DETROIT – The “Great Voice of the Great Lakes” kicked off his week-long WJR College Tour 2023 with an early morning visit to Wayne State University on Monday, October 23.
Hosts Guy Gordon, Lloyd Jackson and Jamie Edmonds brought the ‘JR Morning radio program at the newly renovated M. Roy Wilson State Hall, where they were broadcast from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
The three-hour program featured guests from across the Midtown campus, including President Kimberly Andrews Espy, Ph.D.; athletic director Erika Wallace; and Vice President of Economic Development and President and CEO of TechTown Ned Staebler. Other guests included student Gabrielle Rush and recent alumni Nalani Fromm and Simon Mourani.
“Wayne State was honored to host WJR’s first college visit today,” said Carolyn Berry, Wayne State associate vice president of marketing and communications. “The partnership with WJR provides a platform to promote Wayne State’s deep connections to the Detroit business community through career readiness initiatives, research collaborations and building the future workforce -working to help Detroit and our region prosper. “
The opening guest was Wallace, who provided insight into the Warriors’ football season, the partnership with the Detroit Pistons and their development team, and the community involvement of the 400-plus student-athletes at Wayne State.
“We average about 9,000 hours a year of community service,” she said. “So we’re out there, we’re in the community and it’s important that we are because we want the young people of Detroit to know that we’re here and that this is an opportunity for them as well. So we go to schools and we read, we do camping clinics, we work with Detroit PAL. There are a lot of different opportunities, and our student-athletes love it, whether they’re from the city or out of town, and they come; they really love getting into the community and helping.
During the second hour of the show, President Espy welcomed the WJR team to State Hall and began her appearance by discussing the importance of downtown ambiance and how Wayne State harnesses that enthusiasm in Detroit.
“We are in, for and with Detroit,” she said. “We have been here since the beginning. It’s an asset and we make a difference every day, whether it’s healthcare or training students in the community to benefit health, whether it’s industry partnerships to serve our motivated students ready to launch a career, or whether it is to spawn small businesses and support their success. That’s what Wayne State is all about: our community.
During the third hour, Staebler and the show’s hosts talk about the unique partnership between Wayne State and TechTown, founded in 2000 to support the university’s technology spinoffs.
“We want to have something that is available in the city community for people, but also very well connected to the world-class research education and students that are here at Wayne State,” Staebler said. “We have interns who come to work in the companies present. We help commercialize technology from labs and classrooms, from professors and graduate students to building businesses. There are truly many ways we connect, and you’ll see even more in a year or two as we begin to bring TechTown and its student entrepreneurship programs back to campus.
Heard every weekday from the WJR studio in the Fisher Building, ‘JR Morning brings the latest local, regional and global news live. The trio is joined by newsmakers from government and politics, business, sports and entertainment, and more.
Monday’s guest interviews can be listened to here:
President Kimberly Andrews Espy, Ph.D.
Erika Wallacesports director
Ned Stäblervice president of economic development and president and CEO of TechTown
Student round tablewith Nalani Fromm, Simon Mourani and Gabrielle Rush
