{"id":16425,"date":"2016-08-08T13:46:04","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T13:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?post_type=blogpost&p=16425"},"modified":"2016-08-08T13:46:04","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T13:46:04","slug":"alumni-spotlight-sarms-jabra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/alumni-spotlight-sarms-jabra\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumni Spotlight: Sarms Jabra"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been one year since you finished your year as a Challenge Detroit fellow, tell us what\u00a0you\u2019ve been up to for the last year.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot of nesting actually. I\u2019ve fallen in love with my cross streets and I\u2019m finally in a place where\u00a0I can settle in my house. To that end I bought a giant house plant and a hammock, haha. I\u2019ve\u00a0started pursuing passion projects I put on hold during grad school like building and screen\u00a0printing. I\u2019ve been learning more about Detroit as well. Last year was my introduction year and\u00a0thanks to Challenge it was a fantastic, immersive, and multidimensional one. Now I\u2019m able to\u00a0dig deeper into the city and begin to unpack its complicated, yet wonderful character.<\/p>\n

You are now working for the City of Detroit, tell us more about your work and what drew\u00a0you to your current work.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am a data analyst and project manager for the General Services Department, and it\u2019s a bit of a\u00a0hybrid between two roles: on the data side, I sort through large amounts of data to assess how\u00a0well the City is meeting its metrics, and on the management side, I help keep projects on time\u00a0and on budget.<\/p>\n

Talking to friends outside of the city, it is clear negative opinions about Detroit still linger, but a\u00a0lot of that is not true. For example, 94% of the city 300+ parks are cut on time. People don\u2019t\u00a0realize how much city services have improved in part because we haven\u2019t kept accurate data on\u00a0our work, so I\u2019m proud to part of that change.Oh and I met the mayor on my first day at work,\u00a0that was fun. Haha.<\/p>\n

How have you continued to give in Detroit following your fellowship?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Sarms1\"Well I\u2019m a licensed attorney in Michigan now (yay) so I\u2019ve been supporting projects I believe in\u00a0like the Detroit Museum of Healing<\/a>. Being able to provide this type of specialized support to\u00a0wonderful organizations and people has made all those hours of studying worth it. Beyond that I\u00a0have continued my long standing volunteering at Back Alley Bikes<\/a>, the nonprofit that manages\u00a0The Hub<\/a>, the best bike shop in city.<\/p>\n

Now that it is \u00a0summer time what are a few of your favorite ways to play in Detroit?<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s easy: riding bikes through streets of wild pheasants, swimming at Belle Isle, drinking\u00a0homemade herbal tea on my beautiful front porch, and dancing. Lots of dancing.<\/p>\n

What excites you most about Detroit\u2019s future?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I said this in my Challenge application and it still holds true: we have the ability to redefine what\u00a0it means to be a great American city. Detroit\u2019s development and attention is exciting and\u00a0inspiring. Having spent two years living, working, playing, leading, and giving in the City I\u2019m\u00a0excited to develop a more nuanced understanding of it. For example, while I support continued\u00a0development and services for Detroit\u2019s citizens, I now can see the issues with places the Carr\u00a0Center, a world class African American arts institution, being forced to leave an area it helped\u00a0stabilize as that area is being developed into an African American arts district.<\/p>\n

Finally a call to action on something I\u2019m passionate about: anyone who cares about Detroit,\u00a0needs to care about our public schools. Regardless if you raise or will raise children in the city,\u00a0all this development will be for naught if we can\u2019t grow our population and strong public schools\u00a0are a fantastic way to do that. That\u2019s why it upset me to read about the poor deal our State\u00a0legislature passed after a decent deal was voted down in the State House despite being endorsed\u00a0by our Governor and our Mayor and passing the State Senate. All this is not to dissuade people\u00a0though, what Detroit needs most is passionate people willing to stay and do the work to make a\u00a0difference, which is why a program like Challenge Detroit makes a great impact in the city.<\/p>\n

\"Untitled\"<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sarms Jabra is a lawyer, printmaker, and bike builder who sips scolding hot tea on Detroit\u2019s\u00a0East Side. Part Baghdad, part Detroit, he is eternally grateful for the letter C for cardamom and\u00a0Carl Sagan. Inquiries: sarms.j@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been one year since you finished your year as a Challenge Detroit fellow, tell us what\u00a0you\u2019ve been up to for the last year.\u00a0 A lot of nesting actually. I\u2019ve fallen in love with my cross streets and I\u2019m finally in a place where\u00a0I can settle in my house. To that end I bought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,17,12,18,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-givedetroit","category-leaddetroit","category-livedetroit","category-playdetroit","category-workdetroit","category-alumni-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}