Every 26 seconds in America, a student drops out of high school. Merit, a Detroit-based social enterprise started by David Merritt in 2012, is helping conquer this cause by selling thoughtfully designed products that benefit student scholarships.
Students are awarded $5,000 scholarships through Merit’s FATE program — FATE is a branch of Merit’s non-profit, Give Merit, which takes on 25 high school students every year for a cohort-based mentorship program that offers resources to help them graduate on-time and get to college.
Shinola and Merit collaborated on a new journal that will be sold exclusively on Merit’s website Purchase the notebook, here.
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FATE students when they visited Shinola headquarters for a design workshop.
Back in April, Merit brought its first class of students to Shinola’s Detroit headquarters for an interactive design workshop. Students split up into groups and worked alongside Shinola creative team members to produce their own product designs.
Watch the video below to learn more.
This Fall, Merit will open it’s new 5,600 square-foot headquarters in an old school building located behind Straight Gate International Church — a place Merritt knows very well.
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David Merritt-Founder, Julie Sarne-Mentor ’12-’16, Kuhu Saha-Executive Director of Give Merit.
“My mom and dad are pastors at Straight Gate and now I’m a pastor at Straight Gate,” Merritt says. “Growing up and just seeing them dedicate their lives to the well-being of others — I definitely saw there was a difference between what I was receiving from my household compared to friends and peers who weren’t receiving the same kind of support.”
The new headquarters will be a Youth Development and Workforce Training Center. It will include a Merit showroom, product manufacturing, and office space, along with a full workshop space. Students will be able to come in on a weekly basis to learn skills in entrepreneurship, marketing, and leadership.
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Shinola Production Artist Stephanie Maniaci (far left) working with students.
Every aspect of Merit — social entrepreneurship, mentorship, and relationship building — is dedicated to helping kids become world-class citizens, Merritt says. Every Fall, a new group of 25 9th graders joins the FATE program, and by 2019 Merit will be working with 100 Detroit high school students.
“We can do so much by playing a role in relationship-building and making a long-term investment in caring,” he says. “The same care that goes into the products we design and sell, is also put into the care and long-term investment into the well-being of the students that we work with — we want to prepare students to get into college and for life after college too.”
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Purchase the notebook, here.