BLAIR YANKEY byankey@elkharttruth.com
by Blair Yankey byankey@elkharttruth.com
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ELKHART — Regional talent attraction group enFocus on Thursday unveiled its newest fellowship cohort consisting of nine graduates from around the world.
The group welcomed the fellows at the ETHOS Innovation Center to support the growing demand for young professional talent and innovation services in the South Bend-Elkhart region, officials said.
“We want to celebrate the fact that we are attracting talented people to the region, especially in Elkhart,” said Andrew Wiand, enFocus executive director. “We want to increase awareness of our motto and build awareness across the community.”
Over the past year, enFocus recruited college seniors and graduate students from across the country, including Kenya, Argentina, Brazil and Spain. Nine candidates were selected from a pool of over 250 candidates.
Hailing from academic institutions including University of Notre Dame, Purdue University and DePaul University, they pursued studies ranging from applied computational mathematics to environmental sciences and nonprofit management.
Half of the new fellows have advanced degrees and many bring international experience. With the newest fellow additions, the enFocus team has grown to 35 members, Wiand said.
Through the nonprofit’s two-year fellowship program, Wiand said, these young professionals work as problem-solvers on innovation projects with partners in corporate, nonprofit, education and public sectors. These projects range from data analysis and process improvement studies to the creation of new products and services for regional businesses.
Wiand said the group’s goal is to create attractive experiences for young professionals in hopes that they stay in the area and work with existing companies, nonprofits and governments to improve local communities.
“Over 70 percent of our fellows do stay in the region and that is either with enFocus or with local organizations,” Wiand said.
“The experiences they gain from the program make them highly competitive for better positions,” he said. “After their fellowships, most of the fellows are in technical or management positions.”
The event Thursday was a chance for the fellows to meet and network with community leaders to share some projects they plan on executing throughout the region.
Prabodh Sonalkar of India, a mechanical engineer graduate from Purdue University, will be tackling local industry projects.
While working at a food pantry during his master’s program, he said he realized he wanted to work for a company that has some impact on the community or region, which is something he’ll be able to do through the fellowship program.
“I’m looking forward to learning new things because our projects covers a wide variety from project management to technical skills,” he said. “I’ll be able to take on my technical aspirations, like project management, data analysis while also advancing my engineering skills.”
Another fellow, Eliza Vardanyan of Armenia, a graduate of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, plans on tackling civic projects by working with local school systems.
“I’ve always been grateful to people who have invested in my education throughout my life and wanted to give back,” she said. “One of the ways to do so is by volunteering and I found out that enFocus is doing projects that are helpful to the community and region through this fellowship program.”