Dear Janani,
I only had a few days to commit to DCBRP after my acceptance, so when I emailed Jenna confirming my participation, I didn’t really know what to expect. Now that I’ve been here for a few days, I’ve realized that this summer has the potential to transform my outlook on life and my goals for myself. At Brilliant Detroit, our supervisors have shown us a lot of respect, trust, and faith by asking us to organize a proposal to implement ABCD (asset-based community development) with a $35,000 grant throughout the Brilliant Detroit locations. The enthusiasm and support we’ve received from our coworkers has helped instill confidence in myself and my abilities to carry out this ambitious project, and I’m really excited to see what we can do.
Creating a successful and strong ABCD proposal is my main professional goal for the program, but on a more personal level, I’m looking forward to meeting people from a wide variety of backgrounds different to my own. Much of the ABCD project involves talking and listening to families involved in Brilliant Detroit’s community houses, so I’m looking forward to developing those relationships and hearing from a perspective very different from my own. I’d only been to Detroit once before this program, so I’m excited to learn as much as I can about the city through my experiences at work and my experiences living in Midtown.
Although I’ve learned a lot about gentrification and the differences between Detroit neighborhoods from my first year writing course and “How To Kill A City”, the starkness of the differences between Midtown and Southwest (where Brilliant’s headquarters are located) still surprised me. While you can learn all about gentrification and the issues in cities in academic settings, being there, seeing things for yourself, and talking to residents is a much more powerful learning experience.
I hope that this summer is educational, informative, and fun. Above all, I do hope that it is transformative.
