20-Minute Story of the University Vision
20-Minute Story of the University Vision
Imagine, Strengthen, and Inspire
"Mayra's story is compelling." - Tim S., Former U.S. Diplomat
By Jeffrey G. Nutt, J.D., President, One University of the Americas Fund
Published Veterans Day 2008 – Vol. 10 2011 Updated 11/06/2011
“imagine the amazing untapped leadership potential of our future students who are the stars of tomorrow . . . they will instill in us a sense of strength that will inspire others to succeed despite daunting odds in life”
1. Inspiring a New Veteran-Friendly Educational Effort - 1947 to Present
In May of 1947, a new waterfront educational effort began that is a lesson for us today. A special university started from scratch with 3,854 students at Chicago’s Navy Pier. The launch of the university there with that number of students was described as “BEDLAM” in a story from the Association Journal submitted by Peter Hood. Other universities at the time were helping but could not completely meet the special needs of the thousands of Veterans returning from war. A similar situation exists now.
Today, our Nation is experiencing the largest homecoming since World War II. In 2009, we learned of the distinguished service of one officer, Capt. Francis O. Wey, J.D., U.S. Army. He served in Iraq. In honor of the hundreds of service members and military families he has served, who stand daily for freedom and courage in the face of daunting odds, One University of the Americas Fund named Capt. Wey as our Honorary Chancellor in 2009. He was then Michigan's only full-time U.S. Army Judge Advocate General.
Active duty soldiers and Veterans are catching the vision for the One University of the Americas Fund effort (also known as "the Fund"). They understand the critical unmet needs the Fund seeks to address through our innovative educational-medical-legal outreach for Veterans and other marginalized people. One University of the Americas Fund launched Advocates Legal Services (also known as "Advocates") with the help of pro bono advocates in 2009. Through Advocates, each participant is matched with a professional advocate. The professional also instructs the participant on how to advocate for themselves to become higher education ready and achieve their personal best in life.
2. Fast Forward
On December 12, 2008, I met then Lt. Col. Randy Odom, a senior U.S. Army outreach officer near Historic Fort Meyer, Virginia. He mentioned that resources to ease Veterans' re-entry into the mainstream of American life are not as accessible as they need to be. The good Lieutenant wanted me to understand that public resources for Veterans too often are clustered in a relatively small number of cities and not scattered throughout the vast number of cities, suburbs and other "hometowns" in our Nation where the Veterans settle daily. One University of the Americas Fund hopes to change that.
We are on a mission to remove educational barriers with a new Veteran-focused educational initiative known as United University of America Effort . We seek to imagine, instill strength and inspire students through sincere concern and practical support. With innovative learning, research and teaching, we achieve favorable results. Veterans and everyone who is eventually served will be much better off. In the same way curb cuts for wheelchair users improved movement for pedestrians of all sorts, including baby stroller walkers, inline skaters and bikers, service to Veterans helps everyone. With the advent of curb cuts about 25 years ago, movement for pedestrians changed forever. For many individuals and families, walking became entertainment.
Innovative education is contagious if not entertaining. That was true when my piano teacher’s son, Professor James Maas, started teaching his course at Cornell University years ago and it is true today more than 25,000 students later. Professor Maas’s psychology course enrolls more than 1,000 students annually. His innovative course incorporating clips from a former hit television show demonstrates that a certain amount of creativity and star power can instill wonder and empower multitudes with knowledge. In the same way, Veterans of the post-911 wars and of the global war on poverty have real potential to fill a unique leadership niche in our knowledge economy. They are the stars of tomorrow that inspire the One University of the Americas Fund vision. They do this day after day, year after year with the utmost dignity and fortitude.
3. Honor to Whom Honor Is Due
One University of the Americas Fund honors those to whom honor is due. We established this site domain on Veterans Day, as a tribute to our Nation's service and disabled Veterans. Our Nation annually honors our service members on Veterans Day. The American GI is respected as a strong fighter for justice under law. The GI's have fought for us. Now, we must fight for them - as zealous advocates. This site was last updated immediately after celebrating Black History Month, 2010, as a tribute to people of all colors. In our vision for the future, we see a colorful mosaic of gifted Veterans and civilians who inspire us. They are crying out for advocates. The One University of the Americas Fund began as a small group’s quest to organize a new effort serving vulnerable and potentially gifted veterans and other students. Our core group of committed co-founders includes the Troya-Nutt family, Veterans, educators, business men and women, and several Fulbright alumni. Together, we seek to serve as a strong voice for the unheard youth of our generation - a voice for Veterans and survivors of the epidemic of poverty, violence, education and socio-economic decay.
4. A Personal Journey Toward Justice
We began organizing One University of the Americas Fund in 2008. Our advocacy outreach, known as Advocates Legal Services, increases access to justice. We pay particular attention to education and justice initiatives that protect the vulnerable and marginalized, regardless of race, creed, gender, age or ethnic or national origin. Advocates Legal Services delivers high quality legal advocacy to Veterans, the disabled, survivors of homelessness, youth, and seniors aged 55 and older.
When I was given a state bar "Champion of Justice" award in 2007, I dedicated it to my wife, Mayra, a Detroit OB/GYN. Now a board-certified diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, she first came to this country from Panama because of injustice: injustice perpetrated by a ruthless dictator and injustice perpetrated against women.
5. Life in Panama, France and the U.S.A.
When Mayra was born, a childless Jewish woman who delivered a stillborn baby in the hospital asked Mayra's mother for permission to adopt the baby. Her mother allowed the woman to hold Mayra once out of compassion. Then, Mayra went home to the Troya family. Until the age of 13, Mayra lived with four (4) Troya siblings in a one bedroom apartment a few blocks from the Panama Canal. She became the National student speech champion of the Republic of Panama and was the youngest graduate of her medical school class, having been admitted to medical school at the age of 17. Later, she graduated from the University of Paris residency program. The results of her published research at France's National Center for Scientific Investigation were presented at the Paris OB/GYN Society.
Mayra's study as a foreign resident in obstetrics and gynecology was fortuitous. Only once did she encounter racial bias when a patient demanded to be seen by a white physician rather than Mayra, who is black. The patient suddenly changed her mind when the university's OB/GYN residency program director, the internationally acclaimed Professor Emile Papiernik, told the patient that either she would be seen by "Madame Troya" or not at all.
6. Gaining Executive and Clinical Experience - A Labor of Love
In her U.S. medical residency program, Mayra became the first Hispanic executive chief resident physician. She shared administrative oversight of the 44 resident physicians at the Nation's second largest university residency program. Several months earlier, I was elected the first white executive director of Wayne County Neighborhood Legal Services d/b/a Neighborhood Legal Services Michigan (NLSM), the second largest neighborhood legal services program in Detroit with a multi-million dollar budget. A past president of the American Bar Association and other leading attorneys and community organizers served on their board. We were just scratching the surface of the need. Yet, together, we expanded service with technology, scattered sites and innovative programs touching adults, seniors and youth in urban and suburban communities. The number of K-12 schools served increased from five (5) to more than fifty (50) annually. In a handful of the schools, college recruiters stopped by from time to time. United University of America Effort expects to train the stars of tomorrow by reaching out to schools and communities. We encourage action with fitness. What a joy to participate in the annual Detroit Free Press International Marathon 5K walk/run. For several years, I was the only walker among thousands to carry a cane, due to a rare kind of arthritis. In 2009, I stopped using the cane because it slowed me down but I keep walking the 5K and – as I cross the finish line – running. I enjoy making “runs” to and from Detroit where I serve on several boards. Sometimes, I take a drive a.k.a. “run” to Detroit to catch up with Mayra or to take a waterfront stroll or bike ride.
At Mayra’s U.S. residency graduation, the two successor executive chief residents presented her with a gag gift – a plastic army helmet. Indeed, she and the other graduating executive chief, Diane (Densmore) Ravenell, were known for their ability to fight the good fight in a relentless effort to provide the highest quality care to women at the specialty hospitals of the Detroit Medical Center (DMC). Mayra’s scholarly research during her U.S. and French residencies was published in the United States and Europe on topics as diverse as obesity and fetal abnormalities.
The DMC women's hospital (Hutzel) hosts the Midwest’s only branch of the National Institutes of Health (the perinatology research branch). The "branch" is a $100,000,000 research investment with top doctors recruited from around the world. Behind the scenes, there is a culture of excellence rooted in scholarship and discipline. If a pregnant mother arrives with no prenatal history and a baby is in distress, the baby can safely be delivered in less than twenty (20) minutes. On one occasion during her training there with Wayne State University, Mayra safely performed a "stat" (emergency) c-section, "skin to skin" (start to finish) in less than 15 minutes. Through underground tunnels, the DMC maternity hospital is connected to others including the leading Level 1 trauma center in that part of the Midwest. Detroit Receiving Hospital is the only Level 1 trauma center in the region that will attempt to revive a person who has flat lined (died) three times. Air Force One reportedly alerts Detroit Receiving when it is flying in the vicinity in case an emergency landing would ever be needed for an ER admission of the U.S. President there.
7. Dr. Sophie Womack Trailblazer Award
Mayra is a Diplomat with the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. After Mayra served as executive chief resident at Hutzel, she became a Detroit Medical Center/Hutzel attending physician. There were times when several senior support staff would affectionately say "the general is coming" when they saw Mayra arriving at the hospital. Hutzel Women's Hospital is the region's hospital having the highest number of high risk pregnancies and the lowest infant mortality rate. Her work at Hutzel and with a premier federally qualified health center in Detroit is truly a labor of love.
The former Chief Medical Officer of the Detroit Medical Center, Dr. Sophie Womack, recommended Mayra for OB/GYN residency at Hutzel hospital. An advocate for women and children during her lifetime who was married to a Michigan physician and radio talk show host, Dr. Jimmie Womack, Sophie was a gifted neonatologist and community leader who served on the Detroit Community Health Connection (DCHC) board. The DCHC leadership surprised Mayra in November 2009 with the Dr. Sophie Womack Trailblazer Award, presented at the world's largest museum of African American history, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. DCHC's Wayne Bradley presented the award. The Fund thanks him and the Womack family for their inspirational service to others.
To obtain high quality care from Mayra, some federally qualified health center patients come to Detroit from as far away as Grand Rapids and Novi, Michigan. Her favorite DCHC clinic is actually located in the epicenter of Metro Detroit's HIV/AIDS epidemic. Mayra daily cares for her patients fluently in English or Spanish. She sometimes utilizes an Arabic-speaking translator at her Detroit/Dearborn area clinic. When she treats HIV positive gynecology patients at the Detroit/Woodward Corridor clinic she will not hesitate to tell the bright school-aged children that come with their HIV positive mothers there that "One day, you can be a doctor, too."
8. 501(c)(3) Letter of December 24, 2009
In December 2009, One University of the Americas Fund received a letter that made history for the Fund. The Fund received its 501(c)(3) letter from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service that will not only allow the Fund to establish a quasi-private public interest school with legal advocacy but, resources permitting, to also perform university-affiliated research. The co-founders of the One University of the Americas Fund are inspired by the research universities that have contributed to our training. Next, we pay tribute to several institutions that have shaped our lives and the unique One University of the Americas Fund vision.
9. University of Panama, University of Paris, and Wayne State University
At the University of Panama, the University of Paris, and Wayne State University (WSU), there have been many gifted professors who have given Mayra the opportunity to prove her skills in Panama, the USA and France. The first American physician to do that was Dr. Bernard Gonik of Detroit's Sinai-Grace Hospital. Little did he know that several weeks later during an OB/GYN externship created for Mayra by Dr. Gonik, she would deliver her first American baby in French to a mother from Ivory Coast who spoke only French. The baby was born in perfect health. The WSU/DMC/Hutzel/Sinai-Grace OB/GYN residency program continues to serve patients from many nations and states. It is part of the largest single campus medical school in the United States.
Because of the keen competition from all over the world for each residency position at WSU, when Dr. Gonik initially recommended Mayra for the WSU OB/GYN residency program during his first meeting with her, he was told by one professor, "It would be harder for a camel to get through the eye of a needle" than for Mayra to get into their program. Later, after proving her skills at Sinai-Grace and during OB/GYN residency, Mayra would receive the top WSU obstetrics award, the Charles Vincent Award. She received the award nearly four (4) years after a very challenging exchange with another doctor, with a very happy ending. The story, "Forever Friends", teaches us lessons about character, integrity and forgiveness.
10. Lessons in Character, Integrity and Forgiveness: Forever Friends
During her first week in U.S. residency, a new senior resident supervised Mayra. A former child prodigy, the resident was known for the depth of her knowledge of the discipline of OB/GYN. The senior stated she was glad to be a part of what she considered to be the toughest OB/GYN residency program in the United States Unfortunately for Mayra, however, for some strange reason the senior would not hesitate to disparage Mayra during her first Hutzel rotation. She singled her out in group meetings with a hostile tone and comments that were unbecoming of a senior resident physician. This continued for several days until Mayra asked for a private meeting with the senior.
In the private meeting, Mayra calmly asked the senior to help her to understand the reason for her unusual conduct toward Mayra. "You are the target," the senior resident stated. The strange custom at the time was for a group of senior residents to target one incoming resident each year to quit under the pressure. For whatever reasons, nearly a third of the residents left the program within a two-year period. Mayra asked why she was the target. The senior stated that a group of senior residents decided on several reasons to target Mayra: 1) Mayra was "Hispanic"; 2) a mid-career physician, Mayra was a little "older" than most junior residents; and 3) Mayra worked as an "attending physician" in her native Panama.
After listening to the senior’s so-called "reasons" for targeting Mayra to quit under the pressure, Mayra remained calm and kind yet firm in her resolve. She asked the senior to please "tell all your friends that they will have to work very hard to get me to quit under the pressure because I earned the right to be here." Then, the senior suddenly apologized profusely, with tears. The discussion suddenly took a remarkable turn. The senior volunteered that she needed major surgery the following week for a life-challenging cancerous tumor. Mayra accepted the senior's apology, immediately forgave her and encouraged her. After that tearful private meeting, that same senior resident immediately became a staunch advocate for Mayra, who became executive chief resident of the 44-resident physician program three years later.
11. The Importance of Credentials, Listening and Random Acts of Kindness
Today, physician recruiters contact Mayra nearly every week from all over the country because of her credentials but Mayra continues her labor of love with the women and families she serves. Today the former senior described in the previous paragraph is our very dear friend. She is regarded today one of the most gifted maternal fetal medicine specialists in the Mid-Atlantic States. Ironically, after Mayra received the Vincent Award, she presented Wayne State University's top maternal-fetal medicine award to the very same physician who four (4) years earlier targeted Mayra to quit under the pressure.
Mayra has a unique capacity to deal with people who sometimes rub others the wrong way. After listening to the above senior resident physician tell the story of her cancer, Mayra later gave the senior, an observant Muslim, a token to encourage her before cancer surgery. The senior reportedly held the token in her hand as she entered surgery and kept it there until she entered the recovery room. A remarkable surgeon with an amazing surgical outcome herself, the senior was back to work in days. She is a cancer survivor. The scarf worn by the senior upon her return to work at the hospital was not unlike the clerical garb worn by some Islamic women. It enabled her to keep her cancer surgery a private matter.
Thankfully, the old annual tradition of targeting one new resident to quit ended during Mayra's residency years.
12. Storied History of Hutzel and the VA Hospital
The storied history of Hutzel Women’s Hospital’s remarkable care for women has continued for more than 100 years. It is not unusual for the Discovery Science channel to film on site at Hutzel, home to what is reportedly one of the toughest OB/GYN residency programs in the Nation. During Mayra's term as executive chief resident, fair terms and conditions of employment became the rule not the exception. The program went from provisional accreditation to full accreditation during that year.
While doing her earlier rotation at the Veteran's Administration (VA) Hospital in Detroit, Mayra delivered compassionate care to Veterans there. She served patients at nearly all of the Detroit Medical Center hospitals (there are more than six). Among all the patients served by her during residency, those suffering from the most debilitating, traumatic conditions were without question the VA hospital patients.
13. Surviving Political Persecution
In medical school at the University of Panama, Mayra's classmates affectionately referred to her as "the baby". She survived political persecution during the lawless regime of deposed Panama dictator Gen. Manual Noriega. His health minister rescinded Mayra's contract when she refused to enlist as a military doctor for Noriega. His military doctors were under strict orders to withhold life-saving treatment from political opponents who were admitted to hospital emergency rooms. To Mayra, that would have been unthinkable. Many of the doctors who enlisted under Gen. Noriega were eventually convicted and imprisoned for crimes against humanity.
Mayra and most of her family survived the Noriega reign of terror. On several occasions they attended public rallies organized by the dictators' political opposition. Tragically, Mayra's eldest brother did not survive Noriega's reign. When Ricky contracted a spinal infection, he was hospitalized. Shortages of antibiotics were common during an international embargo against Noriega’s government. Mayra's brother died the day after he entered the hospital. He left a wife and five (5) minor children. Days later, Panama was liberated by U.S. troops.
14. A Multicultural Family: The Troyas
In spite of intermittent political instability in Panama, for the past century racial and ethnic harmony has been the norm there. There are hundreds of thousands of multiracial nuclear families in Panama. Like the Troyas, many families there happen to be a mixture of Spanish, black, Indian and Chinese. Mayra’s Native Indian grandfather chose the name Troya (translated "Trojan") as his Spanish name.
Mayra's father, Pablo Emilio Troya, was Spanish and Indian farmer and a 30-year laborer with the Panama Canal Commission of the United States. Even though he never finished elementary school in rural Panama, he taught his children how to live. Pablo Troya’s family line includes the most revered Native Panamanian founding father, Victoriano Lorenzo. There are sculptures and other historical markers that commemorate Victoriano's legacy as a revolutionary and founding father of the Republic of Panama. He was a fearless military leader who fought tirelessly for Panama's independence.
Mayra's paternal grandmother died prematurely, leaving her three year old son, Pablo, to be raised by his father and stepmother. Despite the fact that Pablo only had a third grade education, Pablo's stepmother insisted that the boy be emancipated when he was sixteen (16). With help from his father, he created a farm on the edge of the tropical rainforest to support himself and his family in the heart of the Isthmus of Panama. A river runs through the farm, which was expanded in size several times over the years. From the top of one hill, you can see Gaton Lake, the largest man-made freshwater lake in Central America, which feeds the Panama Canal.
15. Smithsonian Island, the Farm, the Panama Canal, and Heritage Rivers
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is about 10 miles north of the Troya family farm. The Tropical Research Institute is headquartered in Panama with extension facilities in 13 other countries. The Smithsonian research institutes are a research model worth emulating in other places in North America and beyond. Like the Detroit River that has been the lifeblood of the motor city of Detroit, the water in Panama has been the lifeblood for the Panama Canal, the Smithsonian research institute there, and the Troya family farm. And now, in 2010, the Panama Canal Authority offered a conservation contracts to Mayra and her brother Jaime Troya. The river that runs through their land parcels is part of the Panama Canal Watershed that has more than 500 species of birds and remarkable biodiversity.
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute occupies the largest man-made island in Latin America, the pristine Barro Colorado Island, which is roughly the size of Manhattan Island. Other Panama sites of the Smithsonian institute include a facility on an island causeway near the Panama City entrance to the canal. More recently, the research institute expanded to the building in Gamboa, Panama where Mayra attended elementary school.
The Panama Canal Authority will sometimes park their vehicles on the Troya family farm crossroad and provide cookies and fruit juice to the Indian children living on the Troya farm and in the village of Mendoza. The farm is our favorite place for Troya family reunions, even though there is no electricity there yet. For three months out of the year, the seasonal white water river that intersects the land is too dangerous to cross from one side of the farm to the other. The potential to develop hydroelectric power there is substantial. Stands of tropical virgin rainforest line the banks of the river on the farm, which becomes a thundering sixty (60) foot waterfall on land owned by Mayra’s cousin Sanchez, who is also a farmer. Each year, about 300 cattle are raised on the Troya farm.
16. Chinese, Black, Indian and Spanish Roots
In addition having paternal grandparents of Native Indian and Spanish European blood, Mayra has maternal black and Asian roots. Mayra's mother, Bienvida (translated "welcome"), met and married Pablo Troya when she was a teacher in Mendoza, Panama. Bienvenida Esther Troya de Torrero was the eldest of six children and protected her family like a lion. Mayra's maternal grandmother was the matriarch of the family. A small Chinese woman, she was as disciplined as a drill sergeant. The tall maternal grandfather of Mayra was a black Hispanic man. In the words of President Barak Obama when describing his father, Mayra's grandfather was "as black as pitch". He was Mayra’s favorite grandparent. Today, multiracial families in Panama are more common than not. Racial fear and pride seem to be non-existent there. One University of the Americas Fund seeks to develop culturally competent programs and services regardless of race or ethnicity. As the song goes, "Red and Yellow, Black and White" all are precious.
17. Romance Day at the State Fair
When Mayra and I were married, our family photo looked like a snapshot from the United Nations. We were married at Capitol Hill Baptist Church on December 19, 1992 in a ceremony with three ministers and guests from five states and eight nations. When Mayra and I met in Washington, D.C., one never would have expected us to get married. She spoke Spanish. I spoke English. She was black. I was white. She was a foreign physician. I was a law student at American University.
In 1993, I wore my tuxedo that I purchased as a student to the Michigan State Fair to compete in the WNIC radio love story telling contest, where I hoped to tell our story. A child saw me entering the fairgrounds and exclaimed to his mother, "Mommy, mommy look, it's the magician!" At the competition, I showed a clip from our wedding video on the giant video wall and sang the love song that I surprised Mayra with at our wedding. We won the contest and the prize - four (4) round-trip tickets anywhere in the continental U.S.A.
To say we have been blessed as a family is an understatement. Now, we and the other organizers of the University of the Americas Fund are on a mission to give something back to our Nation, paying special attention to Veterans and other vulnerable yet potentially gifted persons through the United University of America Effort . We are happy to do so.
18. Unity Through Diversity
During the span of their diverse careers, and in the course of their various business ventures, the core group of founders of the One University of the Americas Fund served thousands of adults, youth and seniors with a variety of backgrounds. Those served by the founders reflected the cultural diversity of the Nation.
Mayra and I moved to a relatively new and integrated community in 2007, just before One University of the Americas Fund was organized. Although we have no children, Mayra and I have nephews and nieces in the U.S.A. and Panama. To study English, our nephew and niece from Panama stayed with us during most of 2007. Ramses and Marilaine Rodriguez were teens at the time but interacted with American family and friends of all ages, including the Harpers, the Nutts, the Mahoneys, the Baileys and the Brinsons. One evening, I introduced the Rodriguez's to the station manager of Detroit’s TCT Television, our friend Rev. Timothy Brinson. He later scheduled Ramses, Marilaine and me to be interviewed on a local television talk show about our family, their life in Panama, and my work as a Detroit area family advocacy attorney.
TCT Television also interviewed Dr. P.K. Roberts on the day of the Rodriguez interview. At the time, Dr. Roberts was Chaplain of Selfridge Air National Guard Base north of Detroit. A truly remarkable author and speaker, Chaplain Roberts was later recruited by the U.S. Army to participate in the formation of a Wounded Warriors initiative. She left an indelible impression on the Rodriguez’s who later hosted her and her husband in Panama City, Panama.
On the day we met Chaplain Roberts in 2007 at TCT, a young engineer in the studio began peppering the Rodriguez’s with questions over lunch. He seemed to wonder whether they identified themselves as black or Hispanic. They look African American but speak with a Spanish accent. Cultural anthropologists might characterize similar families as Afro-Hispanic. The young engineer’s questions prompted Rev. Brinson to repeat something several times for emphasis. He repeatedly stated, "In God's eyes, there is no such thing as race.” I do agree that too much discussion about race can not only be divisive but also a great distraction. At One University of the Americas Fund, we are united - not divided by race, religion, age, ethnicity or other potentially divisive issues.
19. Supreme Court Service, Friends and ORU
Most divisive and controversial issues in our society end up becoming the focus of litigation in the courts at some point. Prior to law school, I worked as one of four (4) judicial interns in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice. We assisted then Chief Justice Warren Burger in fulfilling his statutory and leadership duties as Chief Administrative Officer of the Federal Judiciary. We wrote speeches, performed research and ran a news clipping-type service for the Chief. Every day we scanned the latest headlines and discussed the latest hot button issues that were the topic of current events as we cut and pasted news stories for the Chief during the first hour of every day. Religion and politics were definitely not taboo discussions for us over lunch when we spent time in "the highest court in the land." That is, we joked, time spent in the basketball court and gymnasium above the courtroom.
Our group of four judicial interns was one-of-a-kind. One was a practicing Mormon, one was Jewish. The Roman Catholic judicial intern was seeing a Jewish young woman. Then there was me. I was born Roman Catholic and educated in an inner-city Jesuit school until age 12 when my mother placed my sister and me in a Baptist-sponsored school. We attended Catholic and Protestant churches in Detroit.
After graduating from Southfield Christian School, I applied to two colleges, the University of Michigan - where I visited my brother often - and Oral Roberts University (ORU). I was accepted at both schools but chose to attend ORU, founded by the late Oral Roberts. Located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, ORU sought to graduate students who were "intellectually alert, spiritually alive, physically disciplined, and socially adept." According to one of its professors, ORU is the most denominationally and ethnically diverse university in the world. As his mother Claudius was a member of the Cherokee Nation of American Indians, Mr. Roberts regarded himself as a person of color. Ironically, he opened the school about 40 years after a race riot in Tulsa burned what was known as "The Black Wall Street" to the ground in the 1920's. About a quarter of the students at ORU are ethnic or racial minorities.
20. Oxford, American University, Public Interest Law and Capitol Hill
When I attended Oxford University on a Fulbright grant, I undertook independent research and tutorials in European Community law and institutions at one of Oxford's many colleges, St. Edmund Hall. My tutor, Derrick Wyatt, was a leading Oxford tutor and fellow at law. I participated in various student organizations and became a lifetime member of the Oxford Union Society.
During law school at American University, I attended the Washington College of Law (WCL). WCL was founded by two women in the 1800's. My best grades were earned in two subjects that I had never before studied: Biotechnical Innovation and the Law and Jewish Law. The public interest law clinical training at WCL cultivated and refined my passion for public service. At the 1990 National Public Interest Law Recruitment Conference co-sponsored by American University, I was recruited by attorney Linda Bernard, to return to Detroit to help her help the community through one of the only legal aid programs of its kind in the Nation. I eventually succeeded her and grew the multi-million dollar agency with the help of 29 gifted legal, educational, and housing advocates. Responding to more than 15,000 requests annually at four locations, we employed a staff that was as culturally diverse as America itself, including Hispanic, black, European, Asian, Christian, Jewish and Islamic lawyers. I recruited and trained one child advocacy attorney who had been born in Afghanistan and came to America with his father, a former Fulbright Scholar. Attorney Khalid Sekander later drafted the juvenile code that was signed into law by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
During law school and before returning to Detroit, I lived in the inner-city of Washington, D.C. in a historic, gentrified neighborhood. In exchange for free rent, I joined a Baptist church to serve as resident manager of its boarding house on Capitol Hill. To bring unity to the then divided congregation, we invited the entire Baptist congregation to our home for sit down "Second Sunday Potluck" meals, starting in 1988. When the monthly gathering approached 100 guests, the location was moved to the congregation's fellowship hall, located three blocks from the Supreme Court. More than 30,000 "Second Sunday" meals have been served on the Hill since then.
In 1988, I studied comparative constitutional law in Israel on a scholarship made possible by Temple University's summer session at Tel Aviv University. My Sachs Goldman scholarship was made possible through the United Jewish Endowment Fund. I studied law in Israel with about 25 other law students from the U.S.A. We visited historic, government and religious sites in both Israel and Egypt - including secular, Islamic, Jewish and Christian sites. I was happy and content to learn about diverse cultures in the U.S.A. and abroad after spending much of my childhood in a multicultural community in Detroit in the late 1960's and the 1970's - Sherwood Forest.
21. Growing Up in Detroit with a Colorful Nutt Family
Several months after the 1967 civil unrest in Detroit, the Nutt family moved from Cleveland, Ohio to a middle class subdivision in the City of Detroit. Sherwood Forest was a fun place to grow up. Our local Catholic school was filled with large, growing nuclear families. In 1972, my parents divorced. Our mother went back to work outside the home while my father pursued his business career in Chicago, Illinois. He faithfully visited his children and never missed a child support payment. He became the primary caregiver for one of my siblings who was almost arrested one day after an isolated family conflict nearly escalated out of control.
In Detroit, my mother and the younger children began attending Roman Catholic charismatic renewal meetings at the University of Detroit. My mother later joined a large interdenominational church started by a woman in Detroit, Myrtle Beall, D.D. At the end of parenting time visits with my father, he would drop us kids off at the church in Detroit on Sunday mornings before departing for Chicago. My dad and stepmother, Kathy (Perlich) Nutt introduced my four (4) siblings and me to a whole new group of relatives on her side, including my aunt by marriage who was from Deli, India and her six (6) children who are Indian and Lebanese. My uncle, Timothy, further enlarged our family when he married the daughter of a tribal chief from Liberia, Africa. A former Peace Corps member who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, he has been a lifelong mentor and role model.
22. A Great Time in Detroit's Sherwood Forest
To my knowledge, the only other family with five white children to move into our Detroit Sherwood Forest subdivision after 1967 was the Josaitis family. Mrs. Josaitis tells the story of how her kids’ maternal grandmother was so distressed over the move of her grandchildren from their comfortable suburban home to the inner city that the maternal grandmother filed a report with Child Protective Services. The report was never substantiated and Mrs. Josaitis went on to cofound with Father William Cunningham a benchmark education and civil rights organization known as Focus:HOPE. She was later awarded more than 10 honorary doctorates for the effort. She is truly an inspiration, along with Focus’s current CEO, William Jones.
Just prior to the receipt of our 501(c)(3) letter from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, One University of the Americas Fund hosted four (4) other nonprofit CEO’s, including Mr. Jones and Mrs. Josaitis. We agreed to continue our discussions about the feasibility of forming a new Veteran-friendly advocacy and university collaborative coordinated by One University of the Americas Fund. We have met individually since then to discuss the proposed scopes of service for a collaborative funding request for $5,000,000.00 to launch the initiative, an amount suggested by our Honorary Chancellor, Former Capt. Francis O. Wey, U.S. Army. Capt. Wey refers cases involving active duty soldiers and Veterans to our Advocates Legal Services public interest justice initiative. Until recently, he was the U.S. Army's only full-time Judge Advocate General in the State of Michigan.
Detroit's Sherwood Forest neighborhood was a fun place to live until my older siblings left the home. Then, my mother downsized and moved my little sister and me to a smaller home in Southfield, Michigan, where I became the "man of the house" at age 14. In Detroit, music legends Gladys Knight & the Pips, boxer Michael Spinks and the "Queen of Soul", Aretha Franklin, frequented our neighborhood. When I was ten (10) years of age, my best friend was Bubba, one of the Pips’ sons. We played a lot of basketball. I learned to ride the unicycle and did homework with a diverse mix of neighborhood classmates, including Bubba's cousins at the Knight house. They were our classmates at Detroit’s Gesu Elementary School. To visit friends and study piano, my sister and I continued visiting our former Sherwood Forest neighborhood almost every week until I graduated from high school. Out of gratitude for my life in Detroit and Southfield, Michigan, I sought to give something back to disadvantaged youth and became a year-round counselor for inner city youth until I graduated from high school.
23. Mrs. Mary (Maas) Klein and Professor James Maas
Classical piano has been one of my favorite interests since childhood. My best friend in elementary school introduced me to a semi-retired piano teacher in our neighborhood, Mrs. Mary (Maas) Klein. A past guest pianist with the Detroit Symphony, she expected her piano students to practice 2-3 hours per day. After her first husband died, she let nearly 60 students go but she continued to teach me and my sister at practically no charge for eight (8) years. Mrs. Klein consistently taught us that "perfect practice makes perfect." She was my first Jewish friend, role model and mentor.
Mrs. Klein's son, Professor James Maas, became a very popular professor at Cornell University where he taught psychology. Nearly 1,000 students per semester packed the lecture hall where the professor captivated students with hilarious “Candid Camera” video outtakes and periodic guest appearances by Hollywood icon Allen Funt, creator of the hit series, “The Candid Camera Show”. The good professor became an example of a teacher whose innovative approach to teaching is worth emulating. Professor Maas's novel methodology for teaching psychology 101 was and is consistent with the mantra of One University of the Americas Fund: "imagine, wonder, inspire."
24. Pursuing Public Service
Prior to graduating from college, I was fortunate to gain first-hand student work experience in all three (3) branches of the federal government, as well as on the state and international levels. In Washington, D.C., I worked as an intern with U.S. Senator Carl Levin’s personal secretary. I also interned with his constituent relations office in Detroit and with the environmental affairs coordinator for the U.S. Agency for International Development at the U.S. State Department. After another semester in college, I returned to D.C. for the full-time judicial internship program under Chief Justice, Warren Burger's administrative assistant, Dr. Mark Cannon. He recommended me for the Fulbright scholarship, along with an ORU professor and the director of the American Studies Program of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
As a result of my passion for public service and the way the college schedule worked during one three (3) year period before completing my degree, I moved fourteen (14) times. After subsequently matriculating at Oxford University on the Fulbright grant, I worked a year for my father and step-mother in the Chicago area and then returned to D.C. for law school. While I was between law school classes one evening, Mayra and I met over dinner at Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Our wedding invitation would eventually contain an inspirational quote from Scripture: "Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above."
25. Meeting My Soul Mate in D.C.
Though a physician, Mayra needed to pursue her medical career from scratch in the U.S.A. She was undaunted and grateful for whatever work came her way as she immersed herself in learning English as a second language. Because of her brief stint as a home health aide/domestic, her story proves that if you must start as a maid to realize your dreams, you can do it with excellence and succeed. Through raw grit, refined clinical skills, education and determination, she went from being an immigrant laborer to being an award-winning American M.D., fluent in English, French, and Spanish. Like many of the staff and physicians with whom she works, she is an unsung hero.
When Mayra and I were engaged in 1992, no one in either of our families, or anyone else for that matter, attempted to discourage us from marrying into a mixed marriage. We were in love. We were and are soul mates. When we wrote our marriage vows, we wrote a promise: “to love, to cherish, to honor and to respect” one another. That we have endeavored to do.
26. Overcoming Intimidation, Racial Bias, and Anti-Semitism
Since Mayra and I were married, there has been only one occasion when I believe we may have witnessed a crime of ethnic intimidation in our neighborhood. We moved into an integrated neighborhood in 2007 about a five (5) minute walk from Macy’s. We may have been the only black-white couple in the 144-home subdivision. Around May 2, 2008, a youth from the neighborhood called me regarding graffiti he had spotted the previous day on our walkway to Macy’s and a 1,000,000 square foot upscale mall with 200 stores. He had previously reported the graffiti to his parents the day before. After he showed it to me, I told him we needed to report it as an ethnic bias crime based on the words and symbols – “white power” and swastikas.
Another youth from the local high school appeared at the walkway while we were waiting for the police to arrive. Like the first youth, he also happened to be a racial minority. I asked the boys to scout around to see if there was graffiti anywhere else. When the second youth on the scene returned, he said that he found the "N" word, "white power" and a swastika written on the sidewalk in front of the home office of One University of the Americas Fund. “White power” was also written on the sidewalk a few houses away on the same street, Lexington Drive
The Anti-Defamation League and the police responded quickly. They shot photos of the graffiti which were the product of a lack of maturity or education. The cleaned the walkway the next day. Before we could remove the stains on the sidewalk, a school-aged boy saw the graffiti while walking with his dad. His father was a Rand Corporation executive who oversaw the corporation’s M.B.A. programs worldwide. The father tried to turn the incident into a positive teachable moment for his son. He was stunned to see the boy weep in response to the episode.
27. A Voice for the Voiceless
Co-founding the Children's Law Center at Wayne County Neighborhood Legal Services in the 1990's taught me many lessons about youth and families who succeed despite unspeakable pain - and the value of offering law-related education in the schools.
Today, through the Fund, we seek to serve as a voice for the unheard Veterans of our generation and the youth of the Americas. We cultivate civility and respect for the law and provide service-learning opportunities for student volunteers. During his senior year in high school, the same teen who first reported the above graffiti incident to me became a volunteer intern with One University of the Americas Fund and Advocates Legal Services (ALS). A local M.B.A. student became the first incumbent to the Fund's Presidential Fellow position. Pro bono advocates, educators and students volunteer valuable time and talent for the Fund. Several of them also happen to be our Somerset Subdivision neighbors who have caught the vision for the One University of the Americas Fund effort. Our pro bono professionals sometimes drive nearly an hour one-way to offer critical in-kind services to the Veterans and others we serve.
28. United
To be true to our mission and purpose, we at One University of the Americas Fund are united. We are united in our efforts to undertake systemic, positive change through innovative education and advocacy. We are not an ethno-centric advocacy organization. We seek to become United University™ effort. That is, culturally competent, student-centered, Veteran-friendly, and world class.
“imagine the amazing untapped leadership potential of our future students who are the stars of tomorrow . . . they will instill in us a sense of strength that will inspire others to succeed despite daunting odds in life”
As noted, our mantra is "Imagine, Wonder, Inspire." Our 501(c)(3) letter dated 12/24/2009 is addressed in a way that can spark a great deal of imagination. The spelling of the assumed legal name of the organization is not exactly correct in one place in the letter: "C/O One University of the Americas Fun" [sic] - yes, the letter uses the word "Fun" rather than Fund. Thankfully, the full legal spelling of the corporation’s formal legal name is also written perfectly in the letter. Participating in the formation of a new advocacy and college of the Americas effort promises to be one of the most exciting, fun endeavors imaginable. In the words of Jack Krasula - "Anything is Possible." Believing the axiom that, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," the co-founders of the Fund are indeed having the time of our lives as we pursue the Fund's mission with a passion.
We imagine the amazing untapped leadership potential of our future students who are the stars of tomorrow. As they learn, they will instill in us a sense of wonder that will inspire others to succeed despite daunting odds in life. That is our sincere hope for the Veterans and others served by this effort.
29. United University™ Effort- To Serve the Public Weal
With the founding of One University of the Americas Fund on January 7, 2008, we applied a lesson learned from the Republic of Panama. With the Fund, multicultural harmony is the norm. Like the American GI and others who stand for freedom on and off the battle field, the Fund stands for equal justice under law. We believe the words of the Declaration of Independence, that all are created equal with certain inalienable rights.
“to provide Veteran-friendly education and advocacy for the benefit of all humanity”
Like the school that began at Chicago's Navy Pier in 1947, United University™ efforts would train vulnerable Veterans and potentially gifted students. In Chicago, the school at Navy Pier outgrew the Pier and later merged with the University of Illinois at Chicago. United University™ efforts will be formed after a university educational corporation is formed. The school is envisioned as a quasi-private, public interest, high tech Inter-American system of waterfront or hometown campuses to serve the public weal. Our core purpose is to provide Veteran-friendly education and advocacy for the benefit of all humanity.
30. One University - Many Stars of Tomorrow
United University™ efforts will reach out to multicultural youth from the Americas and the world. Some will become whiz kids. All with have the potential to make our world a better place. The international U.S.-Canada boundary waters at the several proposed waterfront or hometown sites will be a symbol of the continuously flowing dialogue between the Nations of the Americas. Our prospective student body will include survivors of wars, including the post-911 wars and the war on poverty launched more than 40 years ago. Many of these survivors teach us lessons about life, health, balance and wellness despite daunting odds. As noted below, they are our new “stars of tomorrow”.
31. No Pain - No Gain
Some of the Veterans we target through our service may walk with hidden prosthetic devices, like me. Since 1987, my orthopedic team for my hip replacements has been the team for the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox. When selected for a Christian Higher Education Month honor in 2003, I was asked to explain what it is like to live with ankylosing spondylitis, a rare kind of arthritis that tends to hit young men in their 20's. Every so often, I have moments (or split seconds) of silent physical agony that is undetectable to the casual observer. I discovered that, even though your pain may be myopic, you must refuse to allow pain to distract you at work or at home. Service to others, physical training and eating well are keys to avoid becoming a casualty of pain. Physical training is a near daily part of my lifestyle. Easing the pain of others less fortunate is my passion.
Like many of the Veterans returning from war, I have learned to "act against the pain" even if, temporarily, more pain results. Intense training sometimes causes pain. That type of transitional pain has its benefits. It enhances preparedness and does not leave scars or wounds. "No pain, no gain" is a well known training principle. One hundred years ago, because of the arthritis pain, I may have been unable to walk. I thank heaven for modern medicine and the triumph of the human will to achieve one's potential. During law school, I descended to the catacombs of an Egyptian pyramid and walked the steps to the top of the U.S. Capitol dome. As a legal aid director, I climbed with Mayra to the top of the third highest pyramid on earth near Mexico City, Mexico. The casual observer would have been surprised to learn that I performed each one of these adventures with hidden prosthetics. And now, there are moments when I am walking that I decide to slow the pace down to accommodate others who wish to walk along with me.
How can Veterans and others who survive acute pain, trauma or tragedy heal quickly and discover their remarkable untapped potential? They may embrace a new educational mission with a work-study opportunity to be of practical service to others in civilian society. In other words, they may attend a college like the one we envision here. Whatever they do, they need to discover that they can succeed despite the pain of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or other life-challenging conditions. When they ask us to advocate for them, we refocus their attention away from the pain to their talent. This may be one way that some have survived the battlefield in service to their comrades. Our goal is to empower them with knowledge, resources and hope to heal most rapidly and discover their amazing life potential.
32. Proof of Hope - Rising Above a Concrete, Diamond-Studded Glass Ceiling
Do you believe we can actually prove to a person in pain - even a Veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - that there is hope? I believe I can. I tell them, first, "You are breathing. That means you are alive. Because you are alive, that means there is more for you to accomplish in life. You have untapped talent. Serve your talent. When you discover your talent and cultivate it, positive change results in hope." As the axiom goes, "Take one day at a time, one step at a time and make it a masterpiece."
Through education and advocacy, we can restore hope. We can encourage Veterans and survivors of the war on poverty to advocate for themselves, to serve their talents and heal their wounds. Through service, survivors become tomorrow's stars - today! Through serving their talents they learn about service to others. Service empowers survivors and inspires awe and wonder in our civilian hometowns. Through service learning and servant-leadership, our student stars of tomorrow thrive despite pain in life. That is what it means to empower survivors to thrive with excellence.
You can thrive even if you have to work out or walk with hidden prosthetics, like me or the hundreds of Veterans who walk with hidden prosthetics today. You can thrive even if you must break through a concrete diamond-studded ceiling because you are a Veteran, or a woman, or a quintuple minority in your field because of your gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, or linguistic minority status, like Dr. Mayra Troya-Nutt. She happens to be the first black Hispanic practicing American physician to chair a college of the Americas effort that could become a new University of the Americas.
33. The Smarts Meet the Nutts
Detroit is at the crossroads of Southern Canada and the Midwest United States. Nearly 100 years ago, four low-income youth - immigrant sisters were raised in a Yiddish community in Boston. They left that city to form "The Stars of Tomorrow" youth Vaudeville act in Detroit. Prior to their entry into show business, the Vaillancourt family had been a Mosaic of French Canadian cultures. In 2009, my family was surprised to learn that my maternal grandmother's maiden name was nearly identical to the Vailancourt name that was previously listed in the former Census of Jews in France. The name, "Vaillancourt" means "smart". When my mother married my father in a Roman Catholic ceremony, the Vaillancourt "smarts" were forever joined with the Nutts. Genealogists tell us that all of humanity is related to within six degrees of separation.
My paternal grandfather, Frank George Nutt I, had five sons and three daughters with my grandmother Mary Louise (Hodges) Nutt, a teacher. At the age of 16, my grandfather was full of energy. His friend dared him to swim across the Detroit River, about a mile to Ontario, Canada. Now, every year someone underestimates that waterway and perishes in that river. My paternal grandfather was undaunted. He survived the swim to Canada and back. But the current carried him about 10 miles downstream. Always a hard worker, he worked many years in retail hardware stores. His fourth child, Tom, was my father. He was the first in his family to graduate from university, eventually earning his M.B.A. from the University of Detroit and attending the Harvard University executive leadership institute. Born at home in River Rouge, Michigan, my father Thomas J. Nutt I, would eventually be pictured with Henry Ford II in Fortune magazine's story on the "Second Generation Ford Motor Company Whiz Kids."
A former Vice President of Finance for a Fortune 500 company in the Chicago area, my father became my closest mentor. He was the best man at our wedding. He was married 15 years to my mother, Donna Jean Cummings, his high school sweet heart. Their divorce affected their five minor children differently. Four of their kids graduated from college. Two of my siblings, Lisa and Mark, graduated with 4.0 grade point averages in their masters degree programs at Eastern Michigan University and the State University of New York at Buffalo, respectively. My four (4) siblings and I were raised mostly in a one parent household in Detroit and Southfield, Michigan. My mother was undaunted by the need for unemployment benefits to make ends meet between her many temporary work assignments. She retired and eventually remarried several years ago. My step-father, Richard Donovan, is a Navy Veteran with six grown children.
34. Baseball's Curveball and the New Stars of Tomorrow
Evelyn Vaillancourt was my maternal grandmother and one of Detroit's original Stars of Tomorrow during the Vaudeville era. She married my grandfather Cyril Carole Cummings, a semi-professional baseball player related to Mr. Candy Cummings. Candy invented baseball's curve ball after examining the movement of the stones that he would skip across the surface of the New York City waterfront.
Today, there are many youth of the Americas and the world who are the new "stars of tomorrow". There are also countless stars of tomorrow among the more than 1,600,000 returning service Veterans and among the thousands of survivors of the war on poverty effort. These stars of tomorrow form a vital part of the core of the target population for the proposed United University™ of America.
35. Cultivating Servant-Leadership With Vigor
United University™ efforts will cultivate students' remarkable, untapped leadership potential for the benefit of all humankind. Our students will learn to enjoy life to the fullest, practicing servant-leadership with work-life balance. In addition to offering practical, hands-on service learning experience to students with smaller class sizes, there will be another point of difference with the University of the Americas education - required physical education with a field test component. There is a reason why America's leading businesses, the White House, the Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court maintain gymnasiums or fitness facilities on site for their staff. Peak performance requires individualized fitness at the individual's pace. Perfecting performance requires measuring or timing the effort at certain milestones or mile markers.
With guidance from seasoned trainers, will cultivate the energy and vigor for students to succeed in the real world. Each student will be expected to complete a real life, timed field test annually. Two physical education courses will be required prior to earning your degree. In lieu of the field test, a student may complete an annual timed race or charity walk prior to graduation, with published results for a 5K walk or run like the charity walk/run of the Detroit Free Press Marathon. Students of differing abilities will be given the option of running, walking, cycling or wheeling a 5K as the school promotes a lifestyle of health and wellness tailored to each student.
After a Veteran returns from service and transitions to work or school, fitness becomes even more important for personal health and wellbeing. Veterans know about required “physical training” or “P.T.” time during their time in the service. What they may not know is that at the inception of various institutions of higher learning, fitness training was also mandatory for students. This has been true at innovative academic institutions like Oxford, Cambridge, the military academies and remains true at several other contemporary schools like Oral Roberts University (ORU).
Inspired by the Marathon Mission team founder and president, Lisa Harper, who happens to be my biological sister, I was thrilled to participate in each of the past five (5) Detroit Free Press Marathon 5K walks. The motto of the marathon is "You can do this!" In Detroit, thousands of racers and walkers complete this annual event with an extended family of brothers and sisters from around the world. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, First Gentleman Dan Mulhern and past race director Patricia Ball have been role models for many of us with their remarkable feats on race days and their tireless advocacy on behalf of the world’s only marathon with an underwater mile at the Detroit/Windsor international tunnel.
36. Finding Your Family
Some Veterans returning from service and survivors of the war on poverty effort are not prepared for life’s transitions. Our vision is to provide them with the academic and life skills needed for individual and family preparedness. We tell them, if they have lost everything, and you do not have a family, you need a self-sufficiency plan and you need to find your family in a small group that reaches out to make a difference in your hometown through community-based efforts. That is how I found Mayra. We have been happily married since 1992.
37. A Tribute to a Historic Star Fort
In honor of our quest to train student stars of tomorrow, each permanent site of our United University™ efforts would include a unique architectural motif that may be visible on aerial maps. That is, a star, with a footprint matching that of the star fort at Historic Fort Wayne, Detroit. The footprint is large enough for a campus serving 1,000 students. Ironically, a hostile shot has never been fired at Historic Fort Wayne even though the post-1812 fort is credited with providing more of the vehicles and parts needed to win World War II than any other military installation on earth.
The star shaped architectural motif or landscaped design at the proposed University of the Americas campuses will also symbolize our tireless efforts to educate the stars of tomorrow. New federal Enhanced Use Land legislation has inspired several exciting, innovative proposals for enhanced uses of underdeveloped land on under-utilized or closed military sites. Although there is much preservation work to be done at Historic Fort Wayne, and the City of Detroit has not yet approved a plan for a new university there, Historic Fort Wayne, Detroit, is one special place on the Detroit River between Michigan and Ontario.
In 2009, I was honored to be elected Secretary/Treasurer of the Historic Fort Wayne Advisory Board appointed by the City of Detroit. The corporate historian for Ford Motor Company is our President. The fort is partially used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is home to one of the Nation's few remaining, intact "Star Forts" as well as Detroit’s Tuskegee Airmen Museum. Constructed to defend the Northern border of the United States after the War of 1812, the Star Fort within Detroit’s Historic Fort Wayne is an underutilized gated landmark. Despite limited operations there, the underdeveloped open-gated land nearby could be an ideal location for research or education through a waterfront research facility. Thousands of youth, families and groups – like the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition – already use Historic Fort Wayne each year for recreation and as an educational destination for learning and teaching. Metropolitan Detroit’s Radio Explosiva radio station draws more than 10,000 people annually to its Historic Fort Wayne activities near the epicenter of the region’s Hispanic community, southwest Detroit.
38. A Visionary University-Affiliated Effort
The vision for a new university effort in the Detroit, Michigan area is an idea conceived of by the leadership of One University of the Americas Fund, which seeks to prepare students to become education-ready. By "One" we mean that we are undivided despite complex socio-economic issues that too often separate our people. Although One University of the Americas Fund was originally founded as Christ University Fund, its core purpose has always been a nonsectarian charitable purpose - that is, education with advocacy for the public weal. The Fund was originally named in the spirit of the largest, most prosperous college at one of the world's oldest universities. That is, Christ Church College at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. As with Oxford, United University™ efforts shall educate potentially talented yet marginalized Veterans and other students of any race, creed, religion, gender or national origin.
Each new University of the Americas campus facility will be LEED-Certified through meeting the highest standards of leadership in energy efficiency and environmental design (LEED). The unique “university of the Americas brand” would be introduced into the communities served for the first time. There are 3,000 miles of freshwater coastline in Michigan. The strictly green, gated Detroit area waterfront campuses would not be closed communities. The gates would be open for adult and community education. Each campus is expected to be built at a cost of more than $10 million, resources permitting, in several years. With faith and determination, anything is possible.
39. World's Busiest International Crossing - A World of Opportunity
The first United University™ efforts would ideally be near the world’s busiest international land border crossing. That is, the Port of Detroit. Near the Port area are underdeveloped hometown sites in the city and the suburbs. More than $67,000,000 is needed to save the aging facilities at Historic Fort Wayne, owned by the local government. Owned by the state government, Selfridge Air National Guard seeks enhanced federal and other uses for its facilities, to better serve Veterans and their families.
Regardless of location, each University of the Americas campus will adhere to the same academic and facility standards. Admissions criteria and academic standards will likewise be consistent from campus to campus. As noted, a healthy, balanced lifestyle will be encouraged. Individualized fitness plans will challenge students to enhance their own quality of life. Starting with 300 students, the school will also cultivate in students a fresh commitment to academic achievement with enhanced community involvement and environmental awareness. Each campus will have a relatively modest footprint with a facility designed for a maximum of 1,000 students. Eventually, Michigan research and/or educational campuses will be scattered at up to three (3) locations in Oakland County, Detroit/Wayne County and Macomb County. In due course, educational exchanges may also take place between Michigan and the Republic of Panama near the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
An intensive "Orientation" course for students will teach Veterans and others to thrive. They can learn -- in the words of Dale Carnegie -- "the fine art of getting along with people". College study can become a Veteran's new mission. With supported education, Veterans can flourish as they overcome the vestiges of service-connected life challenges like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or other re-entry issues. All students during their first semester will receive practical instruction, with individual and family readiness life skills training, to heal quickly to more rapidly re-enter the marketplace.
40. Region: A Study in Contrasts
According to one international human rights group, my birthplace is the toughest place in the industrialized world for a child to be raised. In Detroit, where I was born in 1963, I learned how to survive and thrive. Some of the world’s largest industrial corporations were founded in Detroit. Half a century ago, the city had the highest percentage of residents in any major American city living in single-family homes. Detroit became known as the Paris of the Midwest when its population reached 1.8 million. As the city changed, the population dispersed. The region grew and became a study in contrasts over the past fifty (50) years.
The Detroit area includes affluent communities that are reportedly home to the best shopping and dining between New York and Chicago. In some areas, you would never know that the national and international economy is in a great state of upheaval. In other areas, poverty persists. Despite amazing economic growth immediately following World War II, resulting in some of the most affluent zip codes in America, poverty rates are alarming, in some cases just a stone’s throw away. The infant mortality rates in some neighborhoods, although improving, are comparable to those of a developing country. At home and at school record numbers of youth are traumatized by actual or threatened violence.
Too many youth, families and military veterans in our local international community of more than 5,000,000 residents are plagued by a sense of hopelessness. They see formidable barriers to realizing a safe and secure American dream. Youth, families, and veterans of all socio-economic backgrounds dream of fairness and equality of opportunity for their future. Yet, there is a great deal of suspicion and mistrust among those who believe that the odds are stacked against them. Some have the will to succeed. Others resort to what Detroit business owner Winford Bailey calls a “survival mode” where lawlessness or hopelessness rules. A cycle of despair is tough to break.
41. Youth, Veterans and Their Families in Transition
Thousands of our Nation's youth and service-members have heroically survived unspeakable pain and violence only to be afflicted with the signs and symptoms of a life challenging condition known as post-traumatic stress (PTSD). Contrary to popular opinion, PTSD is a disorder, not a mental illness. It can be corrected with treatment and community supports. United University™ efforts will become educational communities – for both vulnerable and potentially gifted students. Most students know that, with a diverse student population, there will be those who are vulnerable and those who are gifted. What they may not know is that the vulnerable and the gifted are often one in the same. United University™ efforts will challenge students to learn, to wonder about their potential, and to inspire others to achieve theirs without limits.
America is constantly struck by the dignity and fortitude of our nation’s youth and Veterans who have survived the trauma of the daily battles faced on the home front and the battle front. Just read the headlines. We constantly read about the survivors who have cultivated remarkable gifts, talents, interests and desires that make them ideally suited to compete to be the best. America’s youth have the potential to benefit humankind far beyond their wildest dreams. And those who have been battle-tested in the battle field of life may not know it, but they have an edge. Take, for example, those who seek to compete for perhaps the world’s most well-known academic grant program, the Fulbright scholarship program.
42. Why fulbrightuniversity.net?
The fulbrightuniversity.net domain is sponsored by One University of the Americas Fund in honor of our Nation’s veterans and more than 300,000 Fulbright Alumni worldwide. Our veterans fight to protect our freedoms while Fulbright Alumni’s academic exchanges increase international understanding and cooperation through the Fulbright programs of the U.S. Department of State. The Fulbright program founders fought tirelessly for international understanding beyond borders. Along with a new to be known as a United University™ of America effort, the Fund seeks to increase understanding beyond historic borders -- today.
Now consisting of several Fulbright exchange programs, the global teaching and learning programs of the U.S. Department of State daily increase international cooperation and understanding between people of the United States and other nations. Why are veterans and some of the others served by One University of the Americas Fund ideally suited to eventually compete for a Fulbright grant? Because, assuming all academic requirements are met, they often meet the unwritten Fulbright standard described by several Fulbright Alumni, including this writer and Dr. Sharon (Newman) Frisco. That is, they are “flexible and gracious”. One may have perfect grades and compete for the Fulbright, as thousands do every year in many nations, but if your application materials and references do not make it clear that you are a flexible and gracious person, one who will never offend the host nation where they pursue a program of study, one will never be selected for the Fulbright.
United University™ efforts concerning the word and design marks at the top of each page of our site are trademarks of One University of the Americas Fund.
How will those we serve, especially survivors of international conflicts, succeed in midst of the largest structural shift in the global economy since World War II? Too many youth and returning veterans who are survivors of war return to their hometowns with complex socio-economic issues that threaten their families. Some must survive another type of conflict, which may be referred to as a personal war on poverty. They are threatened with the loss of food, shelter, health care, or the basic necessities of life. How will future generations enjoy the blessings of liberty secured by the American GI? It is the job of educators and advocates to offer hope and opportunity -- a real opportunity for educable veterans and others, who have survived foreign wars and the war on poverty, to achieve their dreams. Students' academic skills, earned income, job potential and individual talent will increase with enhanced, high quality education for potentially gifted veterans, vulnerable families, and students who qualify for our proposed college courses.
43. Transformational Change Through Beating the Odds
From 1997 until around 2006, the Detroit metropolitan community inspired gifted and vulnerable students through a program that highlights the positive potential of youth. We successfully raised funds for child and family advocacy efforts and presented a combination of awards and scholarships to more than 50 students nearing high school graduation who overcame significant adversity in life. The Beat the Odds Awards™ program inspired transformational change. Licensed by the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), the program drew upon the success of the Beat the Odds™ Program that the CDF pioneered in 1990 in Los Angeles. CDF now licenses Beat the Odds™, which is a trademark of the Children’s Defense Fund, to child-serving agencies such as Neighborhood Legal Services Michigan, also known as Wayne County Neighborhood Legal Services.
Like the Detroit Beat the Odds™ selection process designed by this writer, the selection process for students participating in our United University™ efforts is expected to be distinctive in several ways. Drawing upon the success of Beat the Odds™, the process will solicit applications not only from students nearing graduation from affluent schools but also from Title I (lower income) schools. For several years, the Detroit Beat the Odds™ program awarded more scholarships than any other Beat the Odds™ program in the United States. One of their major donors happened to have been a winner of the largest lottery jackpot in U.S. history, Mr. Larry Ross of Macomb County, Michigan.
Macomb is a waterfront county on Lake St. Clair that is home to the massive Selfridge Air National Guard base, a possible site for a cluster of college campuses.
The Detroit Beat the Odds™ program teaches us lessons about the value of innovative educational opportunities for gifted and vulnerable students. United University™ expect to be capitalized with funding from One University of the Americas Fund, will enhance its admissions process with a Model Affirmative Access Affirmative Action Policy and a Model Procedure to Implement an Affirmative Access Affirmative Action Policy. The process will enhance the diversity of the student body. Admissions officers will more readily recognize the inner strength of applicants while fostering equality of opportunity for all.
Although a number of slots for Veterans will be set aside for the entering Freshman class of our United University™ efforts, there is no litmus test or quota for the selection of the potentially talented and unique students served. Each student, however, must exemplify exceptional inner strength, integrity, tenacity, and courage in the face of adversity. A record of military or community service despite challenging life circumstances is also desired but not required. Resources permitting, an honors program will also cultivate leadership potential with innovative service. All United University™ efforts will enable students to discover their own leadership potential as they are trained – in the words of Dr. Miles Monroe – “to serve their gifts” for the benefit of science, industry, the economy or the environment. Like several military veterans and Beat the Odds™ Awardees in recent years, some students may testify before Congress. A core group may eventually also be offered full four-year scholarships after their selection for Beat the Odds Awards™.
44. Recognizing Excellence Through Affirmative Access Affirmative Action
A bold Affirmative Access Affirmative Action policy for our United University™ efforts has the capacity to dramatically transform the educational marketplace. The model policy noted below, which draws upon the Detroit Beat the Odds™ Awards selection criteria, and the Leadership Detroit selection criteria, is inclusive and flexible. The university may change it or edit it in an effort to tailor the policy to the mission and values of the institution. It will be utilized to attract some of the most talented faculty and students. They will teach and learn the arts and sciences with several masters level subspecialties, as determined by the Board of Regents, administration and faculty. The university’s interdisciplinary education and research will pay particular attention to: 1) environmental science; 2) energy alternatives; 3) engineering and technology; 4) entertainment and the arts; 5) economics and business; 6) education; and 7) health and wellness.
The below proposed model policy draws upon guidance received from a wide variety of persons--especially veterans and others who themselves have succeeded despite formidable odds in life. The policy enables the university to more easily recognize individuals who demonstrate extraordinary inner strength and success in the face of significant adversity. If we pause for a moment and pay a little more attention to those around us we will usually discover some people who have survived unspeakable pain and personal tragedy. Affirmative Access Affirmative Action has real potential to level the playing field for individual veterans and give military and other families the opportunity to effect positive change.
45. Cultivating Leadership and Innovation
The United University™ efforts will benefit greatly from the university fund’s efforts to fund the university and to support a meaningful, innovative Affirmative Access Affirmative Action policy. The decision to utilize a carefully crafted, thoughtful Affirmative Access Affirmative Action policy will be a defining moment for university admissions and faculty recruitment. Ideally, the policy would be implemented after a bold, innovative university vision is articulated in the One Unanimous Declaration that is presently under review in Detroit, Michigan and Washington, D.C. Embracing an educational vision for Affirmative Access broadens one’s worldview and has the potential to result in a dynamic paradigm shift in the education of potentially gifted students and fragile military families.
Affirmative Access Affirmative Action reminds leaders of the principle that problems create opportunities. Indeed, people who have overcome significant adversity often have remarkable problem solving skills. Such persons can create for others a world of opportunity because they know how to turn problems into opportunities. The Fund leadership and prospective contributors share the view of Dr. Miles Monroe on leadership. A native of the Bahamas who was knighted by the Queen of England, he spoke about leadership in the recent past in Southfield, Michigan. He stated that a problem is “a solution waiting to happen”. United University™ efforts will teach that principle to students.
46. Necessity - the Mother of Invention
You may have heard the axiom, “Necessity is the mother of invention”. Those who have succeeded despite daunting odds often cultivate real capacity for relentless innovation or inventiveness because these qualities were needed in order to survive the harsh realities of life. If one is a leader, manager, or educator, through taking a few simple steps to implement an Affirmative Access policy one also earns the confidence and respect of a potentially vast mix of constituents, customers, students or other stakeholders. This is good for the bottom line. And--if people with untapped leadership potential are given an opportunity to prove themselves because of a random act of compassion--they just might change the world as we know it. The list of people who have done this is endless—Barak Obama, Colin Powell, Sally Ride, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller, George Washington Carver, to name a few.
No institution of higher learning has implemented a model Affirmative Access Affirmative Action policy. United University™ efforts can become the first unified educational community of its kind with the following post-racial affirmative action initiative. Below is a model policy and procedure with a sample application question that can be adapted to any organization seeking to foster equality of opportunity for all. Sensitivity training, prior to implementation of the policy, may enhance the potential effectiveness of the policy.
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MODEL AFFIRMATIVE ACCESS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY (for an organization)
Principle #1 - Our organization supports Affirmative Access Affirmative Action through the recognition of individuals who succeed despite adversity that includes, but is not limited to, low income status, life-challenging illness, family hardship, or personal tragedy. We are an equal access organization.
Principle #2 - Our organization encourages decision-makers to foster Affirmative Access Affirmative Action. Decision-makers are encouraged to undertake random acts of compassion in the spirit of Affirmative Access. Actions that model flexibility, graciousness, equality of opportunity, generosity or kindness will be recognized, valued, and rewarded.
MODEL PROCEDURE TO IMPLEMENT
AN AFFIRMATIVE ACCESS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY
Action #1 – The school provides all applicants with the option of answering the following Optional Questions that will supplement a Common Application for admission.
Model Application Questions
Instruction: The following questions make it easier to recognize Veterans and applicants who demonstrate inner strength and success in the face of significant adversity in life. You have the option of indicating below the documented adversity that has personally impacted your life by checking yes, no, or no response (Y, N or NR). We will not ask for additional information about what you check or leave blank unless we first offer you admission. We are an affirmative access affirmative action organization and do not discriminate.
A. Are you a Veteran of the U.S. Armed Services?_Y_N_NR
B. Have you been:
1. impacted by ethnic or racial bias and/or linguistic minority status?_Y_N_NR
2. impacted by past or current family need of temporary public assistance?_Y_N_NR
3. impacted by a history of homelessness or actual or threatened domestic violence?_Y_N_NR
4. impacted by hardship caused by childhood abandonment or alienation?_Y_N_NR
5. impacted by a child protective service placement?_Y_N_NR
6. impacted by my role as a caregiver for a totally and permanently disabled person?_Y_N_NR
7. impacted as a survivor of a life-challenging illness or injury?_Y_N_NR
8. impacted as a past juvenile offender, or as a rehabilitated ex-offender, with a subsequent track record of charitable and/or public service to others?_Y_N_NR Please include the description of your service in the Activities section of the Common Application for admission.
Action #2 - The decision-maker communicates a kind word, or commits a random act of compassion, directed toward the impacted applicant.
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In the spirit of Affirmative Access Affirmative Action (AAAA), United University™ efforts are expected to open vast opportunities for markedly “impacted” applicants to excel. That is, applicants like the thousands veterans and others that United University™ efforts propose to serve, who demonstrate exceptional depth of inner strength, integrity of effort, tenacity of purpose, and courage in the face of daunting odds. The problem-solving skills and leadership potential of many such applicants may be nonpareil. By their example and grit, impacted applicants can teach peers, colleagues and others how to survive painful adversity or personal tragedy, which usually affects every person at some point in the course of their life.
United University™ efforts will be committed to the AAAA process. The school will prepare a plan known as the Affirmative Access Affirmative Action Plan. An AAAA Committee, chaired by the school’s AAAA advocate, will report to and be appointed by the President of the school. The purpose of the Committee is to (1) annually evaluate the Affirmative Access Affirmative Action Plan; (2) make recommendations; and (3) hear grievances.
Gifted and impacted United University™ efforts participants promise to inspire individuals, families, colleagues, associates and others to thrive under pressure in the international marketplace. United University™ efforts will cultivate and enhance the leadership skills of members of the university family and increase mutual understanding and cooperation. The capacity to be creative and cope with change is enlarged.
This site encourages every impacted reader to offer at least one other person today a sincerely uplifting word, letter, or deed. This has been done for hundreds of Beat the Odds™ Awards applicants, regardless of whether the applicant was selected for a prestigious Beat the Odds™ scholarship. For years when I coordinated the Children's Defense Fund Beat the Odds™ program in Detroit, every letter of award and every letter of rejection was written with an inspiring, sincere word of encouragement, acknowledging the applicant’s exceptional depth of inner strength, integrity of effort, tenacity of purpose, and courage in the face of daunting odds.
47. Conclusion
As noted, United University™ efforts will be formed with an educational corporation. With sustainable funding and high tech facilities, the school will train remarkable students inspired by remarkable faculty and staff. Resources permitting, the university will consist of green, open-gated, high-tech waterfront or hometown campuses to train under-resourced Veterans and other talented American and international students. A School of Health and Wellness will pioneer innovations in the treatment of stress disorders that too often beset Veterans and fragile families. By first advocating for and protecting service and disabled Veterans, we will enhance fairly administered, creative policies of inclusion and innovation in higher education, including the policy and procedure of Affirmative Access Affirmative Action that will be guided by a committee of scholars. Together, our United University™ efforts’ educational corporation, to be known as United University™ of America allowed, will impact a vast population of under-resourced Veterans and others for generations to come.
Too many of our people are going to emergency rooms or to their graves too soon. Our experiences in distressed communities prove that a disproportionate share of the residents who are in the most distress include Veterans of the post-911 wars and the war on poverty. If we help them, everyone else will be better off. This effort is needed now more than ever. In the words of Dr. Mayra Troya-Nutt - "Life is a constant state of emergency." There is no better time for positive action than now.
THE POWERFUL ONE ACTION
Please consider this your invitation to undertake one new action, quickly, to advance the One University of the Americas Fund vision - and report back to jeffrey.nutt@fulbrightmail.org within 21 days, so we can properly acknowledge your remarkable "one action". This 20-Minute Story you are reading is now about you - you can discover the power of one action. With your action, you can help survivors of the post-9/11 wars and the war on poverty to thrive.
Please do your part and report back tojeffrey.nutt@fulbrightmail.org on the outcome of one new action YOU can take with us, quickly. Time is of the essence.
For those we train, United University™ efforts will be -- in the words of Winston Churchill -- "not a seat, but a springboard". None of us needs to be perfect to make this happen. We need to be willing.
--by Jeffrey G. Nutt 