from 12 different schools across the region, including Ypsilanti, Detroit, Dearborn, and Dexter. Every single one of them demonstrated how they channeled their learning and passion into getting to know and caring for their communities.
Part of the planning for this year’s Community Forum included interviewing youth from participating schools about how this event could be more meaningful for them. Based on their feedback, one change we made is working toward a Zero Waste event, and we were fortunate to have high school students from the Early College Alliance (ECA) take on this challenge. Not only did the ECA students help design the Zero Waste food stations and signage, they presented about it in front of the entire Community Forum audience at the beginning of the event and before lunch – with energy, enthusiasm, and a smile on their faces!
Early College Alliance student presents on the Zero Waste program during the opening session. (Photo Credit: Leisa Thompson)
We also took a moment to recognize the importance of two adults who have made a long-term impact on this work by awarding the Legacy Award and Dedication to Place-Based Education Award. Director for Conference & Events at EMU, Meg Castro, received the Legacy Award, which honors powerful educators and advocates who have had a profound and lasting impact on the SEMIS Coalition. Turquoise Neal, Director of Special Projects for the Ypsilanti Community Schools District received the Dedication to Place-Based Education award, which is given for long-term commitment to the development of youth in Southeast Michigan as citizen-stewards of their place and community. We were also really proud that the awards they received were made by students from Ypsilanti Community High School.
Turquoise Neal and Meg Castro (left) received the Dedication to Place-based Education and Legacy Award at the 2026 Community Forum. (right) Meg Castro receives her award from Dominic Horsch and Ephraim Kisa, two students from Ypsilanti Community High School who helped make the awards. (Photo Credit: Leisa Thompson)
After our opening session ended, it was on to the main event of the day – student presentations! Student project presentations covered many different topics from botany and biodiversity to eco-modeling, to wondering walks, water quality and sailing, PBE in drone aviation, school recycling, and more. They also included many different formats, such as viewing a 10-minute documentary created by students, watching drones fly, or inviting participants to create their own seed bombs. As audience members, students asked thoughtful questions of each other and community partners helped make additional connections to resources or how these projects could potentially benefit additional communities.
From left to right, high school students from Renaissance High School present about the rain garden they researched, designed, and installed on their campus, elementary students from Henry Ford Elementary present about speaking at a Dearborn city council meeting, and kindergarteners from The James and Grace Lee Boggs School present about their worm composting project. (Photo Credit: Leisa Thompson)
After a delicious lunch, supported by the amazing event and catering teams at EMU’s Student Center and the ECA students at Zero Waste stations, all 313 Community Forum attendees participated in a final intergenerational dialogue activity. Participants were challenged to create an inspirational message of their own first individually, then as a group at their table, then as a team of three tables, and finally to share the message with the entire community. Every single message was inspiring, but here are some we captured:
“Ignore the problem, pay for the problem.” “We are change-makers: motivated, amazing, kind, encouraging, resilient students.” “Just because you’re a kid doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference.” “Caring for our places means caring for our families.” “Don’t delay; make a rain garden today!” “Starting is the first thing, and any change is better than no change.” “We can work together to make something better.” “One family, one team, and keep the Earth clean.” “Nothing can survive on its own.” “You can do anything physics allows you to.”
Students, teachers, and community partners work together to create inspirational messages during the Community Forum. (Photo Credit: Leisa Thompson)
Finally, the Director of the SEMIS Coalition, Anna Balzer, introduced the notion of the “Spirit of SEMIS” to the Community Forum participants. The Spirit of SEMIS is all of the things we hold most sacred in our Coalition which we can actually feel when we are together for an event like the Community Forum – things like: loving our places, being hopeful changemakers, collaborating and building community, celebrating our different strengths, using your voice, working for justice, and teaching & learning with respect, love, and joy. Anna then addressed the youth in the room, “The Spirit of SEMIS is really powerful. And it’s our belief that we’re all responsible for it. The Spirit of SEMIS doesn’t stay alive on its own. It shows up only when it’s practiced and – the people who do the most practicing of the Spirit of SEMIS… are you.” She then told them that the student group from Salina Intermediate School was selected to take on this responsibility for the year and gave them a Spirit of SEMIS backpack, reminding us that it takes care and effort to keep the Spirit of SEMIS alive in our communities. Over the next year, the Salina team will take the backpack and all the values it represents with them on their place-based adventures. And then next year, at the Community Forum, they’ll be responsible for deciding who the Spirit of SEMIS backpack should go to next. She ended with, “Now let me be clear – the Spirit of SEMIS isn’t an award. It’s a responsibility. And once it leaves our hands today, it doesn’t belong to us adults anymore. It belongs to all of you. You, as a community, will be responsible for deciding what it means to live out the Spirit of SEMIS and for sharing the responsibility of taking care of it for many years to come together.”
(left) Renaissance High School teacher, Alexis Anderson and students take a moment to pose. (right) Participants scrape plates into compost bins with the help of students from ECA. (Photo Credit: Leisa Thompson)
If you were unable to attend this glorious day, you can still check out many of these inspiring presentations! Student presentations will be hosted all year on the SEMIS Coalition Virtual Gallery for anyone across our community (and beyond!) to see and learn from! We encourage you to check out the many incredible questions, learning, and action projects posed by young people across our region – and to share your thoughts with them in the comments!
We want to share another heartfelt thank you to the young people, teachers, administrators, parents, community partners, volunteers, individual event donors, and our event sponsors Toyota Driving Possibilities, the Bosch Community Fund, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Engage @EMU for the persistence, love, and deep generosity that make this event possible.
Until next year!
