Community Partner : Made in Baltimore Intern : Casey Levitt Site Supervisor : Andy Cook
What is Made in Baltimore ?
We support makers and manufacturers in Baltimore City . Our mission is simple : Encourage investment in Baltimore ’ s economy by growing the market for locally-made goods and supporting the people who make them .
Helped design , launch , and market MIB ’ s annual member survey , analyzed survey data to draw conclusions about MIB ’ s impact on Baltimore ’ s maker economy Wrote R scripts to clean member data and keep consistent lists of members on the mailing list and website Organized a media campaign and a series of production space tours to facilitate B2B activity ( contract manufacturing ) within the Made in Baltimore network Designed and formatted weekly newsletters to MIB members and biweekly newsletters to the general public
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Working with Made in Baltimore has been an incredible privilege . Baltimore has long been a place for makers , artists , and entrepreneurs , and in just five years MIB connected them and built a dynamic community around them . For these eight weeks , I got the chance to be part of that community . This internship gave me the opportunity to apply my existing skills to something I ’ m passionate about . I ’ m majoring in computer science , and I ’ m particularly interested in data analytics . This summer I helped Made in Baltimore track their impact by cleaning their member data and analyzing responses from the annual member survey . MIB has a huge impact on Baltimore ’ s maker economy , and I was excited to use my background in programming and data manipulation to quantify that impact .
Another main focus of my work this summer was strengthening the MIB network by facilitating connections and encouraging collaboration between members . I took on a pair of projects aimed at facilitating business-tobusiness activity among MIB members . I organized a blog campaign and a series of production space tours , not only to promote the capabilities of Baltimore-based companies , but also to tell their stories .
I came into this internship with very little experience is business or economics , but one of my main takeaways from my time with Made in Baltimore is that local economic development is really about supporting the people in your community . Buying a locally-made product – or outsourcing production to a local business rather than one overseas - is a way to ensure that your neighbors can have good jobs and good lives . This internship made me optimistic ; it showed me what a caring economy can look like , where people know the faces and names behind the products they buy .
I ’ m excited to see what lies ahead for Made in Baltimore because in this city , people show up for each other , and Baltimoreans are nothing if not proud of their city . Made In Baltimore is channeling that community spirit and local pride into a thriving local economy , built by and for the people that live here . I ’ m humbled and grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of it .