Working with Build Up
Harvard Intern Shares His Summer Experience
Cody Chou is a current sophomore living in Lowell House and plans to concentrate in Molecular & Cellular Biology
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Over this past summer, I had the opportunity to enter the nonprofit sector and work directly with the amazing team at Build UP in Birmingham, Alabama. I first connected with Build UP through the Phillips Brooks House Association’s Alternative Winter Break volunteering program in which I worked with the Build UP team for five days. This was an amazing opportunity that started my initial interest in educational studies. As a result, I continued working with the Build UP team throughout the Spring semester.
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Build UP is an early college high school focused on educating, stabilizing, and revitalizing low-income communities and neighborhoods across the Birmingham area. It is the nation’s first and only model to comprehensively address poverty and urban blight through strategically weaving program components focusing on education, workforce development, economic development, and community development. Build UP’s early college, workforce-development program supplants a young person’s high school and community college experience to directly and comprehensively address poverty and urban blight in their community.
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Over the course of the six-year, full-time, year-round program, youth spend half their time in an academic setting gaining knowledge that is directly applicable to paid apprenticeships in the real estate and construction sectors. Build UP apprentices collaboratively rehab blighted, abandoned homes and lots, relocating donated homes that would otherwise end up in landfills, creating affordable and sustainable options to like-new, multi-unit homeownership. Ultimately, apprentices learn the necessary skills to pursue high-wage careers in the following sectors: entrepreneurship; real estate and investments; and building and construction. All Build UP graduates will graduate debt free with a high school diploma, an associate’s degree, and industry-recognized credentials.
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Working with the Build UP team taught me incredible experiences that opened my eyes to the role of education in policy and urban development. It taught me how the non-profit sector operated and pushed me to continue learning and improving my skill sets relating to non-profit work. One of the main projects I worked on was forming a Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) fund application to enable Build UP to expand economic opportunities by providing access to financial products and services for local residents and businesses. With the Build UP team, I aided in the research and development of the application. In addition, I worked with the CEO to apply for grants to financially support Build UP. This was an insightful experience in the grant application process as I constantly worked with grant narratives, applications, and interviews.
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Because of the financial support of the Harvard Club of Alabama, I was able to commit my summer working with Build UP. I look forward to continuing my work and my connection with the Harvard Club of Alabama into the academic year. I’m forever grateful for this financial opportunity to continue my passionate work with Build UP.