Day in the Life of an enFocus Fellow

At enFocus, everyday is different. Some days you may work remotely in the comfort of your home, and other days you may find yourself leading focus groups, facilitating strategic planning sessions, or visiting sponsor sites. During your time as a Fellow, you will get a variety of professional experiences across sectors and industries within the South Bend-Elkhart region. While everyday looks different, one thing remains constant for all our Fellows–they complete project work to learn and develop their professional skills.

At our core, we are a nonprofit that specializes in project-based work. Our projects are established through enFocus sponsors that approach enFocus with an opportunity or challenge that will help them achieve a specific goal or outcome. The outcomes help the organization to make informed decisions about their next steps to help them grow and serve as a catalyst for change throughout the South Bend-Elkhart community.

Typically, Fellows are assigned two sponsored projects at a time within our civic or industry portfolios. Sponsors provide meaningful work for Fellows and an avenue to develop professional skills that are of interest to them. Fellows can expect to work with a project manager on sponsored projects, and receive guidance through their expertise. During a work week, a Fellow will likely meet with one or two of their sponsors and their project manager to discuss project progress. Additionally, Fellows have regular check-ins with their project managers to ensure the project stays on track and meets expectations.

Fellows participate in more exploratory aspects of the job outside of the main focus of project work. Research, development, and entrepreneurship (RDE) time is another way in which Fellows use their time during the work week. Some Fellows choose an entrepreneurial route, where their RDE time is dedicated towards the launch of their own business. The Fellowship program offers entrepreneurs mentorship, connections, and a salary as they develop their start-up. All of these benefits offer a safety net to entrepreneurs as they craft the early stages of their business. Nosh and heARsight are two examples of successful startups that have been developed by enFocus Fellows.

The image above shows an example of what a work week may look like for a typical enFocus Fellow. It includes sponsored project work time (red and yellow), meetings (purple), professional development (orange), and RDE time (lavender).

Some Fellows choose to develop a product, service, or a founding project, while others choose to advance local businesses or social initiatives. The RDE portfolio also has a heavy emphasis on intrapreneurship, and enFocus Fellows can work on developing social initiatives or innovating existing organizations. Any of these components can contribute to a Fellow’s RDE time and provide a variety of opportunities for Fellows to explore.

While sponsored projects and RDE initiatives compose the most of Fellow time, enFocus deliberately prioritizes professional development. Company-wide learning opportunities, courses, mentorship, and external informative meetings are all a part of learning at enFocus. Our flexible work environment encourages Fellows to be curious about their professional interests and the autonomy to grow.

While the types of work we do stay the same, our flexible work culture empowers Fellows to have a high level of variety when completing projects and professional development. Our team can take advantage of our hybrid work-place, multiple office locations, and networking opportunities that come their way. The flexibility of the work day empowers employees to creatively brainstorm at a local cafe, problem solve at a group-work space downtown, or learn a new skill while eating lunch at home.

All Fellows work on both sponsor and RDE projects to promote the growth and development of the South Bend-Elkhart region. Over the course of a year, enFocus Fellows will complete multiple projects roughly dedicating 70% of their full-time hours to sponsor projects, and 30% of their time to RDE initiatives. The biggest commonality among Fellows is that 100% of their time is spent on meaningful work that results in a significant impact on the South Bend-Elkhart region.

Interested in learning more about the day-to-day work of our Fellows? Follow us on social media to learn what it's like to live and work in the region.