On a dusky April evening in Southwest Detroit, a small group of U-M students ranging from first-year undergrad to 4th year PhD gathered to present the culmination of 4 months of collaboration. Their audience was entrepreneur, teacher, trainer, edutainer, and language activist Jessie Feliz, founder of Teacher S.W.A.G. and the subject of Business+Tech’s inaugural Digital Transformation Consulting program.
Priya Shah (Information ‘26), Elaine Pan (Engineering ‘27), and Yiming Xia (Information Master’s candidate) greet Jessie Feliz, founder of Teacher S.W.A.G.
Conceived in partnership with the University’s Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project (“DNEP”), the Digital Transformation Consulting program gives U-M students the chance to exercise their education and work directly with Detroit minority-owned businesses. Students gain practical experience working with founders, and bootstrapping entrepreneurs receive free support, resources, and research to develop and refine their offerings.
This first team of five students included Ashank Dubey (Ross ‘24), Devon Riter (Marsal PhD candidate), Elaine Pan (Engineering ‘27), Priya Shah (Information ‘26), and Yiming Xia (Information Master’s candidate). Along with their diverse backgrounds and experiences, the team brought a shared passion for using their disciplines to improve education and equity.
That passion also drives Jessie as she infuses more than 15 years of experience as an educator into her business “Jessie Feliz Learning”. At the height of the pandemic, she launched her flagship online product Spanish S.W.A.G.®, an online learning platform for young and adult learners at home and in the classroom. Jessie developed a love for Spanish and acquiring language at an early age, and also observed firsthand the disparate opportunities students at her school in Detroit had as compared to wealthier suburbs.
Jessie made it her mission to address the inequities interwoven into second language instruction and the expectations for second language learners, particularly Spanish language programs that serve Black American Communities. She trained at Western Michigan to get her bachelor’s in Spanish language instruction, received her master’s degree from Marygrove, and spent time teaching in Costa Rica, Baltimore, and Houston before returning to her hometown of Detroit. Jessie’s style is engaging and entertaining, and the organic joy she feels for sharing language and spreading knowledge comes through in everything she creates for her learning community.
As a founder and an educator, Jessie is no stranger to wearing multiple hats: content creator, team builder, brand developer, and product developer to increase impact. She is also a skilled networker and has leveraged her connections within the Metro Detroit business network to access support, counsel, and amplification for her brand. A warm relationship with Tekeyah Gaines of Detroit Means Business connected Jessie with Siobhan Barrett, Program and Business Development Manager at DNEP. This led to a collaborative partnership involving Emilee Studley and Phillip Brabbs from Business + Tech, positioning Jessie as a perfect potential partner for the new DTC program.
“To see it come together… it was not a one-person team, it was a collaborative team. I’m really so thankful that with this questioning, you all were able to help curate this vision.” – Jessie Feliz, founder/creator of Teacher S.W.A.G.
Through the course of the semester, Jessie and her new consulting team honed in on a new branch of her business: Teacher S.W.A.G., an online platform for teachers to build their skills and their community. Jessie imagined a thriving virtual community where educators could share resources, access better professional development content, and foster meaningful relationships and connections with other teachers facing the same challenges they were in a post-COVID educational environment.
After working with Jessie to determine priorities, the student team proposed an ambitious timeline and scope. Working in tandem with Jessie and her staff, they would define business objectives and needs for Teacher S.W.A.G., conduct user testing and research, and develop resources for Jessie to carry into future phases of her business.
The engagement would involve collaboration and deep conversation with Jessie and other educators about the problems her target audience faces, what solutions already exist in the marketplace, and how she could meet teachers where they are to deliver meaningful and valuable resources. To turn an idea into a plan, they also would dive into practical matters like host platform, functional requirements, and data requirements.
“At the outset of this project I said, ‘It’s too much work. Don’t take that much on, it’s too much. That’s an entire year’s worth of work.’ So, wow. I am super impressed with what you have done.” – Christie Baer, managing director of Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project
It was an ambitious scope, and there was a fair amount of concern that the team was overextending. However, as the team presented finding after finding, it became clear that this was more than a presentation, but a labor of love. At every turn, each student showed how they went the extra mile in their portion of the project, each tailored to their skill set but still bolstered by the collaboration with their teammates. It was clear that each had honed their skills not only in communicating with a client like Jessie but in probing for priorities, persistent pain points, and what truly matters to the business.
Devon Ritter, Priya Shah, Elaine Pan, Priya Shah and Yiming Xia in conversation with Phillip Brabbs, managing director of Business+Tech and Adjunct Lecturer & Faculty Advisor for MAP, LBLE
As the presentation wrapped up, the conversation shifted to next steps; how DNEP would continue to support Teacher S.W.A.G. with their wrap-around services, how Jessie could pursue funding and mentorship. There was an undercurrent of excitement tinged with melancholy; a sense of possibility about how this foundation could propel Jessie’s business, but an understanding that this group’s time together was through. Though this exact team would not formally work together with Jessie again, it was clear that the group had bonded in a real way, and invaluable experience had been gained by all. As a pilot program goes, this could be considered a resounding success.
