Testimonials

Kroll, Elizabeth A. “A Hello and Thank You!” Email sent to Deb Gordon-Gurfinkel.  April 8, 2014.

Ms. Kroll, a former U-M student, took the Fall 2011 RC course, “Empowering Community through Creative Expression” and selected to intern at Telling It C.O.P.E., an alternative middle and high school in Ypsilanti.

Hi Deb,

As I am nearing the end of my time at the University of Chicago for my master's program, I have been reflecting a lot on my experiences in Ann Arbor and beyond, and wanted to send a quick note to you to express my gratitude for your guidance and leadership during my last years at Michigan.

Currently, I'm placed at an outpatient behavioral health clinic for kids on the west side of Chicago, doing individual and family therapy with kids. A few months ago, I was asked to help implement a new violence prevention program at a middle school in a neighborhood near the hospital, and having just finished the first round of the program, I've been thinking a lot about what made it successful, what needs to be improved, and generally how the experience was for me. I am so, so grateful that I was able to be involved in Telling It!, and more specifically, that I was able to work with you and Kim at COPE. Those kids are often in my thoughts, and I truly believe that they have guided a lot of my current work. The environment in that very special classroom at COPE was really magic, and I'm now realizing even more that behind the magic is so much work! I am incredibly grateful that you allowed me to work with you in facilitating a few of those groups, and will always carry those early experiences in my social work path with me.

In a few months I'll be off to Los Angeles for a change of scenery, and I can only hope that I will eventually find an organization that values kids and learning like Telling It! does.   

Lily