LeBlanc ('13) graduates from MSU with international experience
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EmailRecent MSU graduate Michelle LeBlanc has built a resume that earned her the 2013 Outstanding Bachelor's Student Award from the American Planning Association (APA).
By: Pardeep Toor
Combining international experience, a stellar practicum project and a recent report that generated national media attention, Michelle LeBlanc has built a resume that earned her the 2013 Outstanding Bachelor’s Student Award from the American Planning Association (APA). The APA gave the award to one undergraduate and one graduate student at the School of Planning, Design, and Construction at Michigan State University. Pamela Brushaber was the MSU graduate recipient.
LeBlanc recently co-authored a report with Dr. Rex LaMore entitled: Planning Policies and Regulations that Can Reduce the Practice of Private Property Abandonment in the United States: The Case for Michigan. The report generated national media attention as it attempted to remove the burden of eliminating blight from tax-paying citizens by mandating that companies purchase specialized insurance to cover the costs of future abandonment.
“My current research on the feasibility of requiring financial assurance for deconstruction for private sector industrial and commercial structures can be directly applied to the Greater Lansing Community as you are able to see many abandoned and blighted structures in the region,” LeBlanc said.
LeBlanc had the unique opportunity to take her work overseas when she co-presented the report with Dr. LaMore at the Association of European Schools of Planning, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Joint Congress July 2013 in Dublin, Ireland. In addition, in the summer of 2012, she traveled to Cuba as part of an MSU study abroad program. Through a grant she received from the College of Social Science’s Alumni Association, LeBlanc developed a 15-minute documentary describing the physical and social programs in Old Havana. Her goal was to help restore the popular tourist destination.
LeBlanc was born and raised in Lansing and attended Lansing Catholic Central High School before starting her undergraduate education at MSU. Her favorite undergraduate class at Michigan State was practicum during her final semester when she worked with the Frankfort, MI, community to assess and provide ideas for their public lakefront property.
“It allowed us to step outside of the world of just being students and work with real communities on real issues or problems,” LeBlanc said. “I think Practicum allows students to bring together everything we have learned over the past few years into one project and gives us the freedom to experience what it is like to work in a community.”
LeBlanc, an SPDC Urban and Regional Planning Program graduate, will attend the University of Georgia this fall where she will pursue a Master's degree in Public Administration with a focus on policy analysis. After graduating, she hopes to continue her work in metropolitan and urban policy.
“I feel strongly about the experiences of residents and visitors to our metropolitan and urban regions,” LeBlanc said. “With the changing economy and environment there has been a shift in the planning for our urban centers to accommodate these changes and with these changes brings the need for planners with the mindset to meet these challenges.”
