Alumni Spotlight: Jace Danielewicz

“The idea of a ‘for youth, by youth’ startup incubator was conceived, and rapidly held significant gravity,”

For Jace Danielewicz, design isn’t just a career path — it’s a language for innovation, collaboration, and storytelling. As one of the founding team members of YouthTank Detroit, Jace has helped shape the very DNA of what “for youth, by youth” looks like in action.

Designing the Foundation of YouthTank

Jace with his Entrepreneurship class at Cranbrook

Jace’s YouthTank journey began in 2022, when, as a student at Cranbrook High School, he enrolled in Ms. Holly Arida’s Startup Entrepreneurship course. What started as a classroom concept — a youth-led startup incubator that would teach young people to use technology, art, and design to solve real community challenges — quickly evolved into something much bigger.

 Jace recalls, “The substance and build-out of the initial project exceeded the assignment — then the class — and eventually, the walls of the school entirely.”

That idea became YouthTank Detroit, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit startup incubator created to help Detroit students turn ideas into action.

From Vision to Real-World Innovation

Since those early days, Jace’s role with YouthTank has evolved alongside the program itself — from concept designer to facilitator, youth mentor, and eventually, leader of the Mobility Leadership Lab arts team.

He also collaborated closely with Detroit visual artist Elton Monroy Durán, whose community art work deepened YouthTank’s focus on storytelling through design.

“Being with the program in every step and capacity has been a profound experience,” Jace says. “It’s led to a deep appreciation for fostering the next generation of innovators in Detroit, and instilled a duty to ensure opportunities to innovate in one’s own backyard are as accessible as possible.”

Crafting Detroit’s Design Future

Now a senior in Product Design at the College for Creative Studies, Jace is continuing to merge creativity with technical precision. He works as a designer and model-maker for Slot Mods Raceways, the premier global slot car track company, where he designs custom racetrack features — from bridges to buildings — and brings them to life through 3D modeling, printing, and detailing.

His passion for design recently took center stage at the SketchBattle SNKR competition, where he won the People’s Choice Award in a live, high-intensity sneaker design contest sponsored by Nike, Jordan, Converse, and Ford.

Lessons in Leadership and Design

Reflecting on his YouthTank experience, Jace emphasizes how much those early experiences shaped his approach to creativity and collaboration:

“YouthTank shaped who I am firstly by the inspiration of its fruition, and secondly by its inherent ‘for youth, by youth’ approach,” he says. “To see it actually come to life has been the ultimate gratitude — and an incredible educational experience as both a youth leader and student of the collective.”

Through YouthTank, Jace learned that design is most powerful when it’s shared — when students, mentors, and community members learn from one another in real time.

Looking Ahead

As Jace prepares to graduate from CCS, his work continues to embody the spirit of YouthTank — creativity with purpose. From designing intricate raceways to reimagining footwear in live design battles, Jace proves that Detroit’s next generation of designers are already shaping the global stage.