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All Hands on Deck Social Venture Consultants Get Valuable Hands-On Learning Opportunities
Final projects were presented at an evening reception at the Smith School on December 8, 2010. Teams faced similar challenges throughout the semester, including narrowing down the initial project scopes and working within resource constraints. But valuable lessons were learned, too, both by the consultants and by the nonprofit clients. “The social venture consulting project has added a lot to my education at Smith, because it is a real, hands-on consulting project,” said Nick Olson, a full-time MBA student and consultant to the New York-based organization Friendfactor. “The organization we consulted for is going to make a huge difference in the world, and I'm proud to have helped them do that.” Throughout the semester, teams had the opportunity to interact not only with their clients, but with Smith faculty as well. Rob Sheehan, Rebecca Ratner and Mukul Kumar were among those who lent their expertise to the student teams. “We were able to get help and advice from faculty whom we otherwise might not have met,” Olson said.
“Visiting my clients and having the opportunity to shadow their daily work was the highlight of my consulting project,” said MBA consultant Ragavan Manogaran. “My experience was bittersweet as I was exposed to both the problems facing our society and the pivotal role played by NGOs in helping the society tackle these problems. I realized that a lot of work still needs to be done and this gives us all the opportunity to pitch in and help our society whenever and wherever possible,” he said. MBA consultants Vladimir Inozemsev and Shashank Saini spent three intensive days on site working with their clients at the Southeast Fiber Arts Alliance in Atlanta, Ga., learning not only about fiber arts, but also about the challenges of running a startup nonprofit organization. “Vladimir and Shashank took ownership of our project and truly became a part of our team,” said Suzi Gough of SEFAA. “We were all impressed with the breadth and depth of their financial, fundraising, and marketing knowledge and their willingness to share it with us. Watching them in action taught us valuable planning and evaluation skills,” she said. The program is run in both fall and spring semesters, in partnership with Grassroots.org. Nonprofits or students interested in applying can read more about all of this fall's projects and contact the center for more information. Universities interested in participating as partner campuses are encouraged to contact Melissa Carrier at mcarrier@rhsmith.umd.edu.
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This
semester, 23 Smith MBA students and 12 undergraduates worked in
small teams to complete consulting engagements with a diverse
set of nonprofit clients as part of the
For
many of the teams with out-of-state clients, the highlight of
the experience was traveling to meet with them face-to-face
during the semester. 
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WINTER 2011 |