Designation Detr@it

Live, Work, Play, Give from page 31

of the city and also be in the same
boat as 29 other kids down there,"
he said. "I think we're all going to
have a great time."
The trio's third roommate is
Berlin of Farmington Hills, who
graduated from the University of
Michigan with a degree in public
policy.
"I went into pub-
lic policy," Berlin
explained, "because
I've always been
interested in leader-
ship and public
service, and my
passions kind of
Zachary
fell into that field."
Berlin
His interest in
Challenge Detroit
started when he asked himself what
he wanted to do after graduation. "I
felt this energy and pull that drew
me toward the Detroit area and it
was a contagious thing among my
peer group, too," Berlin said.
"We all had conversations about
Detroit and how we could best use
our education, and I decided that
I needed to work in a place where
I could make a difference and in a
place I was passionate about, and
that place is Detroit.
"I can't wait to start on the team
challenges; I love working in a col-
laborative environment. I'm really
excited to live out this next chapter
of my life after graduating."
Berlin will work with Credit Ac-
ceptance, an indirect auto finance
company in Southfield.

Downtown
Development

Another Jewish participant is Vadim
Avshalumov, 27, who recently re-
ceived his master's from U-M. "I've
been passionate about Detroit and
its revitalization
for a while now,"
Avshalumov said,
"and Challenge
Detroit seems like
a good model to
help fix some of
the urban problems
with bright, young,
entrepreneurial-
Vadim
minded people."
Avshalumov
He is hoping one
of the challenges the group will be
presented with involves transporta-
tion. "City transportation intrigues
me," he said, "particularly issues
of equity and routes and how you
can encourage alternative modes of
transportation in cities."
The companies involved with
Challenge Detroit attracted Avsh-
alumov's attention. "I was drawn to
the companies hiring the partici-
pants, particularly Quicken Loans,
who I will be working for. I'll be
part of a team that works with

Quicken's Downtown development
decisions.
"This project, what Challenge
Detroit will have us doing, it's not
a typical look at Detroit. It's much
more intimate," he said. "This is a
much more complicated look at the
city, one you can't get in a week.
This will be a perspective that takes
a year to achieve."

The
Craig Fahle
Show

Detroit Newcomer

Coming into Challenge Detroit from
a non-native Detroiter's perspec-
tive will be interesting for Isaac
Gilman, 24, who is originally from
Ridgewood, N.J.
Gilman came to
Michigan to attend
grad school at U-M,
where he received
his master's in
urban planning.
"I thought De-
troit would be an
Isaac Gilman
interesting place
to work in urban
planning, since
all I heard as an outsider was that
Detroit was falling apart," he said.
"It turned out that my program
didn't focus on the region, which
I was initially disappointed about,
but that forced me explore the city
on my own, which gave me a good
perspective, I think."
Last year, he worked with Ameri-
Corps in a southwestern Detroit
neighborhood to help kids and,
through that work, he learned what
it felt to really be in Detroit. "I loved
it and got immediately sucked in,"
Gilman said.
Living in the city is what Gilman
is most excited about. "It has been
my goal to move to Detroit, and I
can't wait to finally become a resi-
dent. And through living there, I am
so excited to make a difference in
the city. Any impact we can make,
big or small, I'm totally for it."
Gilman will work with Billhigh-
way, a company that works to
combine nonprofits' finances into
one system of processing.
Greene said Challenge Detroit
has been four years in the making.
"It took a lot of time to idealize
and conceptualize
what the program
should look like,
but we founded it
on the principle of
four pillars — live,
work, play and
give. We know this
is a great place to
accomplish
all of
Deirdre
those
things,
and
Greene •
we are so excited
to see what these
individuals bring to the table as
they get started." E

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August 16 2012

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