Monday July 28

EAST LANSING, Mich. - A new report from Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaborative, or EPIC, examines Michigan’s ambitious investment in Grow Your Own teacher programs, an innovative approach designed to recruit and retain educators from local communities to address chronic teacher shortages across the state.

The report, “Grow Your Own Teacher Initiatives in Michigan at a Glance,” provides an overview of how Michigan has invested more than $275 million since 2021 to fund a portfolio of four key initiatives — Grow Your Own, or GYO, School Staff Grants; Talent Together; EXPLORE; and LAUNCH. These programs target a diverse array of participants, from current school staff and community members to secondary school students exploring careers in education.

GYO programs aim to address teacher shortages by developing teachers from within the communities they serve, increasing both the size and diversity of the state’s teaching workforce. “The research is clear: Educators tend to stay in communities with which they have strong ties,” said Jason Burns, EPIC research specialist and co-author of the report. “These programs are strategically designed to leverage those ties to strengthen local educational outcomes.”

The report highlights that the state’s GYO strategy is multifaceted, with each program addressing different aspects of teacher recruitment and retention:

• GYO School Staff Grants help districts work with existing school employees to gain teaching credentials.
• Talent Together, a registered apprenticeship, offers intensive support for candidates pursuing high-need certifications.
• EXPLORE introduces middle and high school students to teaching as a career path.
• LAUNCH provides high school students with education-related credentials and practical experience.
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However, the recent budget proposed by the Michigan House of Representatives would eliminate all funding for GYO programs, which may derail early progress made toward alleviating the state’s teacher shortages.

“Grow Your Own programs work,” said State Superintendent Michael F. Rice, Ph.D. “Nothing is more important to students in the classroom than high-quality teachers. Grow Your Own programs have helped Michigan make progress toward Goal 7 in Michigan’s Top 10 Strategic Education Plan, which is to increase the number of teachers in areas of shortage. The legislature must provide stable funding dedicated specifically to addressing the teacher shortage instead of lumping this funding into block grants and forcing districts to pick and choose which programs to fund or, worse still, eliminating this funding altogether. Local districts would be reluctant to spend their scarce dollars on sending district graduates to teacher preparation institutions when there is no guarantee that they would return home to teach upon college graduation.”

Because earning a teaching credential can take time, EPIC researchers plan to closely examine Michigan’s GYO programs over the next several years to assess their long-term impacts. “These state-sponsored GYO initiatives mark a historically large public investment into different avenues of teacher recruitment and retention, and they hold a lot of potential to address our state’s chronic educator shortages,” said report co-author and EPIC Research Assistant Jennifer Moriarty.

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EAST LANSING, Mich. - The Henry Ford + MSU Innovation Hub is a collaboration between Henry Ford Innovations and MSU Research Foundation meant to transform groundbreaking discoveries into real-world clinical solutions that improve care delivery, consumer access and patient experience.

Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences today announced the formation of the Innovation Hub, the partnership’s bold new initiative to accelerate commercialization of new technologies to improve health.

The Innovation Hub aims to narrow the gap between academic innovation and clinical implementation to grow early-stage companies that revolutionize care delivery, broaden health care access and enhance patient experiences.

“This is so much more than investing in startups — we’re truly investing in the future of patient care,” said Bob Riney, president and CEO, Henry Ford Health. “The Innovation Hub represents a bold step toward, transforming breakthrough ideas into real-world solutions that will shape the next era of medicine right here in our own ecosystem. Good health doesn’t just mean medicine and doctor’s appointments — it means innovation, exploration and discovery, too.”

The Innovation Hub has three main components:

Clinical Expertise — Clinical and subject matter expertise for technology assessment, real-world evidence and data, and pilot and clinical trial sites.

Entrepreneurial Support — Access to experienced health care entrepreneurs and suite of startup programming including customer discovery, validation and vast network of services.

Venture Investment — Initial $10 million venture fund dedicated to investing in early-stage companies, including those in digital health and artificial intelligence, medical devices and diagnostics, care delivery innovations and clinical workflow improvement.

Founding members Henry Ford Health, Michigan State University and MSU Research Foundation are providing the initial $10 million in capital for the fund, with the goal of investing about $2 million a year over roughly the next five years.

“Bringing new innovations to market is incredibly complex. It takes deep domain expertise, strategic partnerships, capital, and relentless execution to navigate the path from idea to impact,” said Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., president, Michigan State University. “Our teams have long-standing track records of doing just that: turning promising innovations into market-ready solutions that improve lives and deliver real value.”

It is expected the collaboration will lead to:

- Launching and scaling high-potential startups through venture creation and investment;

- Supporting innovators, clinicians and faculty in translating ideas to impact;

- Fostering public-private partnerships to drive clinical validation and market adoption;

- Cultivating talent and infrastructure to grow Michigan’s life science and innovation economy.

Those interested in exploring collaboration opportunities including, but not limited to, entrepreneurial support, customer discovery, venture investment, clinical pilot studies and co-development of intellectual property can visit the Innovation Hub website to learn more.

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EASTLAKE, OH – Corey Avant impressed with seven strikeouts in five scoreless innings, but a Jacob Cozart seventh-inning sacrifice fly gave the Lake County Captains (17-13, 52-44) a 1-0 win over the Lansing Lugnuts (12-18, 48-48) on Sunday afternoon at Classic Auto Group Park.

The Captains won five of six games in the series.

Avant struck out top Guardians prospects Alfonsin Rosario and Ralphy Velaquez in the first, prospect Jaison Chourio in the second, Kyle Dernedde and Christian Knapczyk in the third, Velazquez again in the fourth, and Cozart in the fifth, all the while allowing just two hits and two walks on 77 pitches.

Captains lefty Caden Favors countered with six innings of two-hit ball, striking out two, to hand a scoreless game over to the bullpens.

19-year-old Wei-En Lin mowed through Rosario, Velazquez and Chourio in the bottom of the sixth, but gave up a one-out triple to Nick Mitchell in the seventh. Cozart followed with a line drive to left fielder Rodney Green, Jr., whose throw to the plate arrived too late to stop the speedy Mitchell from scoring the game’s first run.

Lin departed the game with two runners aboard and two outs in the eighth inning due to precautionary reasons; Henry Gómez entered and retired Chourio on a flyout to keep the deficit at a run.

In the ninth, Casey Yamauchi drew a leadoff walk from Izaak Martinez. Two batters later, Nate Nankil was drilled by a pitch to put the tying and go-ahead runs on. Robert Wegielnik relieved Martinez and set down Tommy White on a popout and Jared Dickey with a strikeout to save the Caps’ win.

The Lugnuts now return home, welcoming in the Cedar Rapids Kernels from July 29 through August 3. Tickets are available for purchase at the stadium box office, (517) 485-4500 or online at milb.com/lansing.

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