7:45am My two alarms go off simultaneously. Before I only used one, my alarm clock, but after oversleeping one day I decided to also set my phone alarm. There is no way I can sleep through the combination of annoying clock beeps and the painfully loud classic iOS “Alarm” sound effect. 

8:20am I am most likely done getting ready (I like to take my time in the morning). I make myself one of two breakfasts depending on the day. This whole trip I’ve alternated between scrambled eggs with spinach, a peanut butter chia seed sandwich, and fruit one day and Icelandic yogurt and a peanut butter chia seed sandwich the next. Recently I’ve been substituting yogurt with overnight oats, which are SO good. 

8:50am Saagar says “See you dude” after downing his protein shake and leaves the apartment with a banana in his hand. I noticed that he has left progressively later over the course of the summer; in the beginning it was 8:35 and it gradually turned into 8:50.

9:00-9:05am I grab my lunch for the day from the fridge, say goodbye to John (Arjun is still sleeping), and take the elevator down to the lobby. Siyi and I say our meeting time is 9:05 but we have a mutual understanding that one of us will be a few minutes late each day. It’s ok though because there’s usually a shuttle waiting for us in front of the parking garage next to the apartment. As much as I love using MoGo, I’m just too lazy to bike to work.

9:15am By now the shuttle has left the Anthony Wayne apartments and we ride off to Downtown. I like to take this time to listen to music and think about what I need to do for the day.

9:25am The shuttle drops us off at the corner of Michigan and Griswold. We thank the driver and walk over to One Campus Martius, our beautiful work building. Every time I walk in I always raise my head to admire the colorful glass sculpture and waterfall in the lobby; it never gets old. After tapping our badges at the turnstile, we take the elevator up to the third floor and walk over to Suite 380, home of the Downtown Detroit Partnership and of course, MoGo. 

9:30am Right as we enter the office we exchange a “Good morning!” with Patricia, the friendly receptionist at the front desk. I put my lunch in the fridge and fill up my water bottle, then head to my desk. After I put down my things, I usually chat with Rory- Director of Programming and Operations at MoGo, one of our supervisors, and our good friend- about what I did the previous day. 

9:35am I first check my email and calendar to remind myself of upcoming events and meetings. Then I proceed to continue working on our projects. In the beginning it was mainly developing our Daily Pass user and Member surveys. Then it was creating featured rides for MoGo’s planned expansion area and finding candidates for rider profiles. Now it is primarily analyzing the survey data and drafting out the impact report.

12:30pm Siyi and I heat up our lunches at the microwave. Occasionally while I am waiting I strike up a conversation with a fellow MoGo team member or one of the many friendly DDP employees.

1:10pm By now we are usually finished with lunch and go outside for an adventure. Siyi and I have enjoyed exploring different parts of Downtown during our lunch break. We both agree that it’s awesome working in such a vibrant part of the city. Whether it’s strolling around Campus Martius, biking along the Riverwalk, or chilling at Hart Plaza, there’s always something fun to do. Over these past few weeks, I feel that I’ve gotten to know Downtown really well. I remember when we first walked around the area during the scavenger hunt in the very beginning of the program, Downtown seemed so large and unfamiliar; now it truly feels like a second home. While we explore, Siyi and I talk about random things like what to do this weekend, how slow the Q-Line is, or our lives at Duke and back home. Siyi always has cool perspectives and stories to tell; I learn a lot from her and really enjoy our conversations.

2:00pm We’re back at the office and resume our work. Still hungry, I usually munch on some fruit and nuts to last me until dinner.

5:00pm We pack up our things, say goodbye to Rory, Lisa, and Adriel, and walk back over to the shuttle. 

5:10pm On the shuttle ride back, I usually strike up a conversation with some other interns who are living at Anthony Wayne. The shuttle has been the source of some great friendships this summer.

5:25pm I arrive back at the apartment to the smell of John cooking his dinner and see Arjun and/or Saagar chilling on the couch. I wash my lunch container and prepare to go to the gym.

5:45pm I make my daily trek to the gym while passing by the old apartment building across the street that’s in the process of being torn down. Every few days or so I notice that another chunk of the building has been reduced to rubble. 

5:50pm At the gym I continue embarking on my never-ending quest to get more fit. I alternate between strength training and cardio each day. On days I lift, my friend Jacob that I met on the shuttle sometimes joins me. We motivate each other and feel good about ourselves after our workout. On days I do cardio, I bang out to some fire Kpop songs while on the treadmill or stair machine. I’m glad that I was able to exercise consistently on this trip.

7:00pm I cook a massive amount of food, which serves as both the current day’s dinner and the next day’s lunch. My cooking skills, though by no means great, have definitely improved over the course of the trip; I guess that’s what happens when you’re put in an environment where you have to cook for yourself almost every day. Some of my meals I’ve been especially proud of include pork loin with apples, garlic chicken, and teriyaki salmon. I always just make sure there’s plenty of protein so I can get huge. Eating a ton after working out is always super satisfying.

8:00pm I usually finish cooking by now. I plate half the food and put the other half into a container for lunch the next day. Before I eat I take a picture of what I cooked and send it to my family. 

9:00-9:20pm Depending on the day I either watch YouTube/read in my room or play Catan with a group of my fellow DukeEngagers in the sixth floor lounge. Catan is always a good time; Andrew and Becca are super competitive, Saagar is always focused, Andy is usually gaming on his phone or studying Latin while playing, and Arjun keeps on negotiating ridiculous trade deals.

11:00pm Catan is usually done by now, and I go back to the quad, send my streaks, and wash up. Arjun, Saagar, Bryn, Hannah, and Becca are watching Love Island while I’m getting ready. They‘re all pretty passionate about the show and get super invested while watching it.

11:30pm I wind down the day with some quality YouTube entertainment and an occasional video call with some Duke friends.

12:00am I go back to the kitchen to turn off the AC because it bothers me when I sleep and see Arjun making “dinner.”  I take a look and it’s his classic meal- seasoned chicken or ground beef, Uncle Ben’s brown rice, and some corn or peas. I don’t think he’s cooked anything else this entire trip, but it looks good every single time.

12:15am I turn on my phone alarm, make sure my alarm clock is set, and drift off to sleep.

7:45am My two alarms go off. Here we go again!


​

​Where did you grow up?      
 
I grew up in Farmington Hills, Michigan. We spent most of our time in the suburbs. I didn't come to Detroit that much; it wasn’t until I worked for Mosaic Youth Theatre and planned their performances and got to know a couple hundred young people and their parents, that I started to fall in love with Detroit. I learned more about the city and the people here and felt this deep connection because even though I wasn’t raised in the city, my dad was from the Bronx and the city where my mom grew up also shared so many commonalities with Detroit. I felt that kind of connection to Detroit as soon as I had the opportunity to be involved.
  
 How did you get to where you are today?
 
Things just really evolved for me. When I was at Mosaic, I really loved it there, but I knew that I was looking for my next opportunity. I've always been focused on achievement and an increasing level of responsibility – those things have always driven me. While working at Mosaic I was also really interested in starting a business and applied to an entrepreneurship program and got in. In undergrad, I studied a lot about sustainability in terms of agriculture and trade practices. I took a phenomenal class called Mexican labor in North America, it studied trade relationships and their impact on real people. We went to border towns on both the American and Mexican side and saw what our trade agreements meant for people living in border cities. I was really inspired by the idea of starting a business that was counter to common practices in trade, so I was really interested in the idea of supporting fair trade and … creat[ing] a business that helped people have more agency and ownership in determining what their livelihood would be. I realized that so much of our life experiences are related to economic opportunity, which is something I always felt since I was a child because I grew up in Farmington Hills and had great opportunities.
I learned about entrepreneurship and launched a business that supported other small businesses – we were an online retailer for fair trade and eco-friendly products. I wanted to empower people to have agency over their financial opportunities. We worked with Independent Producers, co-ops all over the country and internationally and sourced products that had a better impact on the environment and also were based in like fair-trade Practices. I launched that business and closed that business after a couple of years but was still really intrigued by the idea of entrepreneurship as a tool for economic development and economic opportunity within communities. From there I went to a fellowship as part of my master’s program that worked with the Cleveland Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio and worked on economic opportunity and economic development initiatives there. worked with a network of worker-owned co-ops that was started by the Cleveland Foundation called Evergreen Cooperatives.
My work was all beginning to align with this idea I’ve had since I was very young which is that economic opportunity is vital for economic development and community development. I moved around a little bit and my family was coming back to Detroit and I heard about the opportunity at ProsperUS Detroit and I knew that this position offered the level of responsibility I was looking for and that the work itself focusing on community and neighborhoods was very aligned with my value system and passions.
 
 
What does social entrepreneurship mean to you?
 
Entrepreneurship is creating something new that adds value, and through that creation of value creates sustainability for the business itself. The social part comes in when that value extends beyond the business itself and into the community. That can happen in so many different ways, your organization doesn’t have to have a certain formation – you don’t have to be a 501c3 or an LLC. There are lots of ways to think about the social aspect of entrepreneurship, but the underlying factor is that there’s a demonstrated creation of value for stakeholders that includes but also extends beyond the business owners and employees. That positive outcome should be relevant to the greater community.
 
How have you seen social entrepreneurship change Detroit?
 
I think social entrepreneurship has always existed and has always been a part of the business. Unfortunately, though businesses have often had a net negative impact, and now we are more mindful that businesses should have a positive impact.  This more intentional focus on entrepreneurship has existed before the term [social entrepreneurship] – there have been amazing community leaders in Detroit who have created systems, institutions, and businesses that are mindful of the greater community. That is so much of what Detroit is and always has been. The resiliency of Detroit is very connected to what we call social entrepreneurship now.
 
What has been your greatest accomplishment and greatest challenge at ProsperUS?
 
My greatest accomplishment at ProsperUS is directly related to my greatest challenge. The challenges we have to overcome are also often the most fulfilling opportunities we have because we know how hard it is to be triumphant. The greatest challenge with ProsperUS is that we are in a really critical point of inflection in our work. We have a very real opportunity to sustain this work by becoming certified as a Community Development Financial Institution and by becoming a small business administration lender, but in order to do that, we have to strengthen almost everything about our initiative. We have to strengthen everything from our pipeline of training participants into lending and technical assistance programs to the operations of our lending program itself to our management of data and financial information. All of these things tie into our viability for the future around these particular opportunities. We've had an incredible start, much to the credit of my predecessor, but it's also time for us to grow beyond the initial structure of prosperUS and with that growth, there's growing pains of course. My job and challenge has been to understand the landscape, both internally and externally, and then to strategize within a complex system, a way forward so that we can grow. I think my accomplishment is still emerging. Even though I’ve raised new funds for the program and supported the team in delivering an excellent set of programs for entrepreneurs in the neighborhoods, I still see my greatest accomplishment as in progress.
 
 What advice would you give a college student?
 
The life advice I’d give to college students is to not be afraid to follow your gut instinct and own personal value system as it relates to the choices you make about your life and career. Don't be afraid to explore, it will all be okay. Don’t feel pressured to do what everybody's doing. As for your career, I would encourage people to look beyond some of the default areas or sectors people might consider after college. Look at the intersection of things you are interested in and try to explore career pathways that meet those requirements, so for me, I’ve always been interested in the mission of nonprofits but also interested in and inclined towards business, economics, and finance. Even though my dad pressured me to go to business school and work for a corporation as he did, I think I’ve done a pretty good job at finding the right place for me at the intersection of the things I care about.

Jayesh Patel is founder of Street Democracy. Founded in 2011, Street Democracy is a team of attorneys and legal researchers working at the intersection of poverty and the law to reform the policies and systems that create and perpetuate poverty. Since then, over 400 Detroiters have benefited from their representation and been removed from poverty.


Disclaimer: This is a summary of his answers and not word for word.


How did they get where they are?


I first started out in law school, and then during law school class based on community based lawyering. After law school, I returned to work with the neighborhood that I had previously worked with in that class. I was providing some combination of jobs and legal relief for returning citizens from jail. A few years on and I moved to Detroit, down to a combination of personal and professional reasons. Along with this, it was clear that Detroit was undergoing a brain drain with most people living for the east or west coast, especially when it came to the social justice field. I wanted to be a part of the group that returns to Detroit and helps the city


What is a hurdle they have overcome?

​Personally, one hurdle I have to overcome is self-confidence. A lot of times I question myself and find myself thinking “who the f*** am I to solve the problem.” I used to believe that a lot of people in this space have better knowledge and expertise and that I was not on their level. However, when I began to do the work that we are doing in Detroit, I realized that in actual fact there are not that many people doing this work on the ground level, ay-to-day, working with people who really need representation. In truth, not many people care about it. So I have learnt to not doubt myself as much and have confidence that I can make an impact in this field. One personal struggle that I have had is ADD. It has been a lifelong struggle and led to an imposter syndrome feeling on occasions.


How do they describe social entrepreneurship?


Caring about something and then acting on it. A lot of people care about an issue, but the majority do nothing about it. If you are in a non-profit, then you are constantly comparing yourself to other non-profits rather than seeing the benefits you provide to people. We should focus more on the net results on community and the impact we have made rather than constantly compare ourselves. Furthermore, I think that social entrepreneurship can happen anywhere and have an impact on any community. I always try and improve our workplace environment by having Friday beer and popcorn afternoons where everyone can speak. That in itself is a form of social entrepreneurship where both introverts and extroverts are allowed to speak.

 
Tom Brennan is a co-founder of the Green Garage, where the Detroit Food Academy office is located,  and a leader in Detroit's green building scene.
 

How did you begin the journey to create the Green Garage? What was the foundation?
 My background is Civil and Environmental Engineering, and then I went on in, got an MBA, and then went on to pursue career as a managing partner with aAccenture consulting. That gave me kind of the fundamentals in the sciences, and then fundamentals and business. And then I got involved with a startup environmental nonprofit, the Monroe, Michigan, and a spent a week on the board and I'm allergic to boards. So I'm not a very good board member, because I actually like to just do things versus just talk about them.
 
During this, I learned quite a bit about the environment and sustainability. I became very interested in the problem and I like large, complex problems. So sustainability became something I got very interested.  Then I retired early age and then we formed a group in Troy, Michigan of 40 families that began working on sustainability. And every Tuesday for two hours at our kitchen table, we held a group meeting that was attended by 8 to 15  people. And we started to study sustainability in a really deep way. We spent nine months on just water.  We were not only studying but also changing our own lives. So, we sold the car, reduced our water usage  and energy usage by around 70%, and began composting to reduce our waste. We got into all this, and instead of it being a harder life, for some, it was just more enjoyable. That's when I started riding buses and riding my bike and realized this was a better way to live.
 
So then you hear in the media that there is, there are people who are saying that the environment and the economy can are in conflict with one another. And I'm one of the people that totally disagree with that. I believe that they're in harmony with each other, and that we just haven't worked on this problem long enough. So there's ways in which you can work on the environment, reduce your economic costs. And so it's just like, you have to look at ways to reduce your waste that reduces your costs and helps with that, but then we haven't got to the triple bottom line, which is just something that I work on, it's a good framework to walk through. I mean, it doesn't support all the detail that you need to get into. But the triple bottom line where you're profitable, take care of the planet and lift up the community around you. And the primary action on the business, the primary business. I mean, I love this space, I just love it. It's so challenging. There are so many new opportunities that you discover it is just like this magnificent adventure. And all this, the more that this positions us for that future. So I love to be involved with people in that problem. And, and kind of just change the way that we're all we're taught to think this. So are there things where you say, oh, by the way, this is more expensive to do it the environment? Well, then, I mean, that can lead to an entire conversation, let's just say that at the end of the day, it is what it is today. That doesn't mean that we can't work on it. And then it's not tomorrow to me.
 
I love these challenges that are attacking problems that people think are not solvable, and that we can work on them together and come to some good answers. So I just I press on that all the time, like the green garage that we're sitting in right now people would say, when we did this back in 2007. You know, you you know, you can't get anything done with this city of Detroit? Well, you can and we did and it was great. You can't do an environmental rehab on an existing this building at that time. No, we did. You can't do it on a historic building, they won't allow you to do it. We did. So like all these you can't, you can't you can't we just keep pushing through those walls. And so this allows now people you know that on Friday, we have our community lunch, and most people that come in and go okay, this is what living at 10% of the energy waste. And water is what it looks like, this is what it feels like. And so if you experience this, it has changed how people think about stuff. And that's really where we're not trying to be prescriptive, like, Oh, you gotta do it this way. Or we have all these rules about, you know, what you have to do come experience it and then figure out what your you want to do and can do in your own life, giving your understanding your resources and the people that you know, and all that.
 
What is one of the biggest hurdles you’ve had to over come?
 I think the main hurdle that we all overcome is you have to take some of the major frameworks and paradigms that have been given you by society by academics. I mean, you're in the middle of a paradigm at Duke, like, these things have got to change. And so how do we change these?
 
I am not naive. they were healthy at some time. But they may not be the healthiest and the best thing in the future. So how do we challenge them? How do we be humble and open to like, our view will be imperfect. Also, during the main, we're going to have unintended consequences. But like, all these things, I mean, like, you know, I mean, to me, I think the universities are, are getting there there's not a lot of deep sustainability. So how do we get there? And so I think they need to be challenged the adversities, businesses need to be challenged, our governments need to be challenged. So, there was no director of sustainability for the city of Detroit when we started, and there's, there's one now so like, I mean, all this stuff is changing them. Leadership means you just keep moving on in front of them, and seeing what's there and what can be done.
 
What is your definition of social entrepreneurship?
 Mine definition is the triple bottom line. That's, that's the one I use. It is imperfect. If you look at the research behind it is not really strong. But I have found it to be adequate. Perfect, no.
But we do all of our planning off of a triple bottom line.
 
I have to operate out of the for profit area. I am not good at the nonprofit area at all. I don't, it doesn't really work with me very well. I always tell my mother allergic to it. But the reason is the economic them helps be test whether what I'm doing is a value to people,
right? So everybody here in the building pays the lease. So at least have to get over that hurdle that's easier than talking to our foundation and trying to figure out what they want to do and bring them in. Yeah, I'm just not really good at that. I don't have the patience for that.
So for me, it's profit based. And so for profit, I think the fundamental question is, again, I challenge thinking, so now this is on the very far left, you know, profits are bad, I don't agree. I think profits can be bad, and they can be good. So you just have to figure out, it's what you do with your profits. And it's how did you come by your profit? So are you paying a fair wage here in the main room coming up somebody else's, you know?
So, and again, I'm not this, we're not perfect. We're just trying to figure it out. But I don't I don't believe profits are bad. But I think you can do a lot of good with profits.
 
 
Why did you choose to stay in Detroit?
 I was born in Detroit, and  my relationship with Detroit, like anyones, is hugely complex.
And as now, as an older adult, as I in my 60s, and all that I just really, for the first time in my life, I just really have fallen in love with to Detroit.
Not because of interest, not because of development, not because of, I can think it's now headed in the right direction for that. My  classroom was a rolling classroom, which was the the Woodward bus that I would take back and forth for six years. And, you know, Detroit, just, I just find the most, for me the most authentic in strong, eclectic group of people that that I’ve met.
 
I think part of it was when you're born in Detroit, and, and that, so, Detroit, though has so such a magnificent and complex and amazing and painful past and like I, you know, there's nothing, it's all in there, you know, it's just all in there. 
 
As I get older, I am able to understand more of it. More of the pain, more of the promise, more of the architecture, and I am educated by the people that can have them long time here. I have lived all my life in and around Detroit. I love how people here engage with reality. It's very educational. It's very healthy. I'm not trying to solve all the problems, but I am very interested in how people here deal with them. 

The article I choose is “Autos vs. bikes: Watch for shrinking roads in metro Detroit” from the Detroit Free Press. In the article, it discusses the controversies surrounding road diets, which replace some traffic lanes with bike lanes. According to the article, there is a long-simmering tension between motorists and bicyclists over sharing the road. The supporter claims that bike lanes improve safety, business, and quality of life while the opponents call it “war on cars”. The opponents think those bike lanes are a  waste of road since it was rarely be used. Some even claim that the sidewalk is enough for bicyclists. However, the article claims that there is strong evidence that adding bicycle lanes improve business. The article then discusses the bike lanes project conducted by the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) including the project of the Jefferson Avenue and Cass Avenues.

I have been working with bike-share in Detroit over this summer so I am pretty interest in the article related to bicycle lanes. I strongly support the construction of bicycle lanes and  I don’t feel motorist provide compelling reasons against building bicycle lanes. The benefits of biking are tremendous. I can argue it from four aspects: economic, social, environment and health(the four aspects that I put on the MoGo impact report). Even though Detroit is known as Motor City, there is still a great portion of people do not own a motor vehicle so they have to rely on public transportation and bicycle to travel around the city. Building bicycle lanes help increase their mobility and improve cyclists’ confidence when biking in the streets. Also, replacing short-distance driving with biking can not only reduce the burn of fuel but can also encourage economic activity. However, motorists might be right about that some of the bike lanes are rarely been used. But with MoGo, slow roll, and other party’s effort, I believe the use of bicycle lanes will largely improve when people are able to access the bicycle easily.

Working at MoGo makes me personally connected with biking. Biking around Detroit makes me personally connected with the Detroit city. Thanks to the bicycle lanes in Cass Avenues, Kevin and I are able to feel more comfortable biking to work. Last week, I am able to attend a meeting held by SEMCOG. In the meeting, SEMCOG representatives discussed their survey and future vision of the bicycle lanes project. I was very excited to witness the process of policy-making. Bicyclists and cycling-related parties were all invited to the meeting and discussed their opinion about bike lanes.  From SEMCOG’s survey, it reported that there is a need for bicycle lanes because there are a decent amount of people hope to use the bicycle to access certain area in their county. Not until I read this article that I realized there are other voices from motorists. It is interesting to read this article that makes me realize how important to work on advocating biking.

​The news article I read this week is titled “Tech start-ups coming to Detroit to accelerate their growth.” Published just two days ago, this article highlights some of the entrepreneurs that are bringing their businesses to Detroit, as they see the city as an ideal location for growth. These companies are coming from all over the world, including California, Israel, and Spain. Teporto, a start-up from Israel, is a shuttle service that allows commuters to influence the shuttle’s routing. The founder of Teporto, Sergio Lupu, “sees Michigan and Detroit as a growing ecosystem that is specifically smart mobility and the automotive industry.” If you had asked people just five or six years ago whether they saw Detroit as a “growing ecosystem,” most would likely laugh off the question and deny any possibility of growth for Detroit. This goes to shows how quickly Detroit has been able to push itself back from its economic downturn.
 
These businesses are coming here as part of Techstars Detroit’s “13-week program that will hone their business plans and connect them with industry leaders from Ford Motor Co.'s incubator Ford X, Honda Innovations, Lear Innovation Ventures and others.” Techstars Detroit is a Colorado-based company which came to Detroit in 2015 and has introduced dozens of tech start-ups to Detroit. One such company is Le Car, started by Detroit native Tamara Warren. Le Car is an app that uses artificial intelligence to ease car shopping through personalized recommendations.
 
Reading this article made me feel so appreciative to be in Detroit during such an important time during the city’s revitalization. It truly amazes me how quickly Detroit has been able to turn itself around after the economic downturn, and it seems like it may bounce back to become even greater than it was before the downturn. Companies are excited to come to Detroit and see it as a great place to grow their businesses.
 
Having spent the last six weeks in Detroit, I can definitely see why the city is able to draw attention from start-up tech companies. While Detroit isn’t exactly Silicon Valley quite yet, there are so many opportunities to meet the community’s needs here, and people seem to be open to innovative solutions that will continue to push the Motor City toward success. Additionally, a great number of investments are being made by people like Dan Gilbert, the founder of Quicken Loans, to support local businesses. Therefore, I have faith that Detroit will continue to grow; I feel a sense of pride in being able to participate in its revitalization.

Link: 
​https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2019/07/12/techstars-detroit-startups-detroit-tech-hub/1709294001/

         Jenifer Daniels is a brand strategist investing in Detroit’s people, places, and purpose. A former tech founder, Jenifer leads the Wayne State Innovation Studio helping students create and launch new business ventures. Jenifer has delivered talks on branding, strategy, and startups at TEDxCharlotte, CUNY, IABC World Conference, Charlotte Startup Weekend, and Netroots Nation. Her words and photos have been featured in The New York Times, Mashable, HuffPostLive, BBC News, Essence, SiriusXM, and BELT Magazine. Jenifer founded Colorstock, the first diverse stock photo marketplace, and is a former university lecturer, a New Leaders Council Fellow, and a US Green Building Council market advisory board member.
 
Q:  Where did you grow up?
​         Here. Detroit, MI. Born, raised, and educated.
 
Q:  How has Detroit changed since the moment you got here until now?
         In my childhood, there were more people living in the city, so more neighborhoods were activated with their own special flavor. Now with the decline of people who live there, an opportunity to reactivate the flavors of the neighborhoods based on the shrinking population is created. When I was younger, the farm was where you went when you wanted to go apple picking, but today you go into the city. I remember when people talked about urban farming, the mayor said, “that’s crazy.” Now we have beekeepers in the city, we have farmers in the city, and we are reclaiming the land to turn it into more public space—something that was not present when I was a kid.
 
Q:  How do you picture Detroit in 10 years?
         This is why I came back. I left the city in 2008 because of the recession and lived in Charlotte, NC for 10 years. But I specifically came back because I wanted to be a part of the resurgence. The people here have always had the spirit of change, but they didn’t necessarily have the means to make it happen. In 10 years, I see people owning their power and being in more control of what happens next. When I was younger, I vividly remember industry and business being in charge of what happens in Detroit, not the people. In the near future, the people will be in charge. I envision the next mayor to be a block club president or a homeowner’s association president—an activist. 
 
Q:  What is your favorite thing to do in Detroit?
         Eastern market. I love to people watch; I love the art; I love the food. I think it's, to me, it's the best representation of what the city has to offer. It’s really quiet there. People from all walks of life come together. The fact that you can have all of this—Greek food, African food, Caribbean food—in one area is incredible. I am a photographer in my down time, and I have put together a lot of photojournalism opportunities at the market that have been published.
 
Q:  How did you get to where you are today?
         Let me give you the short version of the long story. Growing up here in Detroit, I have had an opportunity to interact with people from all walks of life. One year, when I was 14 or 15, my mom introduced me to COTS (Coalition On Temporary Shelter), a homeless shelter in Detroit because we were dropping off my mom’s maternity clothes and baby clothes—a real need for women escaping domestic violence situations. So anyways, we go drop the clothes off. When we walk in, my mother calls out, “Tony.” And it’s my cousin, and my cousin’s there with her baby. We hadn’t seen her in years, and we certainly didn’t know she had a baby. Seeing here there literally changed my entire life. I knew right then in there that whatever I did professionally, I had to do it in Detroit and in a capacity that has the power to change someone’s life. It was an incredibly profound moment for me as a teenager. In high school, when I was in school clubs, I did the social entrepreneurship clubs or civic participation, anything that was community based. This continued when I was in college; I was always giving back, doing community work. I came back to Detroit and went to Wayne State for grad school. I always worked for nonprofits or educational opportunities. This moment showed me that anybody, at any time, at anyplace could fall into hard times. If I could take my professional skills to prevent that, that was what I was meant to do. I want to help people create a new legacy for themselves. That’s how I got here today.
         This extremely shocking moment meant so much to me. I think about that day and think about what if we did not see her. My mom said, “give it to her right now,” referring to the clothing and resources we were donating. I currently have four bags of clothes right now by my desk that I am going to donate after work. That's what we do now. I tell my children to round up their old clothes, we pack it nicely in a bag, and go donate. You do it because you can. When you see someone in the area wearing your clothes you know you made a difference.
 
Q:  What is a hurdle you have overcome?
         Self-doubt is probably the biggest hurdle that I have overcome. Because I was born and raised in Detroit, people put a mark on you. Because I am a woman, and a black woman at that, there were a lot of challenges. I was constantly questioning myself: “Can I do this?”
 
Q:  How would you describe social entrepreneurship and how do you believe TechTown is fostering it?
         I describe social entrepreneurship as business for good. Interestingly enough because Detroit is in this special place in time and in history, and of course you do not know history until it is over, business that is now done in this city automatically has to have a social entrepreneurship aspect to it. You cannot introduce a business to this town that does not have this. If you introduce a business to the town that doesn’t, you won’t be in business for long. Take the scooters for example, at first thought they just seemed like some new technology that Silicon Valley would implement not knowing if it is what people need; it did not make too much sense for these to be in Detroit. But the kids are hacking their futures and taking these scooters into their neighborhoods that need it. They are more financially feasible to use in areas that the bus does not ride into. That’s a way that social innovation will keep happening in the city. If it’s not for good, we will make it for good or we will force you out of business for good.
 
Q: What would you want to share with people who do not know much about Detroit?
         That we are actually very nice. There is this connotation that people have that Southern people are nice, and that’s not not true, but people have the impression that Northerners are not nice. The majority of the black population of Detroit came here from the South during the Great Migration. We never stopped being nice, and are we pointed—hell yeah, but we’re nice. We are actually nice, we definitely have a bs detector, but we rally, we will give people the shirts off our backs. When people are having hard times, we will come together and make sure they can get through it.