{"id":27798,"date":"2022-05-10T12:42:26","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T12:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/?post_type=blogpost&p=27798"},"modified":"2022-05-10T12:42:26","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T12:42:26","slug":"fellow-spotlight-kaj-althaus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/fellow-spotlight-kaj-althaus\/","title":{"rendered":"Fellow Spotlight: Kaj Althaus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kaj Althaus is a 2021-2022 Fellow. Kaj grew up in Saline, Michigan and earned a Bachelors in Cultural Anthropology from University in Michigan and a Masters in Public Policy from Penn State.<\/p>\n

Tell us about your host company and your role in the organization.<\/strong>
\nMy host company, The Live6 Alliance, is a community development nonprofit based out of Northwest Detroit. Our primary focus is on four neighborhoods that border Livernois & McNichols (6 Mile), which are Fitzgerald, Bagley, Martin Park, & University District. We work in a variety of areas including public safety and small business assistance.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kaj with his Live6 and Challenge fellow colleague Effie on the first day of Challenge Detroit.<\/p><\/div>\n

Tell us about the challenge project you\u2019re currently working on; what are you learning from the experience?<\/strong>
\nI am currently serving as the team lead for the Dashboard Sustainability Team on our Project with Brilliant Detroit. We are looking at creating a plan to implement BD\u2019s pending comprehensive data tool in every newly inquired neighborhood and site. I am learning a lot from the experience. The opportunity to lead my team has been eye-opening in terms of the scope of work that is required to execute these projects well. I am also learning so much about Brilliant Detroit and its mission as an organization.<\/p>\n

How do you hope to impact the community as a Fellow?<\/strong>
\nAs a Fellow, I hope to help further the development of one of the greatest cities on earth. The communities we are working with are already incredibly vibrant and I hope to contribute something for them to continue to reach their potential.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kaj with volunteers from the University of Detroit Mercy after assembling resources to execute an Alley Activation project funded by the AARP.<\/p><\/div>\n

Since becoming a Fellow, what new skill\/skills have you gained?<\/strong>
\nUnderstanding the process of Design Thinking through the challenge projects has been an amazing new skill I have developed. It is a very efficient project design tool that I will take with me to all my professional endeavors in the future.<\/p>\n

Please share the most memorable moment you have experienced so far as a Fellow. Why was it memorable and how has it impacted you?<\/strong>
\nThe most memorable moment of the fellowship so far was this past weekend, when I executed a placemaking project to activate the empty lot across the street from Homebase<\/a>. It was a project I headed up on my own for the most part and it was really successful.<\/p>\n

If someone is reading this and considering applying to be a Fellow, share why you would encourage them to apply?<\/strong>
\nChallenge Detroit is a great gateway to the professional landscape in Detroit. By the end of the year, you will have worked with at least 5 organizations and more than likely get invaluable experience in your field. The networking opportunities are vast as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kaj with 6 mile Santa and Rich Rich of Detroit by Design during the “Homebase 4 the Holidays” vendor pop up he helped orchestrate.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kaj Althaus is a 2021-2022 Fellow. Kaj grew up in Saline, Michigan and earned a Bachelors in Cultural Anthropology from University in Michigan and a Masters in Public Policy from Penn State. Tell us about your host company and your role in the organization. My host company, The Live6 Alliance, is a community development nonprofit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":27800,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,17,12,18,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-givedetroit","category-leaddetroit","category-livedetroit","category-playdetroit","category-workdetroit","category-y10-fellow-spotlights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/286"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/challengedetroit.builtrare.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}