To conclude the fellowship, I partnered with a co-worker at my host-company for my personal impact project. I’ve been impressed with Carolyn’s passion for her side-hustle since I first learned about it in September. Carolyn is a Detroiter committed to helping Detroiters. She is in the early stages of starting a nonprofit organization – Carol Blossoms. The organization will promote etiquette, self-love, and confidence to empower Detroit’s young women with engaging programming. She has a great vision for the organization, who’s mission advances her personal goals of helping young women succeed.

Her passion resonates with me well; having witnessed the negative effects of feeling powerless among friends and others, I also want to help young women succeed. As a mentor to a young lady in the Northville Youth Assistance Program, I see the value of having a confidante and mentor to provide support, exposure, and examples of good behavior.

The project we collaboratively designed was centered around the following design question: How might we create etiquette training that engages young ladies and promotes self-love and confidence?

Defining etiquette for training purposes proved to be challenging since etiquette, or manners, accepted behavior, or rules of conduct differ among groups, cultures, and settings. Through benchmarking similar local initiatives and interviewing stakeholders, we concluded that essential etiquette training for young women in Detroit would provide the skills to distinguish settings, the knowledge of behaviors appropriate for each, and the confidence to succeed. We also found it important to include related themes in the curriculum: self-esteem, positive body image, communication skills, and willingness to stand up for others.

As project deliverables, I provided insight and recommendations through research and benchmarking to advance the establishment of the nonprofit organization, connected Carolyn and Carol Blossoms to the entrepreneurial and nonprofit network and support system in Detroit, and provided her with additional tools and resources to create, develop, and/or implement an etiquette training curriculum. I enjoyed interviewing 10 stakeholders from related local initiatives

This will be a challenging endeavor, but if Carolyn continues on her current trajectory, the organization could change lives forever. I intend to keep in touch with Carolyn, continue working with her and her nonprofit, and help her make a significant impact in Detroit.

“My purpose is to bring out the beauty in each young woman and give them the tools to succeed no matter who they are, no matter where they are in life.” – Carolyn Dixon.