The Fellowship

At the most basic level, I am in Detroit because of a fellowship with Challenge Detroit, and I want to take a minute to explain what the program is and what it all entails. For anyone who has had the pleasure of listening to me try and summarize the whole thing in a sentence, failing miserably, and just making it all sound more confusing, hopefully this will help clear things up.

Challenge Detroit, in their own words, is “a leadership and professional development program that invites approximately 30 of tomorrow’s leaders to live, work, play, and give in and around the greater Detroit area for one year,” and contribute to the revitalization of the city and surrounding region. We live in the city, participate in community projects, work for local companies, and get to know Detroit and its people. By focusing the efforts of this group of 32 fellows, the program hopes to bring new ideas and energy to the city and create some positive change in the community.

So what does that actually look like? Here’s an approximate breakdown of how I expect to be spending my time as a fellow:

Monday-Thursday: Working for my host company, The MEDC

My host company for the year is The Michigan Economic Development Corporation, thankfully known just as The MEDC. The MEDC is a private/public venture that works closely with the state government to [you guessed it] promote economic development in Michigan. As I am quickly learning, that involves a number of things, but I am specifically working in their Community Ventures division and will focus on social enterprise and entrepreneurship in Detroit and the surrounding region. I don’t have the time or the space to go into what all that entails, but I have a feeling it’s going to be great.

Friday: Challenge Detroit

Fridays are fellowship days, and what we’re doing will change from week to week. As fellows, we will work on “challenges” for a few weeks at a time, helping local initiatives and nonprofits in the city. We’ll be working on everything from biking and alternative transportation in Detroit to homeless shelters and everything in between. I’ll be posting about those as they happen, and there will be lots more information on Challenge Detroit’s website as the challenges are rolled out.

Sporadically throughout the year: Cultural events, Community Service, Social Events

Challenge Detroit takes a holistic approach to involvement in the city, so my “fellow fellows” and I will have lots of opportunities to work in the community, get to know the cultural scene, and have fun in our new city. Some of these are scheduled through the program every couple of weeks, but it’s already clear that the fellows will be taking things into their own hands and planning things to do on top of what Challenge Detroit has in store from us.

So there you have it, a basic sketch of my program for the year. It seems like a lot, but there is so much to do and be a part of in this city, I already know I’ll be pursuing other opportunities outside of the program. My neighborhood has an active CDC [Community Development Corporation] that I’m hoping to get involved with, and there’s a community garden a few blocks from my apartment that I’m hoping to contribute to, just to name a few.

Hopefully this sheds a little more light on how I’ll be allocating my year, I’ll share more detailed snapshots of what I’m up to as the weeks go on.

 

Me and some fellow fellows in Downtown Detroit. Yes, those giant armchairs are just chilling on the sidewalk

The Beginning

My name is Alexandra and I am a resident of Detroit. More specifically, I am a new resident of Detroit, a fact I have spent more time defending than I ever imagined I would.

Detroit is currently serving time as America’s favorite post-apocalyptic media fodder: largest city in United States history to go bankrupt, riddled with crime and danger, a ghost town from which anyone with the means to flee has already done so.

With this image in mind, you can imagine the reactions I received when I decided, upon my college graduation in sunny Southern California, to pack my bags and move to Motor City. But I had found my perfect post-grad opportunity: a Fellowship with Challenge Detroit where I would really be able to follow my interests, strike out on my own, and (most importantly) really make an impact. Besides, I had a sneaking suspicion I wasn’t getting the full story about Detroit. 

Fast forward a few months and here I am: two weeks into my Detroit tenure and already bursting with affection for this city and its people. While two weeks is hardly enough time to even begin to scratch the surface of a city, to say I am excited for the year to come would be a severe understatement.

Enter this blog, where I hope to channel that excitement and share some of my experiences and observations.  As of now, I don’t have a developed game plan for this blog; I’ll be writing at least once a month about my time as a Challenge Detroit Fellow, but hope to go beyond that as well. Until I find more of a vision for this thing, expect anything from my day to day discoveries in a new city, discussions of media misperceptions, spotlights of local organizations and non-profits, updates for friends and family, and anything else I manage to think up.

Great, I think that’s everything. Thanks for reading and feel free to share this with anyone who might find it interesting. To sign off, here’s a picture of me pretending to be a sunflower at Lafayette Greens, one of Detroit’s many urban gardens: