Tell us about one of your favorite neighborhoods in Detroit and what makes it unique?
My favorite neighborhood in Detroit is Southwest. I truly appreciate the culture and community that that neighborhood has. The people are always friendly and inviting, the food is great, and it’s the neighborhood where I’ve noticed the most families live.

Tell us about your first challenge project of the year, what did you learn from the experience?
Our first project as a cohort was working with Detroit Economic Growth Company: Motor City Match, to develop new ways to improve their system. My small team was tasked with building a platform for business to business knowledge sharing, which lead us to create a website called thescoopdetroit.com, serving as a platform of information about quarterly events designed to connect entrepreneurs with each other. This experience taught me to be more inclusive when it comes to using technology. As a team, our first thought was to host everything to do with knowledge sharing online; but that’s not always the best way to go about being inclusive. Many entrepreneurs are older and less familiar with it, so with that, we also created flyers to invite everyone to events that small business owners can benefit from.

Tell us about your host company and your role in the organization.
At my host company, Quicken Loans Community Investment Fund, I work as an associate project manager and storyteller on a design team. My role includes working on internal strategy documents and helping to complete design team projects.

What kind of impact do you hope to have with your host company and within the city?
My host company has sub-teams that focus on entrepreneurship, education and employment, housing stability, public spaces, community sponsorships, and team member engagement. I hope to have some sort of impact in furthering internal strategy for all of these focus areas.

What are you most looking forward to in Detroit in 2018?
In 2018, I hope to work towards using my experiences at Challenge Detroit and at my host company to become a better journalist. I hope I can utilize lessons learned to further my personal endeavors and continue to revitalize Detroit in a personal way as well as a professional way.

How do you believe your fellowship will shape your career moving forward?
Challenge Detroit is and will continue to serve as a stepping-stone my career. It has already been such an eye-opening experiences and has taught me many skills in making deeper connections with everyone I work with. This fellowship has been teaching me new viewpoints, new project managing skills, exposing me to new things about Detroit, cities in general, and especially new writing skills. I am so excited to see what the rest of my fellowship has in store.

To learn even more about Summar’s experience in Detroit so far check out her spotlight video below.