We believe that providing a platform to connect colleges with high school students will encourage youth to set and achieve new education goals instead of settling for the bare minimum.

Detroit doesn't need elitist gentrifiers who are looking for opportunities to benefit only themselves, but citizens who will get in the trenches and help rebuild the city from the ground up.

There is so much we can do as a city to highlight the good that we offer. Each of us serves as ambassador of our community to defeat the bad perception outsiders have to Detroit.

Detroit is a city whose magic you have to experience to understand. The memories of that magic brought me back. I returned to Detroit to make my own kind of mark on our city.

The idea that we have to make a ton of cash before we help others in and beyond our community is ludicrous. The power to impact the lives of others sits with the everyday people who make this incredible city what it is.

Detroit must take advantage of being in the limelight right now to align all of its stakeholders to be positive forces in the process of change.

We need the cooperation of the entire region including: business, labor, faith based groups, and others to come to the table and offer their vision and solutions to help guide Detroit forward.

We must look to Mayor Bing and the city council to inspire us with thoughtful leadership. What Detroit desperately needs today is new ideas, "aha moments," not fewer teachers in the classrooms.

Transforming Detroit is not a short-term process. It will not be easy. It will take significant effort from those who care enough to invest our best in the city's revitalization.

I'm not the only one coming home. There is a huge entrepreneurial movement permeating throughout the city. From technology to the creative sector, the excitement is growing.

Pop-up beer gardens, art galleries, and commonplace notions that public transportation should endure have all happened in Detroit recently. Quite frankly, none of these activities should be deemed as a monumental occurrence.

After seeing the devastation caused by the foreclosure crisis, I wanted to find an action-based and citizen-led antidote to vacant properties and blight-ridden landscapes. I believe that change roots in community.

I believe that this time is different. This time Detroit is on its way back. So, what makes me so optimistic? It's a combination of things, and that, in and of itself, is a good thing.

We recognize that Occupy Detroit has attracted the participation of people from across Michigan. This is a good thing, if people take the time to understand the current work of Detroit's social movements.