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Week1: SIyi Xu

6/10/2019

1 Comment

 
When I told my family I got in the DukeEngage Detroit Program, the first thing my parents asked is that “Is it safe to work on Detroit? I saw on the news that it is the most dangerous city in the United States of America”. Indeed, when I searched Detroit, the news came up are often associated with “murdered”, “serial killers” and “policy officer”. Before I came to Detroit, I was told so much time to be careful and always stay in the group. Those concerned and description of Detroit had been shaping my impression of Detroit as a dangerous city, “a place of crime and bankruptcy”.

 
This week, the first week I arrived at Detroit and toured around the city as a cohort, I was pleasantly surprised by I discovered. Motor city is such a vibrant city with great building, amazing architecture, friendly local people and distinctive culture. Contrary to the hopeless place media portrayed, Detroit is a large community where everyone here is proud of being a part of the community. From the tour guide from Detroit Experience Factory to the artist created the Heidelberg Project, they are proudly being a part of Detroit and actively contributed to the revitalization of the Motor City. People who live here love their city more than anything. Detroit is also a welcoming city. During our scavenger hunt, many locals offer to help and told us “welcome to Detroit”. Also, I was very impressed by the Heidelberg project, an artistic masterpiece built in the McDougall-Hunt neighborhood on Detroit's east side. Most of the artworks are clocks, endowing the artist’s philosophy of “living in the present”. He asked the question “What time is it?” and give us the answer “the time is now.”

 
On Tuesday, the first day of work, I meet my work supervisors Rory. He introduced MoGo, a non-profit organization that provides bike sharing service in Detroit, and explained our project. MoGo focuses on providing bike sharing service and make it accessible to everyone. It has MoGo for all service and provides adaptive bicycles to meet the special need.
My partner Kevin and I will be working on improving causal users, writing an economic impact report, promote the MoGo transit app, and write the users survey. I am very interested in the economic impact report. In the report, we will summary the influence of the MoGo in the local business. This is the first time I work with social entrepreneurship and I am very excited to be part of Detroit and contributed my part in improving the bike sharing system, making it more accessible and convenient.
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1 Comment
Andrea Franchini
6/15/2019 04:08:12 pm

Siyi~ The pride here is strong, I agree. I get the sence that people are not only proud of the city's resiliency but the collective approach to rebuilding and revitalizing its neighborhoods. Mogo is such a presence here and represents how Detroit is ‘re-thinking’ and innovating new growth. The time is now!

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