CSVC Hosts ChangeTheWorld Showcase

The Center For Social Value Creation (CSVC) at the Robert H. Smith School of Business hosted the ChangeTheWorld Showcase on Nov. 17, 2016, highlighting Smith students’ semester of consultant work for various nonprofit organizations.

ChangeTheWorld Consulting (CTW) matches talented undergraduate and graduate students with social enterprises and nonprofit organizations for semester-long consulting engagements. Student consultants practice and hone their business skills by working in small teams to tackle complex problems faced by local organizations, allowing them to apply their consulting education to real-world situations.

With most of the hard work behind them, the night was not only a presentation, but also a celebration showcasing the efforts of the 60 Smith students who put in 2,400 hours of consulting work with 13 local clients.

“The purpose of our event tonight is to allow our student consultants to get feedback on their ideas,” said Kirsten Craft, Program Manager for ChangeTheWorld. She described the event as a mix between a celebration and a beta test. The student groups each presented their recommendations to the guests in the room through a timed round of presentations.

The lightening round of pitches allowed students to gain immediate feedback and gave them an opportunity to casually network. There were small tables scattered throughout the room for each group to present their consulting recommendations to attendees. Each participant collected a wooden chip at the door and placed it in the jar of his or her favorite presentation. At the end of the night, the winner was announced.

The student working with Thread, an organization that engages underperforming high school students living with difficult circumstances outside the classroom, won the audience vote. They were tasked with creating a professional development program for Thread, whose volunteer base has grown but staff has remained small. The students came up with recommendations to make Thread’s operations more efficient and to improve communication and management.

ChangeTheWorld Consulting allows University of Maryland students to directly give back to the community, while using their business skills, by pairing students with organizations that may not have been able to hire a professional consultant otherwise.