It’s pretty strange to be writing what is considered my final blog as a Challenge Detroit fellow. I kind of hate it. I also am fairly positive I’m in a state of denial about it.
This fellowship has introduced me to some of the most incredible people I’ve met in my entire life, allowed me to learn endlessly about myself and the city I have always loved, and let me stretch my brain in ways that have helped me feel fulfilled and accomplished. I’ve been in good company and I know I’ll see these people again (at the very least as CEOs or politicians or any number of amazing things they will undoubtedly go on to do).
My final project as a Challenge Detroit fellow felt like the culmination of my growth personally and professionally. I’ve been balancing a new job and Challenge Detroit for some time now and to say it completely candidly: I’ve been fast approaching burnout – emotionally and workwise.
I’ve been barreling through new responsibilities, challenges, and the upheaval of change with people moving on while still wanting to work at my best. Enter the opportunity to pick which nonprofit I wanted to work with and create my own project. It seemed like a poetic finish.
I chose to work with Real Life. My Music., an organization dedicated to enhancing education through creativity and inspiration. They bring arts and culture education into Detroit Public Schools that have had their budgets for such programming slashed. After first engaging with Executive Director Lena Pernell, founder and DPS alum herself, I realized what this organization needed was greater awareness – for donor purposes, but also because it has such a fantastic mission. Real Life. My Music affects real change in the students they serve.
Enter my expertise: public relations. I devised an entire media awareness plan for Lena. It felt empowering to be able to lend skills I had just recently grown into and felt confident about. It truly did feel like a graduation; a milestone of sorts. I was able to provide a skill, all of my own accord, that will hopefully make a positive impact on an organization that does work I feel so strongly about.
I’m proud of myself. Being able to say it wouldn’t have been so easy a short year ago. I owe the people and program of Challenge Detroit a large share of gratitude for it. It’s not easy to say goodbye to something that came along at the exact point I needed it in my life.
But that’s just it – I know I’ll have a new adventure waiting down the bend. In the meantime you can find me in Detroit. It’s home.
Don’t lose touch – follow me on Twitter @ellentrudell to keep up with my alumni escapades. (I may even keep up with this blog if they let me!)