Hi, and welcome back to This Person I Met! Today’s interviewee is Jen Peacock, the policy director for the Michigan Center for Youth Justice, which is an organization focused on ensuring that youth in the juvenile justice system have equitable access to qualified legal representation.

To give you some background, Michigan has a “decentralized system,” which means that juvenile court services and programming are managed at the county level. This means varied application of practices and significant differences in treatment – “justice by geography.”

And while the system for youth is not identical to that of the adult legal system, attorneys, administrators, prosecutors, and judges all still play major roles in influencing the outcomes of youth in the juvenile system.

As Jen mentioned, one of the biggest things we can do as community members is educate ourselves – which I think applies both to juvenile justice, but also any topic, especially ones relating to social causes. You can find more information about MCYJ at miyouthjustice.org, or follow MCYJ online @mi.youth justice. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I’ll see you next time!

Music: Bella Vista by the Sea by Daniel Robinson, courtesy of Uppbeat.

Hello, and welcome back to This Person I Met!

Continuing on with our series relating to the public education system, today’s guest is Sara-Beth Badalamente. She is the advisor for Huron High School’s newspaper (called the Emery), which I write and edit for! She’s also the advisor for the yearbook (called the Enthymion), a soccer coach, and also works on the Ann Arbor Public School teacher’s union bargaining team. All these things combined led her to have a very interesting perspective on the recent budget crisis in my school district.

In March, my school district announced a budget deficit of 25 million dollars, 14 million of which was due to an accounting error. A vote from the school board authorized layoffs, starting with Community Service Administrators. This led to protests and rallies attended by teachers and students alike, but additional cuts continued to be made, including the elimination of world language classes in elementary schools, co-director hours in band and orchestra classes being reduced by half, and 141 more layoffs, which was about 6 percent of district staff.

If you’re curious, you can read more about this budget crisis at thehuronemery.com, where my peers and I covered the situation pretty carefully.

Thank you so much for your support, and see you next time!

Hello, and welcome back to This Person I Met! This episode is the second part of my interview with Mr. Sumerton, one of the principals at Huron High School. In this episode, we discuss some surprising effects of technology on students’ mental health, and other pitfalls of high school. It’s funny – we’d only planned to talk for 15-20 minutes, but ended up talking for an entire hour.

Be on the lookout for the next episodes in this school-related series - I hope you enjoyed this episode, and thank you for your support!

Hello, and welcome back to This Person I Met! Today’s guest is Mr. Sumerton, one of the principals at Huron High School. This episode marks the start of a series I’m hoping to do, which will cover common challenges that high school students in my generation face, from mental health issues, to unhealthy academic peer pressure. Mr. Sumerton discusses these themes in this episode, along with how his family life and personal experiences in other school districts contribute to his view of Ann Arbor Public Schools as a singularly unique school district.

Stay tuned for the next part of this interview, where Mr. Sumerton explains how he believes reliance on technology contributes greatly to much of the mental health issues that high schoolers face. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and as always, thank you for your support!

Welcome back to This Person I Met! In today's episode, Jamie Tang talks about her relationship with the game of Go, an ancient Chinese board game that juxtaposes strategy, tactic, and culture. Music: "Music Is" by Pryces.

Hello, and welcome back to This Person I Met! Last episode, Linsay Calka – the managing director of Groundcover news – spoke about how her newspaper is an incredible way to help low-income and homeless individuals in our community, juxtaposed with excellent journalism. 

This episode will showcase some authors of articles in past issues reading their own works. Bear Myths and Cultural Power by Cindy Gere reflects about the power of myths in preserving her Native American culture. Love is a Mighty Stream by Mike Jones explains the importance of love in present-day America. 

Hello, and welcome back to This Person I Met! In today’s episode, Lindsay Calka will be talking about something that you might’ve seen in action for yourself in the streets of downtown Ann Arbor. Groundcover News, the newspaper that she has managed for the past three years, works to provide a source of income for hundreds of low-income or homeless individuals in our community.

As Lindsay explained, the Groundcover podcast is a way for the writers of the newspaper to deliver their stories in a verbal fashion. In the next episode, you will be able to hear a few snippets from this podcast, so stay tuned for that! As always, thank you for your support!

Welcome back to This Person I Met! As this podcast approaches its 40th episode (this being the 38th), I only get more and more amazed by all the incredible people I’m able to talk to. On June 26th, 2015, the US Supreme court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage, which legalized it in all fifty states. This was a massive win for Jason – the University of Michigan Professor that I had the privilege of talking to today – and his partner, as well as all other same-sex couples. In this interview, Jason shares with us his journey with surrogacy, which was able to provide him and his partner two healthy twin boys, completing their family.