Imagine growing up in a landmark town in the midwest. It has that city feel of community but with beautiful landscapes of parks, open property, and inspiring lake views. The people who live there feel a sense of belonging and know that their home is special. So much so that there is a collective understanding that this place is worthy of protection, and more. Jessie Williams is from this beautiful place, known as Traverse City, MI. Traverse City is a rapidly growing area with a mix of city and rural environments. Support among residents for land preservation is high and in many ways, farmer-led. When sending out a survey to her community requesting to hear about their concerns as residents for a class project, expecting 20 responses, Jessie received over 200.

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Jessie spoke admirably of her time in middle school where she was taught the importance of respecting the connectedness of the natural environment and human impact. As a young person she was already learning about social justice, community service, and developing her voice. Now as a graduate student, she focuses on land preservation specifically with the goal of returning to her hometown. 

 

Jessie is a first generation college student. During undergrad, she was able to find community through her residence hall where she made lasting friendships through her dorm’s student leadership board. As a first-gen student, Jessie shared that she developed ingenuity and became an advocate for herself, which made her want to help future students through similar challenges to what she faced.

 

When asked further about how her identity shapes her studies, Jessie responded, “As a resident of an area (Traverse City, Michigan) with land and other natural resources under growing pressure, I’m motivated to use my education to further land preservation and environmental conservation. Being able to further my knowledge at U-M as a law and urban planning student is an amazing opportunity that will allow me to develop my skill set and use it to benefit my home."

 

In a class about Detroit and gentrification, Jessie was able to compare her experiences to other places and develop a larger picture of how development can help or hurt communities. In a sustainable cities class, she was able to see the importance of how landscapes and design choices influence our social networks and overall wellbeing. Being from northern Michigan, Jessie feels she has been blessed with the opportunity to understand the importance of the value of land, land preservation, and her role in it as she develops her academic and professional career.

 

From Jessie’s perspective, relationships with the non-human world are underprioritized. She said that we know ways in which built environments help our well-being but that we do not take the time to process things like: access to light, positioning of buildings that allow for a feeling of spaciousness, and the proximity people have to essential businesses. Jessie has a strong relationship to her city and shared that even the identifiable style of buildings help with creating a feeling of home.

 

With the climate crisis looming, Jessie shared that many topics she studies can be heavy and emotionally loaded. Developmental planning challenges have been tied to the memory of her community through the increase of suburbanization that has resulted in takings of farmland and hilltop erosion. Her home gives her a sense of purpose for her studies. She and her community have benefited from preservation projects and it has become a part of their town’s identity to have high public participation with long-established preservation efforts with conservancies.

For Jessie, being in Traverse City means that even her drive home from work can be food for the soul. Jessie believes in valuing the animacy of the natural environment instead of seeing land solely as something that can be developed. She has found that her studies of new development options and that valuing new scientific perspectives and research, have given her important tools she can draw upon when faced with challenges.