Intern Profile: Nichole Murphy
Where do you go to school and what are you studying?
I am currently a student at Wash U’s Brown School of Social Work. I am a quarter of the way to my masters in social work in which I am focusing on community and macro level practice through social and economic development.
What attracted you to Northside Community Housing, Inc.?
I am pretty sure that wherever my social work degree takes me, it will be working in communities like the Ville. Whether or not that’s in affordable housing remains to be seen, but housing is the physical structure or bones that make up a community and I believe an excellent area to focus. I was also delighted with the size of the agency and the wonderful staff that take on so much in order to see a visible return in the immediate environment. To be able to help out and be a part of that in whatever capacity I am needed was a big draw for me. Plus, coming from a history background, I am interested in learning all that there is to know about where the Ville has been, but also where it is going.
What are some of the things you’ll be working on during your internship? What do you hope to learn from your time here?
I am currently working in a few areas. I am developing a tool for asset management as well as in the early stages of creating a needs assessment for Northside’s residents. Although I am not as in the weeds with the social media as Nay’Chelle, I am producing content for those platforms. I am looking forward to working more with the initiatives been discussed and implemented through the Ville collaborative as well as Young Friends of the Ville. I hope to learn about the Ville as a community today and not just the history of the place.
What’s something interesting you’ve learned about Northside Community Housing, Inc. or the Ville during your time here?
So far it has been really wonderful learning about collaboration in a real world setting. At school they force us into all of this group work (of which I am not a fan), but I can appreciate it now after sitting in on several meetings of multiple community and industry partners and learning just how much of the work done in the non-profit sector is truly collaborative. Much I have learned about the Ville so far has been through books and written documentation, but I am really looking forward to getting out into the community and hearing from actual residents and even having the chance to collect and record some of that history.
Is there anything else that you would like to share that we didn’t ask?
There is almost nothing I enjoy discussing more than pop culture. For some reason my brain is a steel trap when it comes to movies and TV shows, so if ever you want to start a conversation with me, meaningless trivia is probably a safe bet.