Honestly I don’t know how seminar can stand up to the numerous excellent experiences I’ve had in Detroit, or as a research fellow at InsideOut. However, that being said, they provided a nice “cool down” period at the end of the week. They were the rejuvenating exhale after a week long inhale; the breath I took in was in the form of numerous research and lesson plan materials. The seminars signaled my decompression and in most cases, this final week of the program excluded, my trip home for the weekend. I’m always ready to go back to Ypsi to see my boyfriend and my two amazingly adorable cats; Miles and Dizzy. Yes, they were named after the Jazz musicians.
It was excellent to have a chance to hear from some of the leaders in other non-profit organizations during seminar and it always brought a smile to my face to witness the somewhat awkward moments non-profit staff and the research fellow shared. I sometimes felt that there was warmth between them, and that was good to see. I think many of us may have made personal as well as professional connections at our organizations. I feel as if I have, and honestly, that was fairly unexpected, but indeed welcome and appreciated.
I enjoyed watching the documentary about Detroit and doing the activities that got us out of our seats. The room could get a little heavy when somebody gave a presentation through the majority of the seminar, but often it was still good information, and generally interesting. Participating in the resource allocation game (I forgot the name) was a lot of fun, and I feel like students should go through that every time they participate in this program (if at all possible). I enjoyed the theme of mindfulness and observation for the design challenge. It wasn’t quite what I expected and often that can be a good thing. As far as theme groups go, I’m very happy to have been assigned the “community-building” theme. The interviews, experiences, and observations for the design challenge portion were a fun side step off the path of least involvement. I discovered many exciting places in Detroit. Seminar gave me a chance to socialize a bit and hear more about everyones experiences in the program. Overall good stuff.
