2021 Fall Graduates

Commencement Speaker: Aliyah Sabree

Aliyah Sabree is a judge at the 36th District Court in Detroit, MI and presides over the twelve member traffic/criminal division. In addition to her daily duties on the bench, she is an executive team member and highly involved in the day to day operations of the court. Prior to her current position, Aliyah served fours years at the City of Detroit as Associate General Counsel for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, the Mayor’s Liaison to the City Council, and the Attorney Advisor to the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners.

Judge Sabree began her career with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in the Special Operations Division where she spent close to four years prosecuting violent habitual offenders. While there, she tried over thirty jury trials and conducted educational trainings in schools across Wayne County on a variety of topics, including the criminal justice system, sexting, cyber-bullying, and truancy.

In 2010, Sabree earned her Juris Doctorate from Michigan State University College of Law with a concentration in Alternative Dispute Resolution. She was an Executive Board Member for the Black Law Students Association and a member of the Diversity Consortium. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Youngstown State University while on a full athletic scholarship for basketball.

Judge Sabree is an active member of the Association of Black Judges of Michigan, the Wolverine Bar Association, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. In her spare time, she offers assistance at expungement fairs, mentors young women, and volunteers with local Detroit organizations to help improve the quality of life for Detroiters. Judge Sabree has spoken on dozens of panels across the globe and is passionate about alternative solutions to incarceration and imposing fair, practical, and effective sentencings.

Student Commencement Speaker: Lekeila Houser

I began taking YSU classes my freshman year of high school (2015). I graduated from Youngstown Rayen Early College in 2019. In 2017, I went on a journey with the organization Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past. Students from Mahoning Valley high schools participate in a week-long journey to Civil Rights sites in the south. They travel to cities where significant events during the Civil Rights Movement occurred and they meet many of the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement. During this journey, the students have workshops on the Principles of Nonviolence, institutionalized racism and they learn the lessons of the movement such as compassion, nonviolence, tolerance, justice, forgiveness, civic responsibility, hope and not being a silent witness. This journey changed my life and helped me fully understand my passion for helping others and fighting for social justice. This journey also heavily influenced my decision to major in social work.