Spartan Newsroom (https://news.jrn.msu.edu/author/brandts5/)
Sophia Brandt is a journalism major with a concentration in writing, editing and reporting. She expects to graduate from Michigan University in spring 2024. Her goals include publishing impactful stories and working for a newspaper in a big city.
HIGHWAYS: Downtown Detroit’s I-375 Reconnecting Communities project highlights the question of how to reunite parts of Michigan communities where major highway projects destroyed urban, generally minority, neighborhoods. That project, the first in Michigan, is already on the planning board, but there’s interest in a similar project with I-475 in Flint. By Sophia Brandt. FOR PLANET DETROIT, DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.
STUDENT TEACHER STIPENDS: Providing $9,600 stipends to college students who spend a semester as unpaid student teachers would induce more of them to enter education as a career, advocates say. We hear from Michigan Independent Colleges and Universities, a Northern Michigan University expert and the MEA. By Sophia Brandt. FOR MARQUETTE, BAY MILLS, IRON MOUNTAIN, ST. IGNACE, SAULT STE. MARIE, CHEBOYGAN AND ALL POINTS.
SCHOOL MEALS: The Whitmer administration wants to use state funds to close the hunger gap created when the federal government ended its pandemic-era program that paid for free breakfast and lunch for all schoolchildren regardless of household income. We talk to the food services director of the Jenison & Hudsonville Schools, who also heads the School Nutrition Association of Michigan, XXX and YYY. By Sophia Brandt. FOR MICHIGAN FARM NEWS, HOLLAND, GRAND RAPIDS BUSINESS, WKTV, DETROIT, LANSING CITY PULSE AND ALL POINTS.
PARK: The DNR and the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe jointly manage and make decisions about Sanilac Petroglyphs State Historic Park in the Thumb. It’s the state’s largest known collection of early Native American teachings carved in stone. Includes reference to Cranbrook Art Museum. By Sophia Brandt. FOR LAPEER, MIDLAND, BAY MILLS, TRAVERSE CITY, MARQUETTE, SAULT STE. MARIE, HARBOR SPRINGS, PETOSKEY, DETROIT AND ALL POINTS.