Late last year, I was unexpectedly introduced to Alex Smith, Director of Development at buildOn’s Detroit office. Alex was visiting our office at Hamilton Anderson Associates in downtown Detroit, and I was asked to give her a tour of the space.

During this tour, Alex explained the mission of buildOn to me. I instantly was drawn to the organization not only because of the work they are doing in the city of Detroit, across the country, and internationally, but also because the service is entirely student-driven.

When we began discussing our impact projects for Challenge Detroit, buildOn was the first and only organization that came to my mind. Luckily, Alex was enthusiastic about partnering with me for this project, and she was looking forward to having some additional help. We were even able to meet a few times prior to the project kick-off to discuss ideas we had and develop a rough plan of action.

My project focused on raising awareness of buildOn in and around Detroit using non-traditional marketing methods. The goal of this awareness was ultimately to get more funding for students in Detroit. The result of this project turned out better than I expected it would, and it’s such a relieving and humbling feeling to have seen it all come together.

Over the course of the last several months being in touch with Alex and doing work for this project, I learned so much about buildOn. My first experience with the organization was earlier this year when Alex invited me to Osborn High School, where students were participating in the 36 hours program with employees from Rodan+Fields.

I only saw about two hours of the program, but I met and listened to the stories of several students during this time and when I left, I felt incredibly inspired. These students had a deep understanding of how the service they were doing in their neighborhoods was impacting their communities. They were speaking about issues that weren’t even on my radar when I was in high school, and this made me very aware of my privilege. I knew that if more people were able to see and hear the stories the students shared with us that morning, they would feel equally as moved as I did. If you’d like to read some of the students’ stories, visit buildOn’s blog.

I’m reflecting on this moment because it really was the time for me during this project that I knew I had picked the right organization. I just wanted to help however I could, not for the sake of my own project, but for those students. Whenever I felt burnt out, I reminded myself of that morning and how, if I did a good enough job with this project, I could ultimately play a role in helping those students I heard from, as well as all the others that weren’t there, continue to do amazing things. This type of motivation is something I believe each of us needs in the work we do, and I’m very grateful that the project I picked to end my fellowship sparked this feeling in me.