Wow, I am incredibly close to being done with my summer internship and living in Detroit. It will be sad to leave the city, but I am excited to head back to Ann Arbor. Plus, I get the best of both worlds because I will still be spending time in Detroit since SDBA hired me to continue working for a couple more months.
I have learned so much this summer, from workplace skills to profound intrapersonal insights. Since I do not want to forget any aspects of this summer experience, I thought I would jot them all down in my journal. What I learned:
- I should live somewhere that has plenty of green space and trees because it makes me happier
- I should live somewhere that has sidewalks full of other people because it makes me feel connected
- I should live somewhere that is extremely bike-friendly for my own safety
- I should try to be my own boss because I prefer to have the lead on projects
- I should try to work on projects that have a clear path to results and an end-goal
- I should try to work on projects that move along at a quicker pace rather than taking almost a decade to accomplish
- How to write an RFP, a memorandum, and a sponsorship proposal
- How to receive grant funding
- How to dress and act like a young professional
- How to walk in heels every day
- How to be percieved as being much older and important than I really am
- How to plan a formal event
- Community input and participation is the most important (and first) step to every project related to urban planning
- Every community is unique and has several different types of stakeholders that ALL need to be included in the community organizing process
- Make the community members feel important to the process
- Always be aware of my place in a community
- A lot of what happens in Southwest is because of non-profit organizations that step in to do the work that the city government couldn’t handle
- Be weary of development coming into the community and how positively or negatively it will affect the surrounding area
- Always offer to help people out in the office because you will get the opportunity to learn about things that you otherwise wouldn’t have
- Go to city hall public forums to hear about the real issues affecting your neighbors rather than just reading them in the news
- Go to as many community events as you can to learn and connect with important people
- Always provide lunch at meetings
