Bittersweet

In my letter to myself during the first week, I emphasized the importance of community and my hopes and excitement in joining the community over at FoodLab. As the fellowship has come to an end, I am so glad that I was able to be a part of FoodLab. However, I did not experience the sense of community that I hoped for in the beginning. HoweverI think the majority of this might be due to unfortunate circumstances, the number one being Covid-19. Because all correspondence took place over email, zoom, and phone calls, I found it to be a little more difficult to stay in constant contact with my supervisor. Even though the experience I had was not as expected, I still made lasting relationships and am so glad I was able to connect with my supervisors as much as I was, as they are all great people and professionals!

In my letter, I also anticipated gaining a lot of knowledge while in this internship, and that is something that has happened! As i mentioned briefly in my speech during the showcase, the projects that i completed during these last two months related greatly to the career field I want to go into. After expressing this desire to my supervisor over at Osborn Neighborhood Alliance, he allowed me to incorporate some of the qualities of an hr manager into my remaining projects and tasks. I have gained both knowledge and experience through this!

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Lastly, one other thing I mentioned in my letter is my hopes to understand more about the processes that entrepreneurs go through, and specifically the struggles they may face. Being able to conduct both primary and secondary research has allowed me to gather a great understanding of this topic. While the entrepreneurs Kenzi and I worked with were food entrepreneurs and a lot of the difficulties they faced had to do with those in the food industry, there were still some that all entrepreneurs face, especially black entrepreneurs, and were still extremely informative. Additionally, because the Tapestry project focuses on the three gaps that all black entrepreneurs face, doing research on these topics and how exactly they hinder black entrepreneurs, and then directly asking the fellows question on how it has specifically affected them, has been so interesting to learn. I am very pleased with both of the internships I had this summer and am sad to see them come to and end!