DETROIT ? Caroline Dobbins when she graduated last year from Albion College and took an internship with Challenge Detroit didn?t know what to expect working in downtown Detroit. She only ventured there to attend the occasional Detroit Tigers and Red Wings game, but never gave working and living in Motown any serious thought.
A year later, Dobbins, 23, raves about the experience and hopes to remain in downtown Detroit working in what she describes as ?a city changing for the better.?
?Challenge Detroit has been a good experience for a young professional like me,? she said. ?I would absolutely recommend it to other people. Living downtown, there?s nothing like it.?
It?s exactly the kind of mind altering, dare we say game changing, perception Challenge Detroit?s founders hoped would happen. The program received launch funding in February 2012 from Credit Acceptance Corp. chairman and founder, Donald A. Foss, who personally pledged $500,000 to the initiative focused on revitalizing Detroit by attracting young entrepreneurs to the city.
Last summer, Challenge Detroit selected 27 people from throughout the United States to live and work in downtown Detroit as interns for local companies. Participants received a $500-a-month housing stipend and a salary of $30,000. Dobbins was one of those selected.
This month, Challenge Detroit announced its 33 Year Two Fellows from more than 700 applications. Applicants were not only from Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Alabama, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Georgia, Oregon, Colorado, as well as Canada. The Year Two Fellows will start in August.
But in the end, the results will be measured not just on if interns develop a positive perception of Detroit, rather if they want to continue to work and live there. Challenge Detroit Executive Director Deirdre Greene Groves said by that measure it has been an outstanding success.
?Year one fellows have been offered jobs by host employers,? she said. ?We had a check-in meetings with our fellows, and 26 of 27 shared with us they will or want to stay in Detroit. We?re helping them by looking at other job opportunities to connect them.?
Overall, Green Groves said Challenge Detroit has surpassed expectations.
?We learned a lot as well,? she said. ?We?ve learned where we can be stronger and make a bigger impact. We learned what makes the program special. We learned what makes things possible in our community.?
Challenge Detroit has been a success from the employers? point of view as well.
Matt Mosher, CEO of HiredMyWay.Com, employed Dobbins, part of an experiment to see if quality interns could be recruited through Challenge Detroit. Mosher said it has gone so well it has signed up for Year Two.
?It had a couple of benefits,? Mosher said. ?We had one of the best employees we?ve ever had. She was a great asset to our company. It also helped us in the community to be part of Challenge Detroit. It got us a lot of attention.?
