GROWing in Detroit: University of Michigan’s Aileen Xu
by Bianca Nguyen on August 24, 2011
Reflecting on GROW This week, we are publishing excerpts from GROW reflections, which grant insight on the impact of GROW internships on GlobeMed students across the nation. The second featured GlobeMed GROW intern in our "GROWing" blog series is Aileen Xu, a rising senior at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. GlobeMed at UMich is an incredibly unique chapter in the GlobeMed network, as they have both an international and a local partner: Tiyatien Health, a non-profit health organization in Zwedru, Liberia, and the Joy Southfield Health and Education Center, which is a community-based organization in Detroit, Michigan. This was the first year any GlobeMed chapter has organized a GROW internship in the U.S. While other GlobeMed at UMich members were interning in Liberia with Tiyatien Health, Aileen Xu spent her summer interning in Detroit with Joy Southfield. Detroit is often called a “food desert” due to the few sources of fresh, healthy food, and the Joy-Southfield community is especially in need of these services – there are more McDonald’s than there are grocery stores, and the population is disproportionately underserved and uninsured. //AILEEN XU, GROW INTERN '11 GLOBEMED AT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN - ANN ARBOR Aileen shares her experiences in orgainzing a team of middle school students to work on a community garden project in Detroit, Michigan. Reflect on the most meaningful experiences or stories from your time with your partner organization. What personal impact did it have on you? I was personally the most invested in the community garden, since that was my project. Most of the plants and seeds we had were given to us by an organization called Greening of Detroit. Through them, I was able to speak to other urban gardeners and even tour some really beautiful gardens and farms. Some of these farms are literally, in middle of the city. Detroit's landscape is very interesting because even during its economic prime, the buildings were quite sprawled out. As buildings became abandoned and people left, the city became even sparser and large empty lots of land were left behind. So, people started utilizing the land in an unexpected way and started farming. Some people did it to make Detroit look nicer, some people did it to support themselves financially, and some people were fed up with the lack of produce in their neighborhoods. Others said it was their way of rebuilding the city while politicians were squabbling over policies and reforms that would take too long to trickle down anyway. In regards to the garden we worked on, I was probably the most touched when the students started referring to it as their garden. We were really concerned that the neighbors would feel like we, GlobeMed, were stomping onto their street and building a garden for ourselves. Instead we were just hoping to just be there to facilitate and provide the tools necessary for the students to build their own garden. As the summer went on, and more neighbors walked by, some children from the area that weren't in our partner school even started coming to the garden consistently to help with the weeding and watering. The day students started saying phrases like "our garden" and "the tomatoes we grew" was a really important day for me personally. They said it very casually so I'm sure they were all very confused when I started to look weepy and pretended to weed, but making sure the students knew they could take ownership of the gardening project was so crucial. What were the main activities that you did with your partner organization? How did this benefit the work of the organization and the people it serves? What unique skills did you bring to your chapter organization? The project that I was assigned is taking care of the community garden. We partnered with the Advanced Technology Academy and had students grade 6-8 help make a burgeoning garden in an empty lot a block from Joy-Southfield. There were several reasons why Joy-Southfield supported the gardens. It was first and foremost an additional avenue for fresh produce to be introduced into the neighborhood. The lack of access to quality, fresh produce in the area is a contributing factor to the health disparities Joy-Southfield is working to eliminate. All produce grown is sold at the Sowing Seeds Growing Futures farmers' market. We wanted the students to be involved in order to familiarize them with fresh, unprocessed foods and to encourage them to try new vegetables that they could grow themselves. Most importantly we tried to have the students feel like the garden was their own. We hoped that the garden would be a way for students to feel a sense of ownership and pride in their community and in their own hard work. Additionally, I was able to help with the projects that other interns were responsible for: the farmers' market and the HEAL workshops. In both cases we have really pushed for more community involvement. The farmers' market gave us a chance to utilize several different skill sets. For example, I designed fliers and brochures to promote the market and other volunteers who were art students helped design a mural for the small barn that's located at the market. The HEAL workshops were especially exciting this summer because there was a push for mutual teaching and discussion between the participants. This had been difficult in the past because the grant providers had benchmark "health indicators" they wanted the workshops to follow, which included informative but stiff, nutrition lectures. How has your understanding of global health been strengthened by the trip? Detroit is an excellent example of when governing policies is just a small part of what needs to be done in order to ensure health equity. The same laws, the same policies towards healthcare apply to Detroit as Ann Arbor, and yet the health disparity between the two cities is enormous. And like so many abroad partnerships have shown, the work of Joy-Southfield is very largely focused on tackling the issues of poverty. For more information on GlobeMed at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, visit their blog: www.globemeduofm.wordpress.com 
*WHAT IS GROW? This Summer, over 60 students from 26 different GlobeMed chapters sent their members abroad to work on-site alongside their grassroots partners for 3 - 8 weeks at a time. GROW (Grassroots On-site Work) Internships are a crucial component of the GlobeMed model, with a purpose to strengthen the relationship between the chapter and partner organization through a transformative learning experience that makes a positive impact on the partner's community. After collaborating with their partner organizations on public health projects and planning the year of partnership ahead, students return to their chapters and campuses as improved advocates for their partners' work, equipped with the tools and passion to better leverage university resources for those denied access to clean water, proper nutrition, education and access to quality healthcare.
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