Recently I had the opportunity to do what I love most, challenge the youth in the city of Detroit. My host company, General Motors is very visible within the community but I don’t believe that the community is visible inside of General Motors. This is something that we can fix. Making sure the youth has the ability to see and experience what I experience everyday is one of my biggest passion projects.

Student Corps is a program that hires high school students to work closely with GM retirees on projects within the city of Detroit. Most of these students come from less fortunate neighborhoods and are probably experiencing their first “real world” job and experience. This program is very beneficial not only because it gives back to their community but also it teaches them life lessons around professionalism, being punctual, and how to communicate outside of their comfort zone.

My team at GM played a very important role with the student corps program as we created, facilitated, and hosted the “Mini-Summit” for the students before they started their new jobs. As the guest speaker I had the opportunity to discuss core principles and the importance of listening, giving, back, and finding a mentor. Mentors really helped mold me into the individual that I am. They guided me and most importantly kept me motivated when I felt like giving up. Having the ability to pay it forward is really one of the biggest things that I want out of life. Knowing that I could be an influencer to these children that I just met gave me a satisfaction like none other.

Being a mentor to inner city youth, while letting them experience the joys of General Motors and the Renaissance Center, is one of my biggest accomplishments within this Challenge Detroit year.