CAPS Fellows Program has been an experience unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Aside from it being a non-profit organization, it’s honestly one of the best experiences of personal growth I’ve ever been a part of. My experience through the CAPS Fellows Program has provided an enriching experience in what actually happens on a day-to-day basis at a non-profit as well as a business. So far this experience has been one that has really made me start to self-assess how I go about getting things accomplished. A friend of mine by the name of Lem Cartman has a quote that he always says and it really resonates with me because it’s true. It goes, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at start to change.” Throughout this experience, I’ve learned a lot about myself. I love to listen and learn about people’s different experiences and how they think, before this internship I was always trying to be the first person heard in the room. What this particular experience has taught me is that it’s okay to not have something to say on certain topics. No one expects you to be all-knowing , what you know is what you know. 

Aside from the personal growth that has been taking place over this summer I have also had a blast developing relationships at my internship. The work has been more than sufficient, but a big surprise I was not expecting was finding joy in conversing with my fellow colleagues. One way that I’ve been able to foster these relationships is by going to the “porch” which is an actual porch where one of the founders of the Kheprw Institute, Imhotep Adisa, uses the space to hold conversation amongst his employees that both promote intellectual growth and build leadership abilities amongst young individuals. The porch acts as a bridge between the young and the seasoned veterans of the Kheprw Cohort, and allows everyone to express their opinions in an open space freed from judgment. This is probably my favorite part of my internship so far, because the people are so great, but also the topic of discussion we get into here and the wide variety of opinions that exist in this space as well as it pertains to the different age groups that meet on the porch.  

I work for the Kheprw Institute which is a non-profit organization based in Indianapolis that works to create a more just, equitable, human-centered world by nurturing youth and young adults to be leaders, critical thinkers and doers who see the people in any community as the most valuable assets and are committed to working with community assets to bring about change that leads to empowered self-reliant and self-determining communities. So far this summer I have served as the Person of Contact (POC) for the recoverable loan fund program that assists young minority entrepreneurs in whatever stage of the business process they’re currently in. So far this has been an eye opening experience in that it has allowed me to see the ins and outs of what it means to get a business off the ground, but also has allowed me to see what it means to have a thriving business that not only makes money, but adds value to the community in some way shape or form.

– Isaiah Roach, Kheprw