26 Oct Community Field day

Hi Everyone,

I would like to reintroduce myself, My name is Indya Hunt and I am the Resource Assistant for the urban connections team for St paul, MN. I want to be as details as possible in all of my post so it will definitely fell as though were at the events.

I started of my weekend with traveling from East Lansing, MI to Detroit, MI because I currently reside in East Lansing for Graduate school at Michigan State University. I stayed with one of my sorority sisters and enjoyed every moment of it. I made sure everyday I washed her dishes and cleaned up behind myself. Nevertheless, my days seemed to be long and early for three days straight in I attended events in Detroit.

Now, I know there is a question of why I am in Detroit instead of St. Paul, MN. I am shadowing Lisa ( my supervisor ) because the St paul Urban Connections individual is retiring and is on sick  leave until retirement. When I found this out I was completely stunned to speak and truly lost for words. Lets get back to the events at hand, I went grocery shopping for my sorority sisters house of course because I planned on being there for the week. I prepared my salad for the next day for lunch of course. The first day Lisa Picked me up in her small honda and presented me with a smile. She always stayed positive about everything since I met her at fourteen years old. We drove to the southwest of Detroit and met with a couple of partners for a event. The partners were American Forest, The Greening of Detroit and the students of course. We took the students outside and divided them into teams of three. Each team went in a circle to participate in each activity. Each partner had their own activity to present to the students. Our activity focused on urban forestry tree bathing which consisted of the students becoming one with nature. The goal was for the students to connect with nature to relieve stress and progress in difficulties in life. After this event we went over to The Greening of Detroit and worked with the Green Corps students who were present with a presentation about insect that took over Michigan which killed a lot of trees. Lastly, I presented my The Greening of Detroit story and discussed the importance of connects. After this event we headed to our last event of the day which consisted of presenting  the USDA Forest Service careers to more students ( Last partner of the day ). I was actually tired at this point and the students did not seem interested in my presents.

The next day, I got the opportunity to meet with another partner whom planned on providing insight on climate change, urban tree development to students at the Metro Youth Day the next day. This particular partners interns were extremely nervous and had a background in animal science and biology. There were two interns who worked for this partner and they both were determined students. I helped improve their events/ games for the students to improve the interest for the students. I was so blessed to virtually meet the interns because lord knows I was exhausted. 

The final day, Metro Youth Day presented itself and can I say it was absolutely amazing and overwhelming. I helped the partners interns set up their games and do trials on how their games will encourage the students to interact. The interns were amazed to see the students interact and become engaged with the entire activities we planned as a unit. I enjoyed the metro Youth day and made several connections with each partner who arrived. It rained on and off the entire day and this event was outside only. Thus, the students seemed to not mind the rain nor complained about the rain as well. As a RA for the Forest Service my job was to spin the will which had questions on it about forest in Michigan. If they volunteered to spin the wheel they got the opportunity to win a prize. Thus, my job was also to help the partner with their activity to the best of my ability.