Welcome To Miami

 Hiya there Internet world or should I say 30 some-odd followers. (While I am well aware that the world-wide-web consists of millions, billions, even trillions of people, I am also aware that I am not "The Most Interesting Man Alive" and thus do not warrant the attention of all world-wide-webers. Deflated ego aside,  I am aiming to gain roughly 30 followers (human and alien alike, everyone is welcome). Why 30? Well I can make a rough guesstimate as to who might choose to follow this blog: you, yourself, brave reader; the parents or guardians of my fellow DukEngage Miamiers (maybe even other family members but that would bump my number up a bit); the stellar DukeEngage staff; and a few randos in other countries who find my layout or sophisticated title enticing. So thank you followers, I promise this will be worth your while.)

Sorry for that tangent. Moving on to the actual meat.

To kick off the blog I’d like to take the time to give a background as to what the blog will consist of:

For the next eight weeks seven of my fellow Dukies (a slang term of endearment for Duke students) and I will be partaking in an internship through the DukeEngage Miami program (the blogs title might have given that away, shoot I knew I should have been more clever).* 

For the first four weeks of our stay we will be working with a local organization Unidad (visit the link for more information on them: http://www.unidadmb.org/) assisting them with their New Generation Leadership & Workforce Institute (an academy for Latino high school students).

For the last four weeks we will split off and work with different community partners, so stayed to tuned to learn more about whom we work with, what projects we do, and what our experiences are.

Essentially this blog will be a journal of our time in Miami. It is our way of communicating with the greater public what we have learned from those with whom we are working and our way to document the things we do during the trip.

While I am the blog’s fearless, blog-savvy leader, I would hate to make you suffer through my thoughts and writing for the next eight weeks. So, with a little help from my friends the blog will be comprised of posts from all eight members. 

So without further ado I would like to introduce you to this year’s Academy Award Nominees for Best DukeEngagers (ever):

Amrith Ramkumar c/o 17

Brenda Onyango c/o 16

Hailey Diaz c/o 16

Karina Santellano c/o 15

Meghan Price c/o 16

Michael Courtney c/o 17

Ritika Patil c/o 16

And myself Taylor Doty c/o 16

Above this post (since posts will go in backwards chronological order) are posts from each member of this awesome team. I have asked everyone to write a post on the things they are looking forward to and the things they are apprehensive/nervous about.

And with that I will wrap up this excessively long post.

Thank you to those of you who read all of this. I promise future post will be exponentially more interesting. And feel free to comment on the posts you read (ask questions, send us your two cents or two sense), we'd love to hear from you. 

Until next time,

Taylor Doty

* For those of you who are confused by the “DukeEngage” word, don’t be worried you aren’t alone my Microsoft Word doesn’t get it either. DukeEngage, thanks to the wonderful Melinda Gates, is a program that allows Duke students with the opportunity to partake in service-based internships around the world. Check out the home page for more information: http://dukeengage.duke.edu/about-dukeengage