Wednesday, April 12, 2017 // The Statement 
 
7B

“I had a meeting with Dan Gilbert the 

second day (of my internship) — I think we 
were talking about one of his developments — 
and he calls me out and says, ‘You’re the girl 
whose family owns Dutch Girl!’ And I was 
like, ‘Yes, sir, that’s me.’ And he stole my note-
book and he stole my pen and started making 
a map, and he was like, ‘This is your doughnut 
shop, this is where my dad’s bar was and we 
used to go over there all the time!’ He called 
me Doughnut Girl all summer.”

Though she may be “Doughnut Girl” to 

Detroit billionaire and philanthropist Dan 
Gilbert, most people know the Ross School of 
Business sophomore as Arrie Timmer — an 
enthusiastic and entrepreneurial spirit who 
is looking to do big things in and for the city 
of Detroit.

As Gilbert noted, Timmer’s family owns 

Dutch Girl Donuts, a Detroit doughnut staple. 
Her grandparents opened the shop when they 
moved here in 1946, and it’s been in the fam-
ily ever since. As Timmer grew up, Dutch Girl 
shaped her childhood.

“On Fridays, my dad would have me go 

with him downtown to the store and work 
until midnight, and then I would sleep in 
the back room,” she said. “I had a sleeping 
bag and I would sleep on top of flour sacks. 
It wasn’t anything special — I was 10 and it 
was just cleaning — but it was cool to have a 
job, and have responsibilities.”

Timmer also credits the shop with bring-

ing her closer to the city. Many of Dutch 
Girl’s employees have worked there since 
before she was born, and growing up with 
them allowed her to see the city through 
their eyes.

It was a love for her family business and 

for Detroit that brought Timmer to the Busi-
ness School. She’s seen the good that busi-
ness can do, and is determined to use it as a 
way to change people’s lives for the better.

“Growing up with entrepreneurs as fam-

ily members, it gave me a lot of respect for 
business, and the ways they can be used to 
support communities and drive change and 
growth in cities,” she said. “I’ve seen how 
our family business, even though it’s small, 
has changed other people’s lives.”

And, of course, because entrepreneurship 

seems to flow through Timmer’s veins, she 
is helping to grow and start several projects 
at Michigan that aren’t directly related to 
Detroit, too. As a survivor of sexual assault, 
she helped to expand the Panhellenic Peer 
Education Program last year, which teaches 
girls in Greek life about issues of sexual vio-
lence and fosters a community of support 
among them. She also is working to start a 
magazine with her friends next fall that will 
publish the writing and artwork of college-
aged women.

“I was just tired of having old men say, 

‘Your work is not good enough to be pub-
lished,’ ” she said.

Between her school work and extracur-

ricular projects and helping out at Dutch 
Girl — the whole family still goes back to 
work Fat Tuesday every year — Timmer 
found time last summer to put her passions 
to work as an intern for Rock Ventures, Dan 
Gilbert’s Detroit-based firm that is helping 
to revitalize the city in enormous ways.

Though some people criticize the way Gil-

bert is working in the city, Timmer sings his 
praises.

“He’s very passionate about what he does 

and he’s very passionate about making a dif-
ference. People think of him as this monarch 
who’s taking over the city and isn’t doing it 
mindfully, but he has teams and teams of 
people who make sure that his work is mind-
ful of the city’s existing residents and mind-
ful of what will bring people into the city.”

As an intern, she worked on projects such 

as Rehabbed and Ready, which works in 
partnership with the Detroit Land Bank to 
remodel houses and resell them to Detroit 
citizens, and Build Institute, which supports 
and educates young entrepreneurs in South-
west Detroit.

“I’ve wanted to work for (Gilbert) since I 

was in high school,” Timmer said. “I came in 
to last summer thinking that I just wanted 
to be involved in some way, and now I think 

my main goal at the University of Michigan 
and in my career is to develop myself into 
being the best asset for Detroit as possible … 
so I can be dropped into anything and make 
myself as useful as possible.”

In her future, Timmer said, she can see 

herself taking over Dutch Girl — though 
she’s nervous about living up to the stan-
dard her parents and grandparents have set. 
Whatever she ends up doing, she knows her 
path will lead her back to Detroit at some 
point, and she’s eager to make a difference 
in any way she can.

As for this summer, Timmer’s plans are 

still in the air, but she’s looking for projects 
that will allow her to get even more hands-
on in the city. And, of course, she’ll be work-
ing at the doughnut shop.

Arrie Timmer

During her senior year of high school, Reid 

Depowski took her first college-level psychology 
class. She fell in love with the subject. This same 
year she lost her mother to suicide. 

“This was a really pivotal moment in my life, 

in realizing such an important moment of men-
tal health, despair and seeing the opportunities 
my mother didn’t have for her mental health,” 
Depowski, who is now an LSA senior, said. “And 
so, this was kind of a snowball effect — I was 
already getting so interested in psychology and 
mental health.”

After this, Depowski became involved with the 

American Foundation of Suicide Prevention as a 
volunteer. Her developing passion for psychol-
ogy continued when she enrolled at the Univer-
sity of Michigan, where she joined Active Minds 

and CAPS in 
Action — both 
organizations 
that 
promote 

mental 
health 

awareness.

As 
part 
of 

the 
national 

organization, 
Depowski helps 
plan expert pan-
els for Active 
Minds. 
For 

instance, 
she’s 

brought experts 
to campus to 
discuss 
eating 

disorders. The aim here, she explains, is 
to break down myths and provide real 

answers about mental health.

CAPS in Action is a student group partnered 

with the University of Michigan’s Counseling 
And Psychological Services that spreads the 
word of the psychological work on campus. One 
such project she is working on is a video fea-
turing the stories of campus leaders who have 
struggled with mental health in an effort to des-
tigmatize depression or mental illness.

It was with AFSP, however, that Depow-

ski found personal connections with those who 
faced similar struggles.

“I have met people who have scary simi-

larities to my story,” she said. “People who have 
been through the exact same thing I have, down 
to the details. It can feel very isolating to have 
gone through this loss that some people gasp at. 

So when you meet another individual who has 
gone through the same thing you have, it is, like, 
a burden lifted off of you. Like, someone gets it. 
Someone knows. … The connection you make 
with other suicide loss survivors, it’s priceless.”

One of AFSP’s largest events is the Out of the 

Darkness Walk, an event promoting suicide pre-
vention. After helping to plan her home county’s 
walk, Depowski realized she could bring the first 
Out of the Darkness Walk to the University — 
which came to Ann Arbor on April 9.

“I was like, ‘This is possible. I know I could 

make this happen,’ ” she said.

It was a quick turnover — planning with 

the Michigan chair of AFSP in early Decem-
ber, Depowski went through the heavy 
paperwork process to secure a walk in Nich-
ols Arboretum.

Four hundred walkers participated in the 

event, which raised $28,000 — half of which 
will fund the University’s mental health 
resources. Depowski’s committee decides 
where those funds will be allocated.

Depowski explained that sometimes it 

could be hard, intimidating even, to tackle 
mental health since it was so encompassing 
on campus and required everyone — stu-
dents, professors and administration alike — 
to be on board.

“Sadness, in American culture, is seen as a 

weakness. ‘You’re not sad, you’re not special’ 
sort of thing,” she said. “Specifically in suicide 
culture, something I am so passionate about, 
is that suicide is not really a choice for people. 
It’s not something they do to burden others. 
It’s not something people do out of revenge, 

it’s not something people do for attention.”

Depowski also found comfort outside of 

the academic and activist realm. Despite 
being disconnected from her father after her 
mother’s passing, she has found a home with 
her aunt.

“She has become my closest family mem-

ber besides my sister,” she said. “Our connec-
tion has blossomed since the loss of my mom. 
… My mom’s family is very small, so having 
my aunt, my sister and, of course, my grand-
parents in conjunction to an entire family 
who has loved me and accepted me as their 
own has been very healing to me and has 
helped work me through a lot of this grief I 
experienced.”

As for the future, Depowski has been 

accepted to the University’s School of Social 
Work, where she hopes to become a licensed 
clinical social worker. While she plans to stay 
involved with her organization, Depowski 
views this next part of her life as the biggest 
step to her goals.

“It feels like I am finally entering the stage 

in my life where I am going to make these 
changes happen for other people,” she said. 
“I have benefitted so much from talk-therapy 
that I want to bring that to other people.”

Ultimately, Depowski believes she owes 

much of her drive to her mother.

“My mother really encouraged me in 

school,” she said. “I owe so much of who I 
am today to her. She was not a mental health 
advocate, but she gave me a lot of her spirit 
and fight to make these things happen — to 
find the motivation to do this type of work.”

BY NISA KHAN, Daily News Editor

BY MAYA GOLDMAN, Daily Staff Reporter

Reid Depowski

