Our warmest welcome to Rose Gorman!

Written by Darcy Brandel, SiD Lecturer

The Semester in Detroit program is thrilled to announce that Rose Gorman has joined the SiD team as its new program manager. Before coming to SiD, Rose spent the last five years as the inaugural Tuxedo Project Fellow, where she lived in residence on Tuxedo Street, ran the literary center downstairs, and worked to achieve the project’s mission of revitalizing one of Detroit’s most isolated neighborhoods by increasing access to community resources and the literary arts. She also coordinates programming for the Free Black Women’s Library-Detroit. Throughout her time as Tuxedo Fellow, she partnered with SiD to offer dynamic guest lectures and writing workshops designed to demonstrate the healing and unifying power of the Arts and artistic practice. SiD students and alums fortunate enough to participate in her workshops consistently listed them among their top highlights. Indeed, the deep compassion at the heart of Rose’s charisma and energy is not easily forgotten.

Rose received a BA in English from St John’s University, where she was a McNair Scholar, and received her MA in Literature and Creative Writing from SUNY Binghamton, where she was a Clifford Clark Fellow. She has facilitated countless workshops on creative writing and activism for homeless LGBTQIA+ youth, in prisons, at high schools and public libraries, and in Sri Lanka. Before moving to Detroit, she served as Program Director for NY Writers Coalition and worked in community outreach and field production for the oral history project StoryCorps. For all of these reasons and more, we are most honored and humbled to have Rose’s wisdom and expertise as part of the SiD team.

 


The Semester in Detroit Program would like to introduce Neil Kagerer to the team! As the new SiD Program Assistant Neil will help with student recruitment, social media strategy, as well as program outreach to the Flint, Dearborn, and GVSU campuses.

During his SiD Experience, Neil interned with Keep Growing Detroit, organizing youth workhops and providing general support to one of Detroit's leading urban agriculture organizations. 

Neil is a Flint native and has a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from the University of Michigan Flint. In his free time Neil loves to create art through doing collage pieces, scrapbooking, and refurbishing old antique furniture.