In this week’s Fellow Spotlight, we are checking in with Ifeanyi Nwachukwu. He fills us in on what he enjoys most about Detroit, his host company, PwC, and what he’s looking forward to as a Challenge Detroit Fellow.

Tell us about your neighborhood in the city, what are some of your favorite things about it? 

I live in the business district of Downtown Detroit, in Renaissance City Apartments. You could probably guess this, but one of the best things about living downtown is having so many things in walking distance. From Campus Martius, the River Walk, Ford Field, to Greektown, so many restaurants and activities are right in my back yard. 

More specifically, I like my apartment building because of the diverse demographics. There are many young professionals as you can imagine, but my building also has a large population of retirees and senior citizens. Many of them tell me stories about what Detroit was like when they were younger and drop kernels of wisdom and positive reinforcement whenever I talk with them.

Tell us about your host company and your role within the organization? 

I work for PwC, one of the world’s largest professional service firms. I say that because PwC as an organization pretty much does everything under the sun when it comes to client services. I work in the Risk Assurance practice, however, my group assess a company’s internal control environment that leads to financial reporting.

What have you learned from Challenge Detroit so far? 

What I like about all of our challenges is that they allow us to learn more about social issues and the context that non-profits work in to tackle them. Our first challenge with Recovery Park, allowed me to take a deeper dive into the food economy and really learn why local food systems are important. Outside of the challenges, it’s cool having a group of people to push me to try out local activities and events, because if not I might end up staying in watching Netflix.

What are looking forward to for the rest of the year?

There is somewhat of a learning curve with our challenges, and I am looking forward to be able to go deeper gaining a deeper understanding of the problems and creating a deeper solution. Also, I am looking forward to meeting and connecting with more people in the city.

What kind of impact do you hope to make within your host company as well as in the city? 

My company has an office in downtown Detroit, but many of the staff work at their clients across southeast Michigan, so one of the ways I hope to impact my company is by being a liaison to the city of Detroit and all the happenings in it. The city is hub for so much entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship and I want to become more involved in that community throughout the remainder of my time here.

Also, be sure to check out Ifeanyi’s video to hear more about his time in Detroit, so far.