In this week’s Fellow Spotlight, we are checking in with Rachel Rosenbaum. She fills us in on what he enjoys most about Detroit, her host company, General Motors, Innovation Xchange Lab, and what she’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 Brush Park, which is nestled between Eastern Market, Midtown, and Downtown. My house was built in the early 1900s, like most of the other houses in my neighborhood. Most of the houses are Victorian style, brick houses and are an incredible sight to see. This is my first experience living in a city and I LOVE being able to bike and walk anywhere I need to go. Every morning when I hop on my bike to get to work, I can’t help but smile at how beautiful the skyline looks coming down Brush Street. Passing Ford Field and Comerica Park is also always exciting, especially on game days when the crowds start to form as early as 4 pm. I am so grateful to live in a neighborhood that is so close to the city center but that also has a small-town feel. Overall, I could not be happier with my living situation and am so excited to see how the neighborhood develops in the next few years.

Tell us about your host company and your role with them.

I work for General Motors in the Innovation Xchange Lab, which is nestled within the Global Talent and Development group in HR. As the Innovation Xchange Coordinator, I am responsible for booking the space and consulting with groups to decide how they can best utilize the resources we have there. This might mean holding a brainstorming session in order to develop their meeting agenda or suggesting activities to help their team think “Big and Bold”, as we often say. Other events we sponsor in the space include TED Talk Tuesdays, an event where employees from various functions come, bring their lunch, watch a TED Talk and take part in a discussion to help learn about topics they might not otherwise explore.

Recently, I have been working on supporting a campaign called GM2020. For this campaign, we are helping employees define a more sustainable, flexible work environment by 2020. Personally, my role has been in running design challenges for cross-functional groups that solve big problems posed by various leaders at GM.

Ultimately, my job is to help support employee engagement through changing mindsets and behaviors. Through the events I’m involved with planning and the Innovation Xchange, I hope to do my best to support this extremely important issue.

What have you learned with Challenge Detroit so far?

Where to begin? For me, the learnings from Challenge Detroit began long before I arrived in Detroit. I was amazed from the start at the application process and how in depth it and thoughtful it was. Each piece of the process not only evaluated our hard skills and experiences, but also challenged us to show who we truly are as people. Realizing this made me appreciate how truly unique and incredible this program is. Watching the fellows thrive while they work at their respective companies, interact with leaders during our challenges, present to large groups and care an immense amount about the city has further proved to me how important it is to be extremely thoughtful in every planning process.

I have learned to be patient and trust my gut, but also that it’s easier to trust yourself when you are dedicated to developing empathy with those around you. Regardless of whether you are designing a program to help build a community garden for a neighborhood without access to fresh food or simply thinking about your friends and family, putting yourself in their shoes will always help you be more diplomatic and understanding. Challenge Detroit pushes us to practice this in everything that we do.

This barely skims the surface of everything I’ve learned thus far, but I could really go on forever.

What kind of impact do you hope to make with your host company? With the city?

Employee engagement has so many different definitions and there are even more strategies towards achieving a more engaged workforce. This year, my role is to try and help design programs and support employees’ ideas for creating a more engaging work environment. My hope is that I can help inspire employees by bringing in an outside perspective. In addition I hope to bring my background in design thinking to the table to try to help move their ideas from abstract, to concrete and sustainable.

In the city, I hope to build lasting relationships with some of the non-profits we partner that I find I am particularly passionate about. This way, I can continue to support their mission on the ground, rather than just as a partner through Challenge Detroit. Further, I hope to engage with more Detroiters from all walks of life to gain a better understanding of the true, unique knowledge that so many of its citizens hold. By the end of the year, I want to feel as though I gave just as much to the city as I took, which will be hard considering how many incredible experiences I’ve had thus far.

What are you most looking forward to in the next year?

Having the opportunity through our challenges to work on so many different social issues that I have passion for, but not extensive experience with is tremendously exciting for me. As I continue to think about what field or type of career I want to pursue, I feel very grateful to have the chance to experience such different people and organizations in such a short amount of time.

I am also really excited to continue to involve myself more deeply within a few groups or organizations that will allow to put my passion to good work, as well as develop strong relationships with Detroiters.

Finally, as a lover of the great outdoors, I’m also hopeful that I will have the chance to explore all that Michigan has to offer (which I’ve heard is a great amount)!

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