Avi Nguyen: Reflecting on my 2021 Fellowship with the Boston Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity
By Avi Nguyen (he/him) (Undergraduate, Political Science & Economics)
This past summer I had the privilege of working for the Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity (MORRE) through a BU Initiative on Cities (IOC) and Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground (HTC) fellowship.
Most of my responsibilities within the MORRE team revolved around my primary project: planning a multicultural celebration. Right away, the MORRE team prefaced the project by letting me know that I would be handling a significant amount of responsibility and creative control. Though making choices for such a large-scale event seemed daunting, the support and encouragement of the MORRE team gave me the confidence I needed to tackle these decisions.
Among the first decisions I made was to select a theme of immigration heritage and food stories. I wanted to highlight the ways in which immigrant communities around Boston spice, sauté, and share their love through the food they prepare. It meant a great deal to choose a topic that I had roots in. Growing up as a first-generation Vietnamese American, it was hard feeling connected to my culture. Our dishes and recipes represented the few relics my family could bring over after leaving Vietnam.
Prior to the event, I wrote several event briefs and pitched my idea to Chief Resilience Offer Ms. Lori Nelson, and the heads of other departments as well. The event was developed into a speaker series where local culinary experts would come and share a dish that has meaning to them. We would include a farmer’s market bag with coupons and the recipes so that the community could easily access the ingredients and make the dishes at home. We wanted to place particular emphasis on hiring local immigrant communities. As such, it was also my responsibility to find performers and restaurants that fit this criteria. There would be a lion dancer from Gund Kwow, a woman-centered dance troupe, and catering from Irie, a local Mattapan restaurant. While this was a monumental task, the greatest challenge in developing this project was understanding the bureaucracy of municipal government.
There were a number of departments that had to be coordinated, such as Special Events, Immigration Advancement, and Food Access. We had several meetings to ensure that every department understood the role it would take in the event. Despite the sometimes overwhelming nature of the work, I felt supported; everyone was encouraging and helped in the planning process. It mimicked clockwork; all gears had to be turning together in order for the ensemble to function. City Hall departments feel sometimes very much insulated from one another, but with this event I felt like I was participating in a greater project of forming new connections for MORRE. My experience overall left me feeling proud that I could handle the development of such an enormous project.
My other responsibilities included meeting with local organizing groups that tackled neighborhood problems in innovative ways. For example, one group sought to give low-income children experiences, such as dirt biking, to make them more courageous and willing to engage in otherwise uncomfortable but rewarding situations. I also handled occasional administrative tasks, such as filling out a spreadsheet of city departments that included the directors as well as any executive assistants. Though this was a small task, it was still such a unique way for me to understand City Hall. It gave me an overview of all departments, so I could see what the priorities of the city were, and it was also a small form of networking as I would have to contact people to see who worked in the respective offices — giving me a chance to meet and recognize names around City Hall. It also developed my research skills: If I could not get into contact with the department, I would often scour the city directory and LinkedIn to find the name and position I was looking for. Even seemingly miniscule projects taught me to think creatively.
Beyond just a working relationship, the office was incredibly nice and supportive to me, and this extended to beyond just the MORRE team. Several departments were stationed within the same office that the MORRE team was set in. On my first day I had a chance to meet everyone and learn more about their role within the city of Boston. Among these departments were the Office of Operations, Office of Economic Development, the Clerk Office and the Press Team. They welcomed me, and I ended up taking time to develop personal relationships, going to lunch with some of the staff. I would ask them questions about how they chose to work for municipal government and where they saw themselves in the future.
My own team also encouraged me throughout my time in the office. They were responsive to my personal needs that arouse over during the summer. Chief Nelson even told me to reach out for anything, not just simply for work. I felt grateful to be working with people who matched their actions to their politics on resilience. They were compassionate and willing to be flexible so that I could continue to work while balancing my home life.
My time at the Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Racial Equity gave me a sense of independence and community that I would not have otherwise. It was a summer of learning how to operate and adapt to new networks. I would encourage anyone who wishes to learn to think outside of the box to apply to this fellowship.
Learn more about IOC fellowship opportunities here.