Student Mia Murphy finishes strong with social innovation challenge
The Department of Sociology congratulates undergraduate student Mia Murphy on this year's achievements with the OptimizeWayne program and within the department.
As OptimizeWayne Founder and President Kayva Davuluri explains, "OptimizeWayne is a student organization at Wayne State that runs the Social Innovation Challenge to empower students to make their dreams for social impact a reality. The ideas of these Optimizers can vary from social work to technology to medicine to team building to food and agriculture...virtually anything!"
With its first year on the Wayne State University Campus, OptimizeWayne 's Social Innovation Challenge consisted of three workshops concluding in a Spring Selection showcase where students presented their concepts for a chance to receive funding and mentorship. This year's workshops focused on topics like stakeholder searching, community building, visioning, prototyping, developing a pitch, and storytelling. During the subsequent Spring Selection Showcase, students were rewarded with funds up to $5,000.00 Optimize Wayne gave out a total of $8,000.00 in funding this year.
Sociology student Mia Murphy is a native Detroiter who was "raised by two quintessential east side Detroiters" her mom and her older brother. As Mia explains: "I was able to experience living and going to school in many of the suburbs on the East and West sides of the city. Adolescence was a tough time for me, so I changed households when I was 15 and finished out my high school years in Cambridge, MA. I believe the way my experiences contoured my curiosity, made me divinely ordered to study sociology. However, I did not find the program until I was at the end of my fourth year at Wayne, so it was a long time coming for me to find this illuminating discipline. I am very happy I was able to stick with my strange path to finding that magical second floor of the FAB."
This year, Mia's OptimizeWayne pitch focused on social innovation among the millennial black female population and the impact of mass incarceration. Mia delves in: "The project is focused on social innovation among the millennial black female population whose families have been impacted by the mass incarceration and who have contact with male inmates. I hope to accomplish a new sort of communication for this type of black family that will ultimately lend itself to reunification and the customization of dynamics to insure higher rates of social mobility. It is called the 'Write Is Real' initiative.
"I was extremely excited because the opening symposium was dynamic and from the moment I heard the parameters for the challenge, I started contemplated the 'tools of diligence' that I had picked up, sort of unconsciously, over the years. It was a good feeling to see the social skills that my environments have taught me, come to fruition and this is my biggest experience to date, that taps into this awesome feeling. As a senior preparing for graduation in this particular time and space, this was a huge and defining point of encouragement for me. Next, I went into a mild panic because initially I did not know what type of program I would create for the challenge and I knew I had to tap into a creative space I hadn't before."
Murphy plans to use this momentum to impact the world around her. As she remarks, "It will be a sort of declaration for my life's work and my beliefs. In addition, it is a warm invitation for anyone willing and able to go on the journey with me to accomplish the goals of the 'Write Is Real' program. Looking toward the future this bright young scholar explains:
"I will create a social innovation brand that lends itself to my life legacy as a Detroiter who hustles the hardest! At this point in my life, I believe that singular commitments to do good work adds up to be something great. I desire to build a name and body of work that will last and uplift people in diverse spaces. My career goal is to exemplify true love, highlight the importance of collaboration/unity and to stand as a reminder that change is good."
Mia Murphy was also the recipient of a new award offered by the Wayne State University Department of Sociology. Introduced in 2017, the Sociology Alumni Award was received by Mia Murphy at this year's 2017 Sociology Graduation and Award Celebration.
We congratulate Mia on all of her achievements this year and looks forward to another year of academic success!