June 2016

Previous to working at the Sierra Club I had it in my mind that big organizations took forever to do things purely out of laziness. I have come to realize that this is not entirely true, things just take a long time. Partly because meetings are impossible to coordinate. Everyone has their two times a […]

I have been observing a lot of how coworkers interact with each other, especially since I have been in the office pretty much the whole week. Its interesting to see the hierarchies in rank and age, especially considering how small an office it is. From the founders to the manager(ish) to the americorps workers to

For the first couple weeks here on Michigan Ave, my work has revolved around plans. First — A protocol, written by a national organization, describing a plan to create ecodistricts around the country. Then, I dived into 700+ pages of a Detroit Future City strategic framework as a immediate, short, and long term plan to

In the past three weeks I have noticed that Brilliant Detroit makes an effort to put the ‘community’ in community organization. For example, the Co-Founder and CEO, Cindy Eggleton, takes walks around the community everyday. Also, Brilliant Detroit tries to hire people within the community to run their sites and attends community events. The actions

Since being here at EcoWorks I have noticed a great deal of community involvement. There are multiple branches of leadership here and everyone plays a unique role in helping the city of Detroit.  At Green Consulting, my department, we are working on two very important projects: the first being Eco-D, the first two eco-districts in Detroit.

Work has really started to pick up.  My tasks have been modified a lot from what I thought I was going to be doing when I first got here, but I don’t mind the change because I think I am doing more useful work anyway.  The office joke is that I am always looking for

I’ve had some time these last three weeks here at FoodLab to reflect on and digest my thoughts about this new and exciting environment. Working with the ladies at FoodLab and all the Green Garagers has been really impactful. Everyday I come into work, I’m greeted by happy faces and immersed in a community that

                 The community organization I am working for this summer is Focus Hope. Focus Hope calls itself and anchor Institution for the neighborhood they are located in. An anchor institution is an institution that has been around for a very long time and has leverage and say in

I am working at the Detroit Food Academy which is a non profit that works in around 8 Detroit High Schools to teach business skills and entrepreneurship through cooking (if you want a better description its beautifully laid out on their website). My summer research project (with Harrison) will be making a storytelling project of

Interning at Brilliant Detroit has been amazing so far! The organization was founded after research found that most children who are not kindergarten ready will continue to fall behind academically for years to come. Unfortunately, most children in Detroit are not kindergarten ready. Brilliant Detroit seeks to solve this issue by creating neighborhoods where children