The organizers of the Juneteenth Festival (from left to right) Mikhaella Norwood, Brittany Adams, and Alexis Whyms, present their idea at the Passages Leadership Incubator Summit.
Photo provided by Passages
What started as a trip to Israel a couple of years ago for native Detroiter Mikhaella Norwood, a University of Michigan student, led to an entrepreneurship idea and later a $10,000 grant that she and several of her fellow awardees will use toward building out a 2021 Juneteenth celebration in Detroit.
Norwood and her entrepreneurial group, named As In Heaven, include several other of her friends, who won the grant in a competition from the Texas-based Passages Leadership Incubator program recently. The program offers current and recent college graduates the chance to apply for the grant based on what faith and leadership skills they learned from a prior trip to Israel.
Norwood’s team, other organizers of the Juneteenth Festival, Juneteenth in the D, include Brittany Adams, Alexis Whyms, and Taylor Brown.
Norwood said that she started with Passages in 2018 and got involved because a friend asked her would she like to go to Israel.
“My instant answer was ‘yes,’” she said laughing during a phone conversation with the Michigan Chronicle. “It was really as simple as that wanting to go on an adventure that honestly at this point has taken me to [new] heights that I never thought I could reach.”
Norwood added that the trip led her to learn more about the Jewish roots of her Christian faith.
“Passages is really passionate about building up global leaders and making an impact in the communities they live in,” she said. “Seeing it go from taking trips to Israel to bringing me back as a leader, fellow, and senior fellow… and now to building out the leadership incubator … it really is a beautiful thing to set the standard and move forward as people who can set an example to follow.”
Norwood, who has visited Israel three times, said that her team is the first team to win the inaugural Leadership Incubator program.
Malcolm Fitschen, director of Alumni Engagement for Passages Israel, said that the program has been intentional over its history to take Christian college students to Israel and provide post-trip educational opportunities to develop them as leaders.
He added that Passages has been impressed with Norwood for several reasons, including the leadership skills she has exhibited on the trip to Israel, and her and her team winning the grant.
“Mikhaella stood out from the beginning; she was passionate about celebrating Juneteenth and having an event [that would] make an impact in Detroit,” he said.
Fitschen added that the Incubator program is a program that grants the participants coaching opportunities to work through their process of developing business plans. It culminates with a Shark Tank-style event in the suburbs of Dallas where the participants speak before a panel of judges to discuss their plans. The judges heard from several participants but Norwood’s team stood out.
Fitschen also said that from the beginning of Passages in 2015 the program really believed in the “intentional inclusion and diversity” element for the Black community to participate.
“And Mikhaella is one of hundreds that have come through that intentional outreach,” he said. “We’re able to see ripple effects in communities.”
Norwood said that regarding collaboration, her group is looking forward to entering the Juneteenth space in Detroit next year and find themselves among friends in the Black community who are already heavily involved in Juneteenth work.
“We are not in competition, we want to know about your event, we want to [promote] your event; you could be a part of ours as well,” she said. “That is something about Detroiters that they do so well coming together to collaborate as a community that is always going to make something better.”
Her and her team members are also cautious about COVID-19 potential restrictions and they will adjust to an online format if needed next year. She also said that Passages’ contributions took a “huge chunk” of their fundraising goal in the group’s efforts to make this a community event.
“One of the things we love to say is ‘Juneteenth is not just a Black holiday but an American holiday,” she said. “We want to see people represented in our space … to really add the voice of Detroit to what it is that we are doing. We certainly are reaching out …we want this to be as community-oriented as possible.”
For more information on Passages and the Leadership Incubator Program visit https://passagesisrael.org/leadership-incubator/.
For more information on As In Heaven and their future programming or to connect with them email 610HVN@gmail.com.
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