91短视频

Editor’s note: Within minutes of publishing this article, we were informed that Jonathan Nisly has been offered, and accepted, a job with MANNA. So maybe he really has found his calling! Congratulations, Jonathan!

With just a 20-minute walk to work, Jonathan Nisly considers himself 鈥渧ery lucky鈥� 鈥� he can sleep in until 7:45. But don鈥檛 let his late-as-possible wake-up time fool you: Nisly may have found his calling.

During this spring semester at 91短视频鈥檚 (WCSC), Nisly is interning at , a District of Columbia nonprofit developer of quality, affordable housing. Nisly promotes its interests on social media and manages the housing advocacy team鈥檚 , where he writes about affordable housing issues, legislation and budget lines of interest. He also helps to plan events such as an upcoming and prepares people in MANNA鈥檚 to testify before the city council about why the city needs continued funding for affordable housing.

Just one semester isn鈥檛 enough to seal one鈥檚 future profession, but this isn鈥檛 Nisly鈥檚 first stint at MANNA. Through a connection facilitated by applied social sciences professor , he also worked there in the summer of 2016, and stayed in founder and CEO Jim Dickerson鈥檚 basement

During the summer, Nisly met a coworker who had been homeless until a homebuyer club connected him with the right city programs and helped him learn how to manage his credit score and start saving.

They were, Nisly said, 鈥渒ind of simple things, but things that were crucial for him being able to [buy a home]. That was big for me, seeing the real impact of this work.鈥�

After spending the fall semester on campus, Nisly returned to Washington with WCSC. Their ongoing relationship has left a strong impression on MANNA鈥檚 Dickerson.

鈥淛onathan has been a tremendous help,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur hope is that he will stay with MANNA if we can find the grant funds to pay him, but we know he will have many opportunities with other groups, too, since he is such a great asset and skilled in many areas. The greatest gift is his spirit and his love and passion for justice and people who are at a disadvantage in our society and world. I think this experience here will enhance whatever he does in the future.鈥�

Nisly, a and major, credits the peacebuilding program with helping him to decide that he wanted to work for social justice through organizing and advocacy in an urban setting. His time at MANNA, he said, has helped him 鈥渉one those skills on housing policy and learn a lot about the day-to-day ins-and-outs of what works and what doesn鈥檛 in advocating for legislation. I would love to keep working with housing specifically because another thing I’ve learned through this internship is how much of a building block housing is for everything else both in positive and negative ways.鈥�

He appreciates MANNA鈥檚 鈥渆xplicit鈥� confrontation of racism, which he said is 鈥渟till alive in housing in a way that it’s not alive in many other places in American society. Certainly people’s minds and institutions can be very easily tinged with prejudice, but the kind of systematic segregation that we still see in housing is very striking.鈥�

While in Washington DC, Nisly, from Bluffton, Ohio, is also soaking up city life. On one recent weekend 鈥� he called it 鈥渒ind of crazy but not atypical鈥� 鈥� he attended an annual rally for housing nonprofits and later a travel ban protest on Saturday, and then, on Sunday, went to church at Eighth Day Faith Community, spent the afternoon in the Theodore Roosevelt Island park, and ended the day at a free concert at the Kennedy Center.

Which maybe makes 7:45 not that late of a wake-up time, after all.