United Way for Southeastern Michigan

"Walk faster."

That's how my interview with Mike Tenbusch began.

He had ten minutes between back-to-back meetings, a lunch to finish, more than his fair share of emails and phone calls to return and thousands of kids to graduate from high school. The only time he could squeeze in for an interview with me was while walking between meetings. And it was when Mike began to answer my first question that he stopped, mid-sentence, asked me to walk faster, and then promptly picked up where he left off.

Mike is clearly a man with no time to waste.

Mike is United Way for Southeastern Michigan's Vice President of Education, working to ensure that kids enter school ready and that they stay in school. He'll be the first to tell you that everything he does, he does with the mind-set of serving the kids first. It's up to you to decide if he's talking about the thousands of metro Detroit school-aged children that aren't getting the education he knows they deserve, or if he's talking about his three kids at home – the kids that he makes a point to eat dinner with and read to every night (along with his "lovely" wife), no matter how busy he is.

And, just in case I haven't made it clear, Mike is very busy. Always has been...

Mike grew up in Detroit in a family of educators. In fact, between Mike, his grandfather, his father and his mother, the Tenbusch family has over 100 years of educator experience.

Between kindergarten and his senior in college, three people on Mike's block had been killed. This is the part where I say, "It's not a story unlike many you hear in Detroit every day..." But the story is different because Mike didn't just move on and move up. He decided to spend a lifetime making sure that the things he loved about his neighborhood and his neighbors would prevail. And he didn't waste any time starting.

After college, Mike went on to law school and, by the time he was 27, had started his own nonprofit - Think Detroit, an organization to build character in Detroit children through sports and leadership development. A few years later he joined the Detroit School Board and found the conditions that children were forced to try and learn in were downright deplorable. But he knew they didn't have to be and joined University Preparatory High School in Detroit as the COO because, he knew, they were doing it "right."

As the COO, Mike was the person responsible for turning parents away when there was no room left at University Prep. But turning away parents that had no other options didn't sit well with Mike. He eventually left University Prep, convinced that he could, and he would, create those other options. That is the desire, and the drive, that led Mike to United Way.

I remember when Mike first joined this organization, and gave his first presentation to our staff about the new programming he was instituting to curb the drop-out rate in metro Detroit. It wasn't just his enthusiasm that made his speech so memorable, it was the fact that he was the first person that ever truly helped me understand that the need to build public will was a key component to getting anything done.

What Mike was proposing was different and, honestly, exciting. He wasn't proposing that we put some band-aids on a big problem or that we simply throw some money at an issue for the sake of "doing something." What Mike was talking about that day was using the power of the United Way movement to create a holistic approach - research, advocacy, monetary resources, relationships, system design - to get at the root causes of the problem.

Now, I'll take no exception with those of you out there reading and thinking to yourselves, "Duh. You can't change anything in community unless the community wants it to change (i.e., there is public will behind it)." It seems so simple, and so smart, to me now too. But I'll be the first to admit that it's an all-too-often forgotten piece of the puzzle.

Mike was the first person that empowered me to feel that we truly had the power to move the needle forward on such a big issue.

As for Mike, he clearly never had a doubt.

You can read more about Mike's work to turnaround local schools at www.UnitedWaySEM.org/venturefund, or view the media below to hear it from the man, himself.

OneD.org | What the United Way is Doing [video]
Mike Tenbusch, Vice President for Educational Preparedness at the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, talks about how the United Way is working to improve graduation rates in metro Detroit – and how others can make a difference.

NPR.org | Nontraditional Teachers May Be In Mich.'s Future [podcast and story]
Michael Tenbusch, a former teacher who works for the United Way, says that when it comes to teachers, there should be a bigger pool of talent to draw on.

Mike Tenbusch on the United Way blog.