The Magnolia Project

  To Friends, Family and Supporters,

Welcome to my Blog.  For the duration of the summer, I will be keeping this journal where I will be going over my own personal thoughts, giving updates from the city and (hopefully) providing photos from our volunteers.  

For those of you who are unfamiliar, I am spending the summer working an internship in New Orleans, but first a little background...... The Magnolia Project is a UC Berkeley Student Organization dedicated to the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.  Magnolia Project, or MP, was founded by a group of students who returned from New Orleans after Spring Break 2006 and decided that UC Berkeley, as the nation's leading public institution, needed to have a bigger presence in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast.  The following school year, they planned the first 3-week MP Summer Service Trip.  That summer, 2007, more than 80 Berkeley students took time out of their vacation's to gut homes, clean schools, paint historic buildings and do anything else our community partners asked.  

In 2008, MP organized a 2nd three-week service trip with 65+ students.  Students returned to a city that was almost 3 years on from the storm but still had plenty of work to do.  Fourteen students also spent 1-week in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi where they built homes with Habitat for Humanity.  That summer, Magnolia Project placed 8 interns with grassroots and government agencies around the city in order to begin participating in the long term work necessary to bring the city of New Orleans back better than it was before.  

Which brings us to today.  Having participated in both of MP's 3-week summer service trips, I can personally attest to the impact that the organization has had on the city, the university and the hundreds of students who have participated.  This summer, along with having helped plan this year's service trip as Magnolia Project's Education Chair, I am part of the 2nd generation of summer interns.  For the next 8-weeks, I will be working at the Office of Recovery and Development Administration (ORDA), which is within City Hall.  There are 6 other interns living with me at the Rebirth Volunteer Center in the Freret Neighborhood of New Orleans.  We will be working at organizations as varied as our own backgrounds.  

Many of you have generously given your time to make Magnolia Project possible and for that I want to thank you. I hope this blog will help show why what you have done so far was important and why we hope you will continue to support us in the future.  For those of you new to Magnolia Project, I encourage you to return often if you want to know why so many Berkeley students have dedicated themselves to a cause so physically far from their own homes.  

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions and do comment freely! 

With Appreciation,

Ravi