Adit Ahmed is a 2019-2020 Fellow at Total Solutions. He hails from South Glastonbury, Connecticut and is a graduate of Washington and Lee University. Adit has a bachelor’s in History with minors in Mass Communications, Middle East and South Asia Studies.

Tell us about your host company and your role in the organization.

I am spending my fellow year at Total Solutions as an associate consultant. Total Solutions is a small, family-owned business with two offices in Metro Detroit. My primary role at the company sees me working within our design team, which is dedicated to bridging the gap between users and technology. Like any small organization, my role sees me working across the organization and beyond my prescribed role. I have helped manage our finance and HR processes, support our sales and marketing efforts, and coordinate testing of our technology solutions.

Just a few of the great folks we spoke with as we kicked off our third project with the Sinai-Grace Guild CDC.

Tell us about the challenge project you’re currently working on; what are you learning from the experience?

We just finished up our third challenge project with the Sinai-Grace Guild Community Development Corporation. I led a team focused on improving technology literacy among seniors in the CDC’s support area by creating a platform for technology training that can be presented to the community. It opened my eyes to see how the same technology that has enabled many young people to earn opportunities that were unheard of years ago has taken opportunities away from older generations, creating a sense of distrust towards technology that runs deeper than not knowing how to use a smartphone. This added exposure to how the digital divide has grown between generations helped me appreciate the complex positions that those who aren’t digital natives have found themselves in as the world of tech continues to change quickly.

How do you hope to impact the community this year?

I am in my first year living in Detroit, so the key to my impact will come in learning. Many community initiatives have similar goals or aspirations, and I want to develop an understanding of those overlaps so I can bridge conversations at those shared points. Our challenge projects may have dealt with different issues, but taking time to see where our partner organizations have shared challenges and goals has helped inform the way I’ve approached each project, as well as how I’ve approached my acclimation with Detroit.

Our conversation with some awesome students at the Detroit School of Arts.

Please share the most memorable moment you have experienced so far as a Fellow. Why was it memorable and how has it impacted you?

We spent our first Challenge project working with the Detroit Public Schools Community District, an institution that has been part of Detroit’s history for almost two centuries. We spent part of our second Friday of the project with students at the Detroit School of Arts. My project group instantly bonded with the students we spoke with, building a chemistry that allowed us to learn a great deal from them about their experiences as DPSCD students and leaders. The students had a humor and candor that moved me, reminding me of how formative my high school experience was for me, and enhancing my perspective towards a city that I was (and still am) brand new to.

How do you believe your fellowship will shape your career moving forward?

My year as a fellow has exposed me to tons of individuals who have followed their passions in meaningful and substantial ways. Some of these folks have had a passion that they’ve directly targeted for years, while others have discovered what drives them through years of experiences that eventually spoke for themselves, and my fellow year has validated that neither approach to finding your passion is wrong. I plan to combine the lessons of those who I have met along my Challenge Detroit journey with the practical professional skills I’ve gained through Challenge projects and my host company to trust the personal journey I am on as my passions grow, change, and fall into place.

The temperature rose above 50 degrees. Perfect time for some Belle Isle fun with friends.

If someone reading your interview is considering applying to be a Fellow, why would you encourage them to apply?

Many of us want to have ambitious experiences in our careers that move beyond what we learn in a typical job. Challenge Detroit has provided me with a unique experience as a young professional that will be hard to replicate, and impossible to forget. The lessons I’ve learned from my host company have complemented the perspectives I’ve gained from Fridays at Challenge Detroit. The two combined have served as a robust platform for me to grow professionally in ways that I could not have imagined before the program began.