Fasika Delessa '18 writes about the Change the World Consulting Showcase.
After a semester’s worth of meetings, research, and google hangouts -- students participating in Change the World Consulting (CTW) came together to showcase their recommendations and celebrate their hard work. Held every semester, the Change the World Consulting Showcase has historically been a time to mark the end of a formative journey for CTW consultants; a group of hardworking undergraduate and graduate students placed on multidisciplinary teams to help nonprofit clients solve critical business problems in semester-long consulting engagements.
Program Manager, Kirsten Craft, kicked off the night by sharing program highlights. The Center for Social Value Creation (CSVC) has brought consulting opportunities to students through CTW for the last eight years, and collectively, students have supported over 250 nonprofit organizations. This year, all CTW clients were local, and to touch on the larger impact CTW has on both the College Park community and state of Maryland as a whole, Craft noted the more than 32,000 nonprofit organizations located in Maryland and the 260,000 people these nonprofits employ. Of these nonprofits, more than 80% report they need more business expertise. Turning to the students before her, Craft emphasized the importance of this local impact and the worthy contribution the student consultants make.
Dana Harriman, a junior economics major, was a consultant with Bethel House Inc. this semester and was particularly touched by Craft’s opening, stating, “these powerful statistics showed the importance of our work and also the importance of collaboration and finding sustainable solutions for the barriers nonprofits face.” Reflecting further, Harriman stated that “Working as a CTW consultant this semester has been an amazing and eye-opening experience, working with nonprofits is incredibly rewarding because you make a direct impact not only on the organization, but also with the people they support. After working with our client, and seeing how a few strategic changes will improve their functions, witnessing the incredible work done by 11 other teams during the showcase was almost overwhelming.”
The showcase was designed to be an engaging experience for the consultants, with teams divided into two sessions - half the consultants pitched their recommendations in the first half and the other in the second, alternating between consultant and critic. As the team's heard each other's pitches, they had the opportunity to give a token to the team that did the best job, with a handy rubric provided to them by CSVC. The stakes were high; the prize for the winning team was a formal dinner on CSVC. After a close count, the team that wowed their fellow consultants the most was a group of graduate students working with University of Maryland’s SAFE Center, a nonprofit that works to combat human trafficking.
To close out the night, team Write to Be, a graduate team of students, presented their recommendations to the entire audience, with Write To Be’s founder, current UMD Master of Public Policy candidate, Kate Raulin, sitting front and center. The team created a spreadsheet to help track the nonprofit's finances, an organization that empowers women and girls in Haiti through a pen-pal program and educational workshops. Students were particularly impressed by team Write To Be’s ability to create this tool despite the difficulty of differing currencies.
After this presentation, the consultants were invited to network and enjoy light refreshments. Nikhil Modi, a freshman finance major, was grateful for the chance to interact with and meet fellow consultants at the showcase, stating, “I was inspired by their work ethic and drive to make as much of an impact as possible. ” While the showcase was just a few hours, the time, energy, and devotion consultants invest in their projects transcends far beyond that. The semester may be coming to a close, but CTW consultants continue to be hard at work, wrapping up their projects and preparing final recommendations for their clients.
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