Dear Marissa,
I’m writing this after my third day of work at Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision. The first week has been good so far! I like the project I’m working on and the people I work with. SDEV has a ton of cool projects going on, so I hope by the time I’m done I’ll have had the chance to explore all of them. Today I went to a Community Action to Promote Healthy Environments meeting. There were people from so many different organizations there and it was encouraging to hear all of the good things going on in Detroit. The group is addressing many of the most important issues involving air quality in Detroit and it was interesting to see how many the problems overlap. I got to present a little on my anti-idling campaign and made some good connections that will help me moving forward. At work, I’ve started writing a grant proposal for my project. I think it’s been good for me to write this because it outlines what the goals of the project are, the timeline to complete them, and why the project is being done. Even though writing usually isn’t my thing, I actually haven’t minded it. I didn’t expect to have so much responsibility with my project. SDEV is letting me take control of it, which is both exciting and scary at the same time. I’m hoping by the time I leave Detroit’s anti-idling ordinance is more effective than it is now, or at least I will have identified what needs to be done.
My current goals for the summer outside of work are to network with people in the environmental health community, get to know the other people in this program, and to explore Detroit. I hope to make connections with people in environmental health to get insight on how to best approach my career interests. I’m debating going to grad school, and am hoping that this summer helps me determine what I should do. I’m excited to get to the know the people of the program. At school, all of my classes have the same people practically because the chemical engineering schedule is very structured. It’s nice because I’ve been able to form some great friendships, but I’m excited to get to know new people this summer that I probably wouldn’t have had the chance to meet on campus. I’ve grown up less than an hour away from Detroit but only have explored the downtown area. I want to see some of the other areas and just learn more about Detroit in general. I feel like my perception of Detroit right now is mostly based off of media and what people have told me. I know both of these ways of getting information don’t accurately portray Detroit, and I’m excited to learn through immersing myself in the city.
Well, I guess that’s all for now.
-Marissa
