Melissa Gonzalez - Reflection On My Year of Service

​Hello! My name is Melissa Gonzalez and I am currently serving with Urban Neighborhood Initiatives (UNI) in Southwest Detroit. At this point, I have about two months left of my service year. One thing that I can say about this year is that it has definitely been a year of growth for me. I have loved my experience here at UNI and I will definitely miss serving here, but like they say all good things must come to end. As cliché as that may sound, it is true. My work here has given me so many learning opportunities that I couldn’t have received anywhere else. 
 
You might be wondering what have I have been up to since my last blog several months ago. Well, it has been quite busy here at UNI as we have been gearing up for summer, one of our busiest times of the year. I have been helping to prepare for our summer youth employment program. Every summer we are allotted 225 youth employment slots given to us by Connect Detroit. We hire youth within our community to work with us in our programs or through one of our many partners within the community. The summer youth employment program is a chance for youth to gain work experience as well an opportunity for them to gain exposure to different career opportunities and post-secondary options. We do this through our professional networking event, where we invite different professionals from a wide range of fields to do a speed networking event with our youth. Youth receive college exposure through our college field trips and our scavenger hunt.
 
I have also been helping with our 9th grade counts program that will be implementing for the first time this summer. I have been in charge of recruiting mentors for the program who will help the program coordinators facilitate workshops and activities throughout the summer. The 9th grade counts program is a chance for middle school students to get college and career exposure.
 
These last few months will definitely be a busy ones for myself and UNI. As my service year comes to end, I am working on my legacy binder to hand over to the person that will take my responsibilities. Hopefully, they will have an idea of what I have been doing and how to do the activities that I have been working on this year. I have not only had a great learning experience, but I have also enjoyed working with my coworkers. I have grown so much throughout the year and I have to thank this year of service for allowing me to grow both professionally and mentally.