The Northeast Michigan Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (NEMIGLSI), which serves students and teachers in eight northern Lake Huron counties, is one of the five winners in the second annual Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Innovative Education Award program. The organization will receive a grant of $25,000.
Focusing on communities with some of the highest unemployment rates in Michigan, NEMIGLSI provides local teachers and students with Great Lakes-based natural resource stewardship projects. These activities emphasize hands-on student leadership and social entrepreneurship in place-based learning settings. Moving out of the classroom, students have a chance to learn and research in some of Michigan’s most significant natural environmental areas.
Part of the Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan, NEMIGLSI is one of nine hubs in Michigan’s Great Lakes Stewardship Network (GLSI). Michigan Sea Grant Extension Educator Brandon Schroeder serves on the NEMGLSI leadership team and has been heavily involved in several of its place-based education projects.
Through NEMIGLISI, northern Michigan students have undertaken projects such as:
- Mapping endangered Pitcher’s Thistle populations on Charity Island
- Building remote-operated underwater cameras to monitor invasive species in Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary
- Pioneering water quality sampling efforts in the Trout River