During my time working with CDAD, it has been refreshing to be surrounded by many women of color who care greatly for their community and respect each other. Everyone has been inviting and supporting interns and newcomers in adapting to the jargon and systems of CDAD. It is indeed empowering to see how much each […]

I think so far the most interesting thing I have witnessed being at CDAD (Community Development Advocates of Detroit) was the opportunity to watch and listen in on Detroit’s City Council Formal Session this past week. (This is actually when the members decided not to give Dan Gilbert the $60 million dollar tax abatement to

In the past week, I learned a lot from my assigned researches about the Detroit demographic and economic development non-profit landscape. My co-workers and I did a deep dive into Detroit immigrant population to assist with ProsperUs immigrant fellowship application. I noticed through census data that two neighborhoods close to Dearborn and Hamtramck has absorbed

Can’t believe it’s been 4 weeks into the program! In interacting with the community of Friends of Parkside, I can say with certainty that they are all passionate people. The culture that exists with FOP is very welcoming. As the majority of the staff are residents of the community that they serve, everyone knows everyone,

I can’t believe it’s already been about a month. It’s been an amazing experience working in the office, but I am more excited to be outdoors with the kiddos. I am grateful to have actual experiences of working in a nonprofit and seeing how much stress it is to work as a full time employee.

I’m back! It’s crazy that we are at week 4 already. I feel like I just moved in last week! The work environment at the NSO and DCERP in general has been very interesting to get used to. I had never worked in an almost completely virtual office type environment before now. It’s very new

One aspect of culture that I’ve enjoyed exploring, especially here in Detroit, is food. It seems to be an arena where the value of diversity shines and becomes physically real. While restaurants only represent a small part of local cuisine, you can learn a lot about a space from the restaurants that populate it and

Now that I have had time to meet everyone from the program and in my non-profit, I am very pleased with everyone I have met. I was nervous as usual when starting a new job but I am glad everyone is so kind and are not very formal. I instantly was able to be myself

I have found the culture within Hope Village Revitalization and in the surrounding Hope Village community to be friendly and welcoming to each other and outsiders. My coworkers have cultivated the most comfortable and supportive environment where I always feel competent and capable. I am the youngest person at my workplace, but my coworkers have