Evelyn Reyes (she/her)

Mi Casa Es Tu Casa

Evelyn worked on the project Mi Casa Es Tu Casa. Mi Casa Es Tu Casa is an outreach program in central California that helps families with limited resources learn about their post-secondary options through online and in-person resources. Evelyn is now a peer-advisor in the optiMize Leadership Group. 

“Take advantage of all the unique resources Michigan has to offer” I was repeatedly reminded throughout my freshman year in college. As a first-generation student I was unsure of what people meant by this. What unique resources? It wasn’t until I heard about optiMize and became involved in the Social Innovation Challenge that I realized this is it. optiMize is exactly the kind of unique opportunity they were talking about. I would have never imagined getting funded for something that was simply an idea at the time. I was continuously overwhelmed by all the support and feedback our team of 2 would receive at mentor check-in’s and monthly meetings. There were moments when I almost decided to drop midway throughout challenge, but I was reminded that I was important and the work that our team was doing was going to make a real-life impact.

The summer fellowship with optiMize allowed me to take an idea on paper and execute it. 

As a low-income student, working on a passion fueled project seemed unreasonable until I learned about the PAID summer fellowship which allowed me to be fully invested into the project this summer without having to worry about my financial situation. 

I would encourage everyone and anyone to participate in optiMize because it truly is a life changing experience. It taught me how to advocate for myself and be independent, but also how to work with and manage a team. I realized that it’s okay to not know how to do everything because you can always count on the supportive community here to help you connect with someone who can help you. The most important thing I learned was understanding, and not undermining, the power we hold as individuals to make a change in our community. Yes, some of us may be young (and look even younger) and sometimes getting older adults to take us seriously can seem like a daunting task, but I learned that we are just as capable of being leaders and bring an important perspective to the table. 

optiMize put me in a position where I was able to give back to my community in an unimaginable way. It was priceless going back home to put on a conference to inform, empower, and connect the first-generation community alongside Aissa, and an inspiring group of talented Alumni from my high school. This organization has inspired me to be a catalyst for change and to never settle for the way things are set up because if a change needs to be made, what better person to make that change happen than YOU.