Jonaé Maxey, BBA '21
World of Difference Scholarship Recipient Eyes Social Impact Through Real Estate in Detroit
It’s not that Jonaé Maxey, BBA ’21, doesn’t see barriers to her success as a young entrepreneur. She is definitely aware of their presence.
It’s just that she views them as opportunities or possibilities that she simply hasn’t explored yet.
It seems like a sound philosophy for a young woman from the east side of Detroit to possess as she sets her sights on making an impact on her community through the world of real estate development and investing.
Jonaé is the second undergraduate recipient of the World of Difference Scholarship at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. The scholarship is made possible by donors to the school’s Annual Fund:a versatile fund that benefits Ross students, programs, and faculty. She is also among the first students to earn the newly created real estate minor, in addition to earning a minor in community action and social change (CASC).
While a student at Ross, Jonaé started her own company, Maxey Real Estate Investments. She was also elected to serve as the youngest member of TCF Financial Corporation’s new Emerging Leaders Advisory Board, comprised of young and diverse leaders chosen to counsel bank leadership on technology, social responsibility, workplace culture, and the financial needs of future generations.
As she began her education at Michigan Ross, Jonaé participated in Preparation Initiative (PI), a learning community for U-M undergraduates who may have had limited previous exposure to rigorous academic courses in high school. Like Jonaé, many PI students choose to pursue a five-year undergraduate plan — these students get an additional year of PI services to help ensure their success in the BBA program.
From an early age, Jonaé, a product of Detroit’s financially strapped public school system, had her sights set on possibilities not often on display in her neighborhood. “Growing up in Detroit, you see everything that goes along with living in the inner city,” she said, pausing as she looked for a way to describe her young ambition. “I was on a different path than my surroundings. I was constantly wanting to further educate myself, even though that’s not the norm within the city.”
Upon being accepted into U-M, she knew she wanted to attend Michigan Ross to foster her entrepreneurial dreams, which didn’t stop at being successful in business. “I wanted to become a business executive that comes back to Detroit and makes an impact there,” she said.
During her sophomore year at U-M, she found herself leaning toward a career in real estate after her father, John, passed away. “I really took the time to assess ‘Who do I want Jonaé Maxey to be? What are my goals? What did I want my lasting impact on the world to be?’” she said.
Answering those questions led Jonaé to start Maxey Real Estate Investments. She knew this was an audacious venture to begin as an inexperienced college student, but she immersed herself into the world of real estate. One of the keys for her, she says, was figuring out how to leverage the U-M network to help make her business successful. U-M engineering lecturer W. David Tarver, BSEE ’75, introduced her to David Alade from Century Partners, which was her first exposure to African Americans in real estate development. “This family, I am happy to be forever a part of, gives me the confidence and guidance, when needed, to keep going,” she said.
Jonaé was ultimately awarded $8,000 from optiMize, a student-led organization at U-M that offers workshops, mentoring, and funding for students to work on self-directed projects that make a positive impact. She purchased her first property, a long-vacant house next to her mother’s home, in December 2019.
Jonaé said she’s had two jobs since that time: one, getting good grades, and two, making sure her business is living out its mission of revitalizing inner-city neighborhoods in Detroit without displacing the community. She does this through buying properties, hiring local contractors to renovate those properties, educating the community on building wealth through real estate — all the while re-imagining what a real estate developer looks like: “I’m extremely young, I’m African American, and I’m from the community as well. I want to re-imagine what real estate companies can be and how they can serve the communities.”
Her first property has been rented to a person in the community. She’s set to close on her fourth property this spring and is in the midst of doing a complete rehabilitation of one unit of a duplex, which has been vacant for 30 years.
“I’m a calculated risk-taker,” she said, admitting getting into a business she was unfamiliar with presented its challenges. “I’m still learning how to see which quote is the best quote and how to leverage contractors to do different things,” she admits. “And just being a young, female CEO in a very male-dominated industry — that’s an experience as well.”
Jonaé said donor-provided funds such as the World of Difference Scholarship have enabled her to build the future she always envisioned for herself growing up in Detroit.
“Scholarships have been very important for me on my journey in college, especially in my fifth year,” she said. “I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go to college without scholarships because I didn’t want to take on a large amount of debt, and my family wouldn’t have been able to support me. … With scholarships, I can go to college without having that worry of ‘How am I going to pay for this? Instead, I could think about ‘How am I going to make the most of my college experience?’
“I’m very grateful to all of the donors and everyone that supported me in that journey of getting scholarships. Not having to worry about how I’m going to pay for things has really helped me excel.”
Jonaé has taken the opportunity to give back to others to help them along their college journey as well, serving as a mentor for both Preparation Initiative and optiMize, as well as being a teacher for MREACH (Michigan Ross Enriching Academics in Collaboration with High Schools), a program that offers high school students from underrepresented groups with business immersion courses, insights into the college application, and financial aid processes.
During her sophomore year, after a trip to Mexico where she worked with the deaf community, Jonaéstarted a student organization called the International Deaf and Hearing Alliance. Over the past two years, IDHA has taken 23 U-M students on spring break trips to Mexico, where they volunteer at a school for the deaf and hard of hearing. “The main goal was to bridge communities and have students grow from the experience,” Jonaé said.
For Jonaé, giving back is a way of honoring the legacy of her father, a teacher.
“His love for helping people, ALL people taught me how to treat people regardless of their backgrounds,” she said. “At his funeral, so many people talked about how he got them their first job, or how he made them the person they are today, how he was the only person that believed in them, or how he was the only person that could talk to someone on the wrong path and get them to change paths.
Seeing this growing up and having him as a dad not only gave me the confidence within myself to be great but it gave me insight on how I wanted to impact the world. I want to use the business knowledge I have to expand on the impact my Dad had on people's lives. I was able to get a great education here at the Ross School of Business. I was able to attend a school no one in my neighborhood would even have a chance to attend. With my knowledge from Ross, I hope to change the way businesses and communities interact with one another. I want to be the bridge that brings the two together.
It seems the young entrepreneur already has quite the knack for doing just that.