Besides weekends, my favorite day in a week is Monday because it symbolizes a new start and makes me feel energetic. Therefore, in this blog, I document a typical Monday life I have in Detroit to better explain how I live and serve in Detroit.
 
7:30 a.m. Get up.
Our office has a weekly internal staff meeting at around 9am on Monday, so Vik and I have to get up very early every Monday and meet each other in the lobby at 8:20am so that we can catch up the Qline and arrive at the office on time.
 
8:20 a.m. Meet Vik in the lobby
We usually talk about our weekends and other random stuff together while walking towards the Qline station.
 
8:30 a.m. Arrive at the Qline station and hope it’ll arrive promptly so that we won’t be late.
The Qline is an electric street car, a new member of Detroit’s public transportation system. Its arriving time is very unpredictable because it needs to get recharged at the terminal station. If we unfortunately miss one Qline, then we have to wait very long. It was a little annoying at first, but knowing that this is part of Detroit experience, I gradually got used to it and now love it because it makes me feel more Detroiter.

The picture below: on the way to work

​9:00 a.m. Arrive at the office and be prepared for the internal staff meeting.
Detroit Future City is a little office with about ten people, but it’s working on many large projects at the same time. That’s why coordination and communication is so crucial for this office. I personally love the internal staff meeting because I got to hear cool projects and events all the colleagues have been working on in the past week. Plus, the agenda is always very organized and I’m (a little) obsessed with structures.
 
10:00 a.m. Sit in front of my office desk and do the work.
Vik and I have worked on different projects, so it’s hard to generalize our specific work. But one funny thing to mention is how Vik and I communicate with each other. Because we were assigned to two office desks that aren’t adjacent to each other, we usually communicate with each other via Messenger/ iMessage. While we mostly talk about serious work things, sometimes we fall into funny conversations that I’m not going to any details here. Although he might not know this, it’s been a pleasure to work with him.
 
12:30 p.m. Eat my lunch box.
Learning how to cook and feed myself is definitely one of the biggest lessons I learned in Detroit.

The picture below: some of my lunch boxes

13:00 p.m. Continue the work.
Depending on what projects we are working on, we sometimes have meetings during afternoon. If not, we just sit there and continue whatever project we are working on.
 
16:30 p.m. Get ready to leave the office.
Vik usually gives me a ten-minute warning ahead of the time to leave so that I will leave on time with him.
 
17:00 p.m. Get home and crash on the sofa with my cute roommate Nalini.
We only crash on the sofa like potatoes when we are super tired. Normally, we go to gym. Here in Detroit, I go to gym very often. In fact, going to gym once every two or three days on average is one of the accomplishments I made here in Detroit. #veryProud
 
19:00 p.m. Cook dinner and the lunch box for the next day.
It was really hard and time-consuming at first, but practice makes perfect. Now I know how to prepare myself with healthy and decent food.
 
20:30 p.m. Chill time!
I usually spend the rest of the day chatting with my parents and other students here. We sometimes watch movies together.
 
It’s been a fun and memorable summer. I’ll definitely miss this summer.

My time in Detroit has been really rich in experience and discoveries. Even though I have a “9am-5pm” job, every day is different and unique. I meet new people, discover new places and work on different projects. I look back at my time in this wonderful city and I realize that I have been really lucky to have spend two months here. This is a small snapshot into my summer in Detroit!

• 8:30AM:

I wake up and get ready for work. I believe it is so important to eat well in the morning to start the day full of energy. Today I made pancakes and cut fresh strawberries that I bought last weekend at Eastern Market. I usually read a few New York Times articles or watch BFM TV, a French news channel, while eating to maximize my morning and get up to date to what has recently happened around the world.

•  9:30AM:

Getting ready to MoGo to work! I get my helmet (safety first, of course!) and meet my work partner in the lobby of the dorm. Biking to work is really a great habit to have as it allows you to exercise and completely wake up before starting working. Plus, the ride to work is beautiful and really calming.  

• 10:00AM:

I arrive at Build Institute. My community partner and I continue working on the projects. We are analyzing the alumni data we have recently collected and trying to build graphs to visually illustrate our findings. I really enjoy the work atmosphere of Build. Everyone is in a good mood, kind and caring and I believe this positively affects the work achieved.

• 1:00PM:

Lunch break! My work partner and I try to go to different cheap places everyday. Two of our favorites are Honey Bee Market with its $5 chicken fajitas and Taqueria Lupita’s with its $1.25 chicken and beef tacos. What I love about Mexican town is that is really seems like a different city but that it is so close to the modern, young Downtown. It is such a nice change of scenery.

• 5:00PM:

After hours in Excel and google docs, our day at Build reaches its end. Nothing better than a 25-minute bike ride to counter a whole afternoon sitting down and looking at computer screen. I get home and try to relax, read and listen to news. I catch up with my roommates and hear about their day at work. It is always interesting to compare our current tasks and past projects.

• 7:30PM:

Dinner time. As I previously said, food is so important for me and cooking allows me to take a mental break from the day. When I cook, I only focus on the food (and not chopping my finger off). On the menu today: chicken breast with pasta in a pesto and cream sauce with a side of sautéed Brussel sprouts. Bon appétit mes amis!

• 9:00PM:

I head off to the gym to finish my day in exercise. I like going to the gym relatively late as there are less people there and I have energy from my dinner. The sunsets here in Detroit have been stunning and the walk to the gym is always a pleasure when the sky is full of pastel colors.

• 11:00PM:

Voilà! This has been one of my days in Detroit. I have to rest up because I have another long day tomorrow. Thanks for coming along!

This Wednesday, a group of us are seeing Kendrick Lamar live at the Palace. I figured that in preparation for the concert, I would describe my daily Detroit routine and encompass a few of my favorite Detroit memories by rewriting two verses of his hit song, Lust. Without further ado, here are my sick bars:

wake up in the morning thinking bout stipends kick your feet up
get dressed and eat oatmeal in the kitchen from a green cup
look out the window it’s wayne state you got another day
get out the door, q line’s late, you find another way
mogo to techtown, meet up with marlin she’s the best
interviewing clients, dtx, and then all the rest
write your reports, use your data for the next chart
get it all together, try to help the office any amount
whatever you doin’ just make it count

wake up in the morning thinking bout stipends kick your feet up
weekends spent in corktown getting coffee catch your sleep up
exploring downtown and campus martius all the people say
avalon magic bars are the best and theres no other place
find a free concert, hit the museum, thats where you went
city full of art and culture is where you’ve been sent
cook up some dinner, add some ice cream
hope the kitchen doesn’t flood when you turn the lights out
whatever you doin’ just make it count

Throughout my time in Detroit I have been pretty diligent about keeping a regular journaling schedule (at least throughout the week). However, it felt strange in a way to keep track of every snippet of one of my days in Detroit and was quick to recognize how one day could in no way encapsulate the richness of my experience in this fascinating city of incredible people.

Nonetheless, I will walk you through last Thursday to give you a somewhat accurate depiction of my experience here. I wake up at six in the morning, true to my regular Detroit habit. After changing into my gym attire and with my MoGo string bag on my back, I begin my walk to the Mort Harris Wayne State gym. As usual, I pass by the MoGo station at the intersection between Cass and Hancock, reminding me of the thrill of working at this non-profit and looking up at the sky, sometimes a crystal clear blue, but this morning a cloudy dark grey. A run on the track, an abdominal workout and a stretch fill me with energy for the morning as I walk back to University Towers with a more determined stride then before.

Then, I prepare my water with freshly squeezed lime juice, take a quick shower and wash my hair. I drink a mug of hot water and apple cider vinegar, eat an apple, drink some kefir in which I add the ZenOrganics granola I buy at Eastern Market from my friend Zach Lavender. As I eat my breakfast, I read a fascinating French online news article from Le Monde about a food policy conference happening on that same day to think about ways to insure fair prices for farmers, to shift production to what people actually want, better quality, less pesticide-intensive organic produce.

At 8:30 am, I meet Thomas with his bike helmet already balanced on his head in the lobby, ready for today’s first MoGo ride. We walk down Cass Ave to the new, conveniently placed Cass/Willis MoGo station and hop onto our red bikes. Down Cass Ave we pedal through the dusty construction, (why did we choose the Cass route over the John R route this morning?), but past the beautiful raised beds of the North Cass Community Garden.

We settle at our desks in the calm atmosphere of the Downtown Detroit Partnership office, nearly everyone is already helping out at Beacon Park for the grand opening. We have a bit of time to sit down with the two new Grow Detroit’s Young Talent (GDYT) interns to talk about our work thinking through a volunteer recruiting structure for MoGo. Then, Adriel comes to take them to the Beacon Park opening.
Thomas and I t
hen go to the small conference room where we have our last check-in call with Matt. It feels reassuring to express how everything is wrapping up and exciting to think about my return to campus (in particular with ideas to collaborate with Katherine and Matt to bring RAD (Rape Agression Defense) courses, kindly offered to us by the Wayne State Police Department, back to Duke).  
We wait in the hallway for a bit for a Michigander friend I met at an Aretha Franklin concert called Christina, with whom we then walked over to the grand Beacon Park opening. Through the words of Mayor Mike Duggan, the CEO of DTE Energy and the City Council President Brenda Jones, the potential of public-private partnership to provide a wonderful new space to live, work and play for all who live and come to Detroit permeated this opening ceremony. Astha, Vinit, Thomas and I engaged in the leisurely activities of this event, from free ice cream, live music to see-saws (which apparently will even glow in the dark). Typically Thomas and I would sit outside in the Campus Martius Park and have our packed lunches, but today, for the special occasion, Astha and I set off to Chickpea in the D (one of the smallest store fronts in the world). Back at the office, Thomas and I continued working on the final details of our evaluation plan and add finishing touches to other elements of our work, such as our surveys.
​
At five, like every Thursday, Thomas and I set off to Keep Growing Detroit’s Plum St Market Garden. Molly, the production my manager, sets us up with a fun crew of other volunteers on the task of weeding beds of perennials. Wheelbarrows rapidly filled up with grasses and other feisty weeds, which then have to be brought to compost pile. It was inspiring to hear a mother’s story about how Keep Growing Detroit enabled her to activate her own garden space, with new vegetables such as bokchoy, which her children then also discovered, and miraculous compost to make ameliorate her soil.
 
At seven, we then walk over to the Cass/ Temple station through the park with a lot of people marauding, during which as the day ends, we are often prone towards deeper conversations. We bike back to Cass/Willis and settle into UT.
 
Luckily I have dinner waiting for me in the fridge, salad, quinoa, smoked white fish and sautéed kale and can watch the French evening news in replay.
 
 

8:00 AM
I wake up, super flawless. 

8:30 AM
I arrive at the MoGo station. If you’ve read my previous blogs, you’ll know that I work at MoGo, the Detroit bike share company. At first, I was still hesitant to ride a bike in the city. But I have grown to enjoy it a little bit more. Plus, it’s always good to showcase the flashy MoGo bikes in the street!

​

​9:00 AM
I can objectively say that I work at the best place among the DukeEngage fellows. Not only are the people at work super friendly, but the building itself is amazing. I work in the Quicken Loans building, which is filled with so many cool things, such as restaurants, a nice gym, and a basketball court. Also, according to the Quicken Loans tour, Quicken Loans is the greatest place to work in the world. 

9:15 AM

​This week, my partner Pauline and I met the Grow Detroit Young’s Talent fellows. They are working at MoGo for around two weeks. They are super sweet and awesome. By the way, our office always has great fruit!

10:30 AM

​Pauline and I have just finished our conference call with Carrie and Matt. Every Thursday, we have a call with them so that they can check up on us and see how we are doing. Today’s call went smoothly.

11:00 AM

Pauline, her friend Christina, and I arrive at Beacon Park. Beacon Park is the flagship project that DDP (Downtown Detroit Partnership) and DTE energy have been working on. The opening was amazing. Mayor Mike Duggan spoke and highlighted how basically a land of nothing became a gorgeous park land. MoGo was also at the event to raise awareness about their great service. After that, Vinit and I had a blast in the new park, going on the see saws, shooting hoops, playing twister, and having an overall great time.

12:30 PM
I buy my lunch at a taco truck located at Beacon Park. The taco truck sold incredibly good and cheap tacos. Only $1.50 a taco! Usually for lunch I just eat Lunchables, but today I decided to treat myself to delicious tacos. After that, Pauline, Astha, and I go to Chickpea in the D, a super small restaurant that serves great chickpea. 

1:00 PM
Pauline and I arrive back the office. The office is basically empty because everyone on the floor is affiliated with DDP, and DDP is responsible for the Beacon Park Opening event. The workplace at MoGo is pretty casual, and most people here have pretty flexible hours. For work, the main project we are working on is an evaluation plan for MoGo.

5:00 PM
I leave the office at 5. It was a pretty great day at work, especially because of the Beacon Park Opening.

6:00 PM
Pauline and I are volunteering at the Detroit Plum Street Market. The Detroit Plum Street Market is an urban garden and was part of one of Pauline favorite documentaries, Demain. The people here are so incredibly nice, and in past weeks I've learned how to pick strawberries and harvest carrots. Today, we are helping to weed the garden.

7:45 PM
After heading back to my dorm, I go straight to the gym to ball out. Today, me and the other boys balled together. The best player is Vik, who is meaning mugging the camera in the picture. 

9:00 PM
Best part of the day, seeing my boys! I have awesome suitemates Marc, Vinit, and Aaron. They are all super crazy and we sound like a bunch of 10-year olds when we're together. 

10:00 PM
I am terrible at cooking, so usually I eat out for dinner. Today I go to Starters, which is a bar that serves a wide variety of food. They also serve waaay overpriced guacamole (one scoop of guacamole was like $2 dollars?!)

10:30 PM
After ordering takeout from Starters, I finally eat my steak fajitas in the dorm. Usually I don't eat my dinner this late, but today was a special day. After I eat dinner, me and the boys watched a soccer game between Manchester City (one of Marc's favorite teams) and some other team. Usually at night I hang out and relax with our group.

1:00 AM
I hit the hay. Time to rest up for a great day tomorrow! 

I was once told that if no one thinks you are crazy for following a specific idea, you are not truly on the right path. Not the best one you can be, at least. You see, true innovation requires making mistakes, jumping into something you are not entirely prepared for, learning along the way about things you could have never imagined or predicted, just like a baby learns how to walk. And, like the baby, we usually don’t really know what we are doing ­– we simply know where we want to get, and why we want to get there.
 
Here, in Detroit, I feel like in some ways I have been learning how to walk again, except that neither the path nor the destiny belongs to me. I am not a Detroiter, not even American, and I had never truly had the freedom to explore a world as alive and raw as Detroit – a tale of two cities, one developed and one not, and a story of overcoming and relentlessness that no one ever really told. And despite all of that, despite of all the orientation sessions on how we would never leave an impact in the city, despite of our alien status in Detroit, there is no way of saying what we are doing here is not a story for years.
​

​​In our time with Build Institute, Marc and I have been relentlessly researching the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Detroit and the world, trying to find a way to quantify and qualify the impact of the organization in the greater community. We spent weeks creating new metrics and evaluating past alumni surveys, analyzing past organizational reports, and working with organizations across the nation in obtaining the most updated information on entrepreneurial activity in urban environments. We prepared class materials, staffed conferences and market bazaars, and celebrated with some cake whenever a new set of companies ­– entrepreneurs – graduated from Build Institute. And out of all the things we learned, one rises above all: it takes a village to start a company.

Build's efforts and results are with everyone and everywhere, and go well beyond any economic impact report we could possibly aspire to produce. It's in Ponyride and its tireless entrepreneurs who are redefining innovation in the Motor City, and it's probably in that new boutique opening around the corner, that food truck that just popped up in the park. It's in Downtown, it's in the neighborhoods. But most importantly, it's not just for now – it's for the future.

Build itself is a village, a hub made of 1100 seasoned and aspiring entrepreneurs who won't stop at a first funding setback or lack of a proper brick-and-mortar location, people who will do anything in their reach to help others bring their own ideas to life through entrepreneurship. And although Marc and I are simply interns, foreigners in this community, every single interaction we have with a Builder and every single new metric we finalize further solidifies this village. Our time here does have a deadline, but perhaps Build, or at least the impact caused by this organization, doesn't seem to have an expiration date, at least not depending on all the ideas that started with Build.

     There are 50,000 stray dogs in the city of Detroit. People get murdered all the time in Detroit. Detroit hasn’t grown at all recently and is now a sunken cause. People make false statements such as these ones all the time, unaware of the consequences such assertions may entail. This is the first issue Detroit Future City’s 139 Sq. miles report is trying to solve. The report lays out hundreds of important facts about Detroit, ranging from health statistics to economic growth to vacancy rates and aims to provide an easy to read base of facts about Detroit, all in one place. The report attempts to reduce rumors surrounding Detroit, which harm the city in more ways than people think. Increasingly negative perceptions can inhibit population and job growth. If people think Detroit is a barren wasteland with nothing to offer, they won’t move here or start their companies here.
      Although the 139 sq. miles report does not offer strategies to combat the issues surrounding Detroit, it sets the current realities for the city, no matter how hard they are to believe (both the positive statistics and the negative statistics). The report will serve as a basis of facts and as a launch pad for new ideas. If people wish to make an impact in Detroit, they can look to this document to learn about the most pressing issues. In this way, the 139 square miles report will start conversations about solutions and new initiatives to revitalize Detroit.  It will be useful and available to everyone, including citizens, innovators, and leadership members. The report will serve an essential role in providing the platform for change in the future.
        Among several other projects, we have also worked on the maintenance fundraising program for the Detroit Future City Field Guide. The Field Guide is a tool which provides Detroiters with the necessary instructions and ideas to transform vacant, trash-filled lots, into beautiful neighborhood pieces capable of purifying storm water or growing produce. Filled with myriad lot design ideas, The Field Guide has the potential to bring Detroit residents, businesses, and institutions together in order to revitalize vacant land.  While improving the appeal of vacant lands and purifying storm water are important aspects of The Field Guide, the goals of The Field Guide go beyond that. Transforming vacant lots is about enabling Detroiters to take pride in their neighborhoods once again. It is about making neighborhoods more livable and enjoyable for all ages. It’s about being able to walk around a neighborhood with confidence and peace. It is about building community spaces where people can once again come together.  It is about lifting communities to their potentials. Our work on a maintenance fundraising project provides Field Guide users with the funding to maintain their lot designs and continue what they started.
         While we understand that our work at Detroit Future City will not immediately transform Detroit, we believe that the projects we contributed to will have lasting impacts on Detroit for decades to come. Any positive impact I can make, no matter how small, is especially worth it if it comes together with other efforts to change Detroit.  

​“Detroit is big enough to matter in the world and small enough for you to matter in it”. That is the phrase that captivated my interest when I heard about DukeEngage Detroit. When I first started working at Build Institute, I was excited to try to make some positive change for the city. Even though I am obviously not impacting the whole city, I believe that Lúcia and I are making small but purposeful work for the community.
 
The main task we are focusing on is the economic impact report which measures and summaries the direct and indirect impact of Build Institute in the Detroit community. We are gathering valuable data through an alumni survey where we ask graduates who have gone through the business classes to evaluate their experience at Build. For the direct impact of Build, we are for example looking at the revenue made by each new company or their number of employees. For the indirect impact of Build, we are for instance looking at the number of Build graduates’ clients per month. Last year, the DukeEngage interns realized a similar report but because of time constraints, they were unable to finish it. Our goal is to provide a short but useful report that Build can use in two ways. The first one is as marketing tool for potential Build Institute clients. Some statistics such as the high success rates should motivate interested people to sign up for the classes. The second way, is to provide convincing material to attract donations and grants. In addition, we hope that by interacting with old alumni we are making them closer with Build again. This might make them interact with and help more recent graduates.
 
We are also trying to analyze the alumni survey data and see what the graduates would like the most that Build is not currently offering. We have for example found that the alumni would benefit for a marketing class. We then wanted to dive into different options for a marketing class. Build could, for example, partner up with an online education website or create their own content that would be thought in a class. Lúcia and I understand that we are not going make Build take any decisions but we want to be as helpful as possible by laying down multiple options for such a class. The leadership team at Build can then decide using their experience what is best for the organization.
 
Finally, we are trying to be as helpful as possible by doing small, time-consuming tasks whenever needed. These are not tasks that are changing the entire company but tasks that allow the leadership team to have more time on their hands to focus on what matters the most for the company and make sure that all entrepreneurs can turn their ideas into successful businesses. By doing our best to make Build Institute as efficient and successful as possible, we hope that the Detroit entrepreneurs can continue to add social and economic wealth to this wonderful city. 


Picture: Build Institute's Open City. A free event where anyone interested about entrepreneurship can come learn about a particular subject. 

After Leah and I sent out the diversity survey, we reached out to two startups at TechTown to help with their businesses. The first business we worked with is the Detroit Art and Business Institute or DABI, and the second business we worked with is called CarePRN. When I think about social entrepreneurship, it really comes down to the social impact of a business. And both businesses are premier examples of how entrepreneurship can tackle an underlying problem in our society.

For DABI, Leah and I focused on the market segmentation for a new application intended to connect artists and businesses. Indeed, unemployment rates for art graduates ranges from 11.2 to 12.8%, a figure much greater than the national average of ~6% in 2014. The underlying problem this business tackles how artists can connect to viable monetary providers. Even more, even amateur artists can find to ways to create profit from their creativity. By connecting businesses with designers, both the business and the artists will be benefited. And often, social impact can be a pivoted from a traditional business model. While DABI is currently aimed at existing artists, perhaps in the future it could be tailored to artists in the under-served communities in Detroit. There are myriads of possibilities in where DABI can go, and we are excited to be a part of the project.
Alongside DABI, CarePRN is an application that allow busy people to locate and dispatch a caregiver for their loved ones. Leah and I are focused on promoting and marketing this application to a wider audience. The social impact of CarePRN will only expand with more people. Especially in areas where adults have multiple jobs and must care for family, this business might lead to an affordable caregiver option. Just like DABI, the potential social impact for CarePRN may be huge. In a more abstract sense, it is about people helping people in need. By creating a more efficient option to find caregivers, busy people could situate their own lives, while making sure their loved ones are in good care.

Overall, how Leah and I will impact Detroit may be very tiny. But coming into DukeEngage, I knew my job was not to create some large-scale impact on the city. Rather, it was always about providing whatever I can, because real impact starts out like a sprout. It will be hard to know whether the sprout will live, until you see the tree in front you many years later.

​Sometimes, it’s hard to grasp the tangible impact of a project. In scenarios like this, it is often difficult to quantitatively measure success, or to define your results by a single number or benchmark. For Zhao and I, this is not the case. We are delivering a tangible product to TechTown, one by which they can continue to measure their own dedication to reflecting the diversity of the city of Detroit. This process, hopefully, will allow them to continue to reach out to women and minorities, breaking down the stereotypes of what it means to be involved with the tech sector. In a city like Detroit, this is imperative. Without representation in leadership positions, Detroit youth may have trouble envisioning themselves in the often white-dominated spaces of economic reinvigoration, feeling isolated and neglected. Yet, with tangible efforts towards inclusion and a dedication to measuring data effectively, powerhouses like TechTown can become increasingly accessible to people across the city. 

Even though our project is completely data-driven and relies on the feedback and experience of TechTown clients, it can often feel just as abstract as some of the less qualitative missions. Spending time staring at spreadsheets and calling other incubators is fully enriching, but the experience is removed from the day-to-day lives of Detroit entrepreneurs. Our work feels meaningful, but for me, it takes a human reminder to get back to the core of its impact. 

Our interviews with clients and TechTown-affiliates have pushed me to understand the struggles and vulnerability of being a small-business owner. Not only this, but they have helped me to comprehend what it’s like to enter a space dominated by privilege after spending your life overrun by your lack of it. Conversations with people who will be directly impacted by our work, who have a real stake in this effort, motivate me to do all that I can to turn their concerns into new policies, to examine their problems and cut them at the roots. Faces, stories, and words supersede numbers, growing in importance and depth in my mind. The qualitative, emotional impact of our gritty work has become my benchmark, deeming the numbers somehow small and insignificant in comparison.

When I leave Detroit, I hope to continue my relationship with TechTown virtually. I hope to follow up on our work, checking in periodically on the demographic makeup of their clients, the volume of their data, and the economic output of their startups. But when the charts and graphs have blurred and faded, what I will remember most is my relationships with the staff here, my witty banter with Kristin over the Oxford Comma, and sitting around the tables at the TechTown kitchen, talking about life.