Our interns came to South Bend–Elkhart expecting valuable professional experience, but many found something more: a vibrant community filled with local favorites, new friendships, and unforgettable summer memories. From coffee shops and festivals to parks and neighborhood events, hear how this year's interns experienced the region beyond the internship.

A Myers-Briggs personality assessment offered one enFocus intern more than just insight into herself. It sparked conversations about collaboration, communication, and why diverse perspectives are essential to solving complex challenges for the communities enFocus serves.

What started as a simple scavenger hunt became an unexpected lesson in focus, productivity, and the value of monotasking. Through a real-world experience at the St. Joseph County Public Library, enFocus Summer Intern Michelle discovered how intentional work habits can help turn everyday moments into meaningful professional growth.

St. Joseph County and enFocus partnered to create a new public Economic Impact Assessment Dashboard designed to help residents and community leaders better understand how major investments are shaping New Carlisle and the surrounding region. Through collaboration, data, and transparency, the tool aims to support informed conversations about growth, infrastructure, and the future of Northern Indiana.

Explore five key workforce readiness trends shaping 2026, from emotional intelligence and creativity to microcredentials and project-based experience.

Design thinking isn’t just about solving problems—it’s about designing solutions with people at the center. By shifting from a problem-focused mindset to a user-first approach, teams can unlock creativity, improve adoption, and drive more meaningful, lasting innovation.

Sometimes innovation starts with a small spark—in this case, a barcode at a grocery store. Through prototyping and collaboration, an enFocus Fellow transformed that spark into a digital tool that helped a manufacturing partner streamline production, uncover insights, and embrace a new approach to efficiency.

Innovation isn’t just about launching something new; it’s about adapting, learning, and finding progress in unexpected places. When faced with uncertainty, the enFocus team turned potential setbacks into opportunities to build resilience and lasting impact.

Finding “home” can mean more than just a place; it can be a community, a purpose, and the people who help you grow. For one enFocus Fellow-turned-Engineer, South Bend became all three, shaping both a career in innovation and a sense of belonging that turned a city into home.

Discover the essential leadership skills future leaders need and how the enFocus Fellowship builds adaptability and tech-ready problem-solving.

Get a glimpse into a typical day as an Industry Innovation Fellow at enFocus — where collaboration, creativity, and continuous learning come together to drive impact and professional growth.

A day as a Civic Innovation Fellow is never the same—Leah shares how her work at enFocus blends collaboration, professional growth, and community impact with the flexibility to enjoy life in South Bend.

Read how supporting the City of Elkhart’s Lead Abatement Capacity Building Grant gave Ryan a new perspective on the public sector, revealing both the challenges of shifting priorities and the power of community buy-in.

At the end of the day, communicating big ideas isn’t about dumbing things down—it’s about making them accessible. Whether you’re talking with executives, coworkers, or family, the key is to meet people where they are, adjust your style, and guide them through the idea with clarity and intention. When you do, your ideas don’t just land—they stick.

At enFocus, professional development goes beyond training, it’s about building skills for social impact. Fellows gain hands-on experience in industries like healthcare, education, and local government while developing expertise in project management, data analytics, and communication.

In this Lessons that Last post, Dani reflects on how conducting interviews became more than just a data-gathering exercise—it was a lesson in listening, connecting, and facilitating meaningful conversations.

Last summer, I set out on a new professional goal. As a data analyst, I had worked with cloud-based tools like Google Colab and Databricks for data analysis and machine learning. Still, I didn’t fully understand the broader cloud ecosystem or what happens “behind the scenes.”

… Learning in a classroom is one thing, but applying that learning to high-impact, real-world situations is something else entirely. Nothing compares to leading the design of a survey where the results will directly influence funding and social outcomes.

An enFocus Fellow reflects on building skills through Citywide Classroom, digital equity work, and professional development that extends beyond the project.

Through DataCamp’s Data Analyst in Power BI career track, Bingjie transformed his foundational Power BI skills into advanced capabilities that directly impacted his work with a nonprofit client. He built over 20 dashboards to visualize program usage, track KPIs, and streamline grant reporting—ultimately saving the team over 20% in operational costs. This experience not only deepened his passion for data-driven impact in the nonprofit sector but also prepared him to pursue Power BI certification with confidence.