Troy Teen Emerges as a Community Leader

Helping individuals and the community at-large has always been important to Apara Sivaraman. This summer, she learned how to go beyond just helping the community and actually lead them—with help from those who know best.

Together with four other teenagers from Metro Detroit, Sivaraman, a 2013 Troy High graduate, recently completed an internship at the Detroit-based nonprofit organization Focus: HOPE. Through a program organized by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, the 2013 Student Leaders also had the chance to take a weeklong tour of Washington, D.C., and interview lawmakers to foster their interest in service.

"The week in Washington was the highlight of my summer, for sure," said Sivaraman. "We had workshops focused on different issues and how to address them and we got to sit in on a House of Representatives meeting and speak with Congressman John Conyers, Jr."

"It was interesting to see how accessible the government really is, something I didn't know before."

Sivaraman, who will leave Troy to study at Duke University beginning in the fall, said that while she had been involved with volunteering to benefit the Troy buildOn program, that her internship was another "eye-opening" experience.

"The main mission of Focus: HOPE is to serve the community by way of education and workforce development, so I got to interact with all kinds of people," she said. "I learned a lot about the community that I didn't really understand before, being from the suburbs."

Sivaraman added that the program made her feel "more confident" as a harbinger of good and shed light on her interest in studying public policy. 

"What we discussed in Washington were the issues and once we got back, we got to see that those issues are very real and in Detroit. That's what I wanted to see. ... It changed how I felt about those issues and how I felt about the changes I can make in the community."