With constant negative images of Detroit blasted in the media, first year Wayne State Law student Shawn Blanchard is ready for the world to see Detroit in a different light.

Blanchard lived in New York City where he was a teacher and mentor. After five years, Blanchard has returned to Detroit to pursue his law degree, but more importantly to help rebrand and rebuild the city he calls home.

Blanchard grew up in Detroit, where he was raised by his grandparents. He attended Mackenzie High School, and with minimal positive influences, Blanchard did not initially see college in his future.

“I wanted to be a drug dealer and a rapper, because that was what was immediately around me,” Blanchard said.

One of Blanchard’s high school counselors persuaded him to consider her alma mater, the University of Michigan. Blanchard would go on to attend U-M, where he received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and economics.

During his time at U-M, Blanchard worked three jobs, tutored, and even took in his younger brother who had just been released from a juvenile detention center.

After graduating from U-M, Blanchard moved to New York City to start his career as a math teacher. He received his master’s degree in mathematics from City College of New York while teaching
at the Holcombe L. Rucker School of Community Research in the South Bronx Hunts Point neighborhood.

Blanchard extended his role as a teacher outside of the classroom during his time in New York. He co-founded Men of Majesty, an organization dedicated to mentoring at-risk youth at Rucker. He also opened his home to Bryan Dameron of Ann Arbor, Mich., who Blanchard used to mentor when he attended U-M. Dameron’s grandparents contacted Blanchard after Dameron started following the wrong path.

“He wasn’t embracing himself like he was supposed to,” Blanchard said.

Blanchard gave Dameron a job as his teaching assistant, became his personal trainer, and even got him involved in church.

Dameron is currently attending Morehouse College on a full scholarship.

After working hard in New York, Blanchard was ready for law school. Blanchard decided to make that next step in his hometown of Detroit.

Now in his first semester at WSU Law, Blanchard is ready to help reshape the city of Detroit.

“I want to brand Detroit in a way it hasn’t been branded before. My whole vision is to brand it from a young professional prospective, in a more professional prospective,” Blanchard said.

Blanchard stresses the importance of informing our youth that the people they see on television are not the only role models they have to look up to.

“I want young people to know that young, black successful people exist. It just doesn’t take a rapper, it doesn’t take some kind of sports player to be in a magazine, to be in a movie, to have things going on that are actually enticing,” Blanchard said.

Blanchard has accomplished many of these things in his own career. He was appeared in numerous newspaper articles in New York, as well as in Detroit. He was Essence magazine’s Man of the Month in January 2012. He is also a part of a new web-series, “Journey Me,” which documents individuals on the pathway to achieving their personal and professional dreams. Also, he is nominated for the
“Head of the Class” award by WSU’s Student Lawyer Magazine.

Blanchard credits his mentoring spirit to not having one growing up. Blanchard was inspired by influential African American men such as Dr. Ben Carson, author Michael Erick Dyson, and Judge Greg Mathis, all of whom are from Detroit.

Blanchard wants young boys to know that even if you do not have a mentor, you can grow up to become a great one.

“With every loss, with every failure, we gain wisdom, so at the end of the day we never actually lose, we only gain,” Blanchard said.