Fellowship offers professional development, community engagement, diversity
MICHAEL CRUMB Sep 3, 2020 | 8:51 pm
3 min read time
821 wordsAll Latest News, Arts and Culture, Economic DevelopmentAs the Greater Des Moines Partnership announces the second cohort of its Fellowship Program, two graduates of the first class are touting the program’s benefits, saying it has helped them advance in their jobs and to become more engaged in the community.
Justin Greenwood, top photo, risk and cash lead analyst at Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, and Kartikeya Vavilala, bottom photo, information security analyst at Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, were among the first class of 17 graduates that recently completed the two-year program. The program is designed to attract, develop and retain a diverse community of top-tier graduates to help companies diversify their workforce while helping graduates and new employees develop new skills and build the networks needed to become more involved in the community.
Greenwood, 26 and a 2016 graduate of the University of Iowa who majored in economics, said the program has helped him hone skills that have led to him receiving a promotion.
“It was very advantageous for me to join a program that gives you professional development at such a young age,” Greenwood said. “It also allowed me to grow my network and meet like-minded individuals and gain lifelong friends.”
One of the courses that helped most, Greenwood said, was on public speaking.
“It helped a ton because I learned how to speak to other individuals, it brought me out of my shell and helped me be able to speak up more in meetings versus just sitting there taking notes and really not contributing much,” he said. “I learned how to better communicate with individuals. I learned how to relate better to individuals I worked with.”
The fellowship also exposed him to all the volunteering opportunities in Central Iowa, and he would like to get more involved in that sector and eventually serve on a board of a local organization, Greenwood said.
Vavilala said the fellowship has also helped lift his career.
“They were teaching me how to speak, how to present, helping me improve all my skills,” Vavilala said.
Vavilala said one of the greatest lessons helped him to improve his presentation skills during public speaking.
“I thought I was doing an OK job, but then they showed me a video of what I was doing wrong and what I could do to fix it,” said Vavila, a graduate of Iowa State University, majoring in management information systems.
Vavilala, 24, said another benefit of the fellowship was connecting with top executives in the local business community, as well as working with local community service organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity and On with Life.
Mary Bontrager, executive vice president of talent development at the Partnership, said helping young professionals achieve that positive work-life balance is one of the goals of the fellowship.
“We hear from some companies that they recruit young talent … from some other place and they may not have ties in Des Moines, and if they didn’t find that network and a sense of being, a sense of purpose, they had a hard time retaining them,” she said. “They’re very mobile, and if they don’t have those things that fulfill them beyond the workplace, we run a high risk of losing them.”
Greenwood, from Wisconsin, and Vavilala, who was born in India and lived in Denmark and then several states in the U.S. with his family, both say that the fellowship has given them insights into the Des Moines community and that they plan to stay.
Another goal was for the cohort to be as diverse as possible, Bontrager said.
“Whether that was ethnic diversity, diversity of industry, diversity of backgrounds or life experiences, we wanted to put a focus on having a lot of diversity,” she said.
The fellowship also allows the community to tap into what Bontrager described as “amazing brain trust to think about new ideas or new initiatives for Des Moines.”
“This is a generation that’s going to inherit and keep these things alive, so it’s been a great brain trust for us as a community with the brilliant young collective voices,” she said.
As the second cohort of the fellowship begins, what advice would Vavilala and Greenwood offer?
“My number one advice would be to not take this lightly and attend all the curriculum classes and networking opportunities that they can, not miss a single opportunity,” Vavilala said. “There’s not another program like it.”
Greenwood offered this advice: “Just immerse yourself in everything and take enjoyment in what you’re doing. Try to step out of your shell the best you can and I guarantee you’ll come out a better person and learn more than you ever have before.”
And get involved, he said.
“You really don’t know what you’re going to like, but you have to try things to get to know what you do like,” Greenwood said.
To see the full list of participants in the fellowship’s second cohort, click here.
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