{"id":16438,"date":"2016-07-18T12:36:47","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T12:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?post_type=blogpost&p=16438"},"modified":"2016-07-18T12:36:47","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T12:36:47","slug":"fellow-spotlight-ryan-dillon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/fellow-spotlight-ryan-dillon\/","title":{"rendered":"Fellow Spotlight: Ryan Dillon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tell us about a few of your favorite places to experience in Detroit, what makes those\u00a0places unique to Detroit and why do they make your list of favorites?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My two favorite places to experience Detroit are more experiential than anything else. The first\u00a0is the roof of my building. As Midtown continues to pop up with newly renovated lofts and\u00a0apartments, my building, the Hyesta, stands in stark contrast. The old school vibe is reminiscent\u00a0of a time in Detroit predating the current period that\u2019s been termed the city\u2019s \u201crevitalization\u201d\u00a0by the world at large, and the building serves as a tangible reminder of all of the changes and\u00a0the intricacies of the forces at play in shaping the path forward for the city of Detroit. Standing\u00a0on my roof and looking at the Downtown skyline, turning around to see the Fisher Building, and\u00a0gazing at the silhouettes of both Motor City Casino and the Ambassador Bridge has become a\u00a0nightly ritual during these warm, summer nights. When my time in the city comes to a close, my\u00a0building and the views it provides will be a cornerstone of the memories of my experience.<\/p>\n

The second has been watching the incremental progress on the Little Caesar\u2019s Arena (or the\u00a0\u201cPepperinkie\u201d, if you\u2019re so inclined) over the course of the past year. I suppose the same may\u00a0be said of M-1, but the combination of our city\u2019s rich sports history with the industrial grandeur\u00a0of the structure make it stand out from other projects. I remember my last experience at Tigers\u00a0Stadium, but I was too young to truly remember more than that I made it out during that last\u00a0season, let alone any recollection of the construction of Comerica Park. The same can be said of\u00a0Ford Field. Growing up and now, my older friends and relatives often indulge me in tales about\u00a0Lions games at the Silverdome and what the experience was like at the old Tigers Stadium. Until\u00a0this point, that feeling has not been something I have been able to share. The fact that I\u2019ve\u00a0experienced the Joe Louis Arena from my childhood into my early adulthood, am living in the\u00a0shadow of the new arena, and have been around to watch the progress day-by- day will be\u00a0something I carry forward with me and will be a constant reminder of my first year in the city\u00a0for the rest of my Red Wings-watching career.<\/p>\n

What have you learned from Challenge Detroit so far?<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I look back and take in all that has happened in the year, the learning item that stands\u00a0out has come from learning about the backgrounds, passions and careers of the fellows in\u00a0the cohort. The opportunity to spend one day per week with a group of individuals who work at\u00a0different companies in a variety of roles that are all different from mine provided a fast-track to learning about different industries, career paths, and interests that\u00a0otherwise may never have presented themselves. So much can be learned from differences\u00a0between people. Although we were \u201cat work\u201d, the environment was inevitably different\u00a0each Friday than it was from Monday through Thursday; having that level of separation\u00a0from each other while maintaining the common denominator of a 9-5 role created a unique\u00a0environment that provided countless opportunities to grow and learn.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your host company and your role in the organization.<\/strong><\/p>\n

PwC is a global client-service firm focusing on providing clients with audit and assurance, tax\u00a0and consulting services. I am a part of the Core Assurance group within PwC\u2019s Detroit office.\u00a0Though my home office is located in the heart of Downtown Detroit, my client work takes me\u00a0to many different parts of Michigan, and other parts of the United States as well. I have found\u00a0that the varied client experience and spending time outside of the city limits helps provide a\u00a0holistic framework for thinking about how Detroit fits into the bigger picture of Southeast\u00a0Michigan, the U.S and the world at large.<\/p>\n

What kind of impact do you hope to have with your host company and within the city?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corporate responsibility is a cornerstone of the PwC brand, and perhaps even more keenly\u00a0within the Detroit market. Current firm efforts include the development and promotion of\u00a0financial literacy initiatives within schools all over the country and the world. With the broad\u00a0exposure to issues and opportunities for corporate responsibility within the city of Detroit\u00a0introduced to me by my participation in the Challenge Detroit fellowship, I hope to continue to\u00a0grow in my understanding and knowledge of the network of nonprofit and community-focused\u00a0organizations within Detroit in an effort to identify and promote opportunities for PwC to\u00a0contribute in an impactful fashion.<\/p>\n

As your fellowship year comes to an close how do you plan to continue using what you\u2019ve\u00a0learned in the challenges as a part of your life moving forward.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The biggest takeaway I have from Challenge Detroit going forward will be the connections\u00a0made both within the fellowship and external to it. The sheer volume of people, projects, ideas\u00a0and issues to which we were introduced over the course of the Fellowship provided enough of\u00a0an introduction to the landscape of the city for me to begin to contextualize my place within it.\u00a0After Challenge Detroit, I feel like I have the agency and the ability to choose from a wide range\u00a0of paths through which I can continue to grow, learn, give and lead in the city of Detroit.\u00a0Coming to Detroit, I had but the capacity and the desire to develop my passions and to find a\u00a0way to use them to create an impact in the city. Coming out of this program, I feel I have the\u00a0wherewithal to move forward in bringing that impact closer to fruition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tell us about a few of your favorite places to experience in Detroit, what makes those\u00a0places unique to Detroit and why do they make your list of favorites? My two favorite places to experience Detroit are more experiential than anything else. The first\u00a0is the roof of my building. As Midtown continues to pop up with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,17,12,18,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-givedetroit","category-leaddetroit","category-livedetroit","category-playdetroit","category-workdetroit","category-fellow-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}