enFocus, a local nonprofit that attracts talent to Northern Indiana to spark innovation and foster entrepreneurship, welcomed nine recent graduates to their Fellowship program to support growing demand for high caliber talent and innovation services in the region.
Over the past year, enFocus actively recruited college seniors and graduate students from across the country. Nine candidates were selected from a highly competitive pool of over 250 applicants, a 55% increase in applications compared to the previous year. Melissa Fruscione, Director of Programs noted, “our 2021-2023 Fellow class represents one of our strongest recruiting classes to date. They bring a diverse experiences, skills, and backgrounds that will undoubtedly make a significant and lasting impact on our region.”
From engineers to economists and public relations specialists to computer scientists, they are an impressive group. Hailing from academic institutions including the University of Notre Dame, Purdue University, and DePaul University they pursued studies ranging from Anthropology and Applied Computational Mathematics to Environmental Sciences and Non-Profit Organizations. Half of the new Fellows have advanced degrees. They also bring experience from near and far; locally in South Bend, Indiana and globally in Argentina, Brazil, Kenya, and Spain. This multilingual group includes artists, chefs, writers, and even a rock climber.
Through the 2-year enFocus Fellowship program, young professionals work as problem-solvers on innovation projects with partners in the corporate, non-profit, 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. enFocus’s goal is to create attractive experiences for Fellows so that while they are working and living in the region, they also build connections making it more likely they will stay in the region after the Fellowship. Executive Director, Andrew Wiand shared, “we aim to inspire talent to become future leaders in the region. To this end, we work hard to match Fellows to impactful projects while providing personal and professional development.”