Nonprofit Spotlight

The SEMIS Mission: The Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition facilitates school-community partnerships to develop students as citizen-stewards of healthy ecological-social systems.

The Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition (SEMIS Coalition) supports over 50 K-12 teachers and 2,000 K-12 students in southeast Michigan to connect classroom learning to their community through place-based education. Place-based education engages learners in local, hands-on, and relevant learning experiences that encourage young people to become active stewards of their communities, caring for themselves, their peers, and the neighbors (both human and non-human) they share their place with. Place-based education emphasizes student-driven inquiry, deep understanding of and connection to local place, and young people taking informed civic action in collaboration with their community members. A place-based approach to learning can grow young people’s sense of efficacy, their engagement in learning, and their understanding of the relevance of their learning across many subjects, including science, social studies, literacy, technology, engineering, art, and math.

As a program of Eastern Michigan University and a regional hub of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative, the SEMIS Coalition employs research-based practices in place-based education, including sustained teacher development and coalition building, collaborative instructional design, 1:1 classroom coaching, and customized on-site professional learning experiences. The SEMIS Coalition also fosters partnerships between schools and community organizations and collaborates closely with school administrators to support meaningful, sustained changes to K-12 education that support just, sustainable, and caring communities.