2026 Grade 9 & 10 Student Showcase

Our annual FATE Student Showcase is always the HIGHLIGHT of the year! This year was our eighth showcase and we continue to be blown away by how impressive our FATE students are! Huge thank you to Newlab Detroit for hosting our event for the second time! 

Our 9th and 10th graders have been hard at work preparing for this event for the past few months! This year, they had a special twist: getting to create their projects focused on Merit Park, a life skills and development facility opening in the 48204 zip code. Merit Park was built for and with the community as a place where young people will feel seen, supported, and empowered, so the students were tasked with keeping Merit Park’s mission in mind as they worked on their capstones.

• Five teams of 9th graders pitched marketing/advertising campaigns for Merit Park and a winner was declared on the spot.

• Four teams of 10th graders had their Merit Park product collections on display for pre-sale by showcase attendees as well as online at www.meritgoodness.com until June 15th, and were sneakily scored by Secret Shoppers who announced a winner at the end of the night! 

Our 9th graders came in fired up, presenting their marketing and advertising campaigns for Merit Park which included a 60-second reel and billboard ad. These presentations were delivered in front of a panel of judges and an audience of family members, mentors, program partners, and donors! 

This year’s judges included:  

• DeJuan Woods: First Independence Bank, Director of Marketing and Community Relations
• Temeca Simpson: Ballmer Group, Senior Portfolio Manager
• Tanisha Streeter: Give Merit, VP of Merit Park
• Don Dudley: Foot Locker, Director of Marketing and Community Relations
• Kylah Kiel: FATE Class of 2022 Alumni
• Jonathan Pulley: McGregor Foundation, Director of Grant Development 

Our winning team was both this year’s “People’s Choice Award” (awarded by audience members) winner AND the team selected by our panel of judges! This year’s BIG WINNER was…. 

The Rising Stars who presented their

“Experience New Beginnings” campaign!

Watch their winning reel and here's their billboard ad: 

You can learn more about all five campaigns for the 2026 Grade 9 Capstone Project here. 

Our 10th graders designed the first ever Merit Park product collections, and attendees of the Student Showcase had the opportunity to walk around each team’s trade show booth display and pre-order the product they liked the most! With combined pre-sales from the Student Showcase and online at www.meritgoodness.com, the team with the most pre-sales is crowned the winner and their collection will be produced in full and sold on Merit’s website Fall 2026! Additionally, 3 pre-decided Secret Shoppers were in the crowd to crown the "Secret Shopper Award" based on customer service skills. This year’s teams included: 

• Dreams of Fire - “Unity in the Community” Collection (Graphic Designer: Karl Nilsson)  

• Pink Panthers - “Minds, Body, In Motion” Collection (Graphic Designer: Scott Everett) 

• The Eternals - “Challenges Build (You)th” Collection (Graphic Designer: Jon Brooks) 

• The Greats - “Your Own Moment” Collection (Graphic Designer: Kirah Price)

Pre-sales have officially ended and the winning 10th grade team (who won BOTH the Secret Shopper award and the pre-sale competition) is…

Dreams of Fire with their “Unity in the Community” Collection!