Emerging Leader Celebration

On Wednesday July 9th I had the opportunity to attend the Emerging Leaders Award Ceremony held at the Detroit Center with Meredith. We met Carmen and Ryan there as well. Although the University of Michigan does have a huge representation in the City of Detroit, living on Wayne State’s campus in Atchison hall I tend to forget that since most people there are either Quicken Loan interns or Wayne State student’s themselves. I wanted to attend the event because I wanted to have the opportunity to connect with more University of Michigan alumni and students, as well as to celebrate Ms. Mobley’s accomplishments. We were treated to live music as well as food at the event as well. A man came to our table and talked to us while we were eating, he was a Michigan alumnus of the School of Engineering. It was great to hear his story, how he grew up in Detroit and transferred after two years from Wayne State to the University of Michigan. The greatest take away I got from this man was that connections are truly everything, he had an internship at Wayne State that he followed up at during a School of Engineering Job Fair, and he was able to continue his internship although the original program was only through Wayne State University. The connections at GM that he made was able to connect him to where he wanted to go. I was inspired and enlightened by this man, and he was able to give me more confidence in myself as I develop my own network of connections not only in Detroit but all together during my undergraduate career.

The one thing I will always remember from attending this event was Ms. Mobley’s passion for helping others. She has no shame in anything that she does, she has so much confidence and radiance that it makes you want to open up and be just as fearless as she is. She made some points to the young people in the audience that truly touched me. Don’t give up on your dreams, with hard work you can pursue anything you want. People will judge you, people will put you down, there will be obstacles, but if you work hard you will be able to accomplish anything. I will always remember her advice, and I am so glad I was able to attend this event.