This week was slightly different than the rest of my weeks at ROC-MI. My supervisor was out of town so I had to fill in for her this week. I led a new member orientation by myself, which was really cool! There is a new member orientation every week and it is most people’s first experience with ROC so it is really important to paint an accurate picture of what ROC is and does. It is also important for new members to get excited about what ROC is doing. I also had to call all of the members to inform them of the upcoming events that ROC-MI is having (such as a webinar and a policy meeting). It was really great getting to talk to some of the ROC-MI members because my current research project is a literature review and does not really involve to members.
I also filled in my supervisor at the Allied Media Conference (AMC) at Wayne State. AMC was a really great experience. I was able to attend a lot of workshops and at the same time I was able to network and raise other people’s awareness of injustices in the restaurant industry and ROC-MI’s main policy. I also sat on a panel that discussed Solidarity Research in the food system. The panel discussed how research, in particular participatory action research, is beneficial and essential to our different organizations along the food chain. It was really cool representing ROC-MI and being able to accurately answer questions regarding ROC-MI’s research after only being there for three weeks. It made me realize how much I had learned over the past three weeks.
