Summer Fellowship Program Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Social Enterprise Newsletter, Spring 2002

"The Summer Nonprofit Fellowship is an experience of a lifetime—an experience no number of cases can replace," says Yasumasa Ishizaka (MBA '91), who worked at the Population and Community Development Association of Thailand between his first and second year at HBS. "Details of cases may fade, but memories of the fellowship become more significant over time."

Last October, positive memories of fellowships were in abundance. Dozens of HBS Nonprofit and Public Management Summer Fellows from years past, along with former nonprofit employers and HBS alumni donors to the program, returned to the School to celebrate the program's 20th year. Established in 1982, through the support of alumni and friends of the School, the fellowship has provided financial assistance to over 350 MBA students who have chosen to work for nonprofit and government organizations during the summer. The celebration gave those involved in the program a chance to reflect on their experiences.

HBS graduates have drawn from their hands-on summer experience, bringing business skills to the social sector both as volunteers and as full-time employees. During his summer with City Year, a youth service corps headquartered in Boston, Craig Knight (MBA '90) helped stage the first City Year for a Day service day. When he joined Waffle House, Inc. in Atlanta, he shared the idea with Hands On Atlanta, a volunteer corps; helped launch the program; and was involved as a volunteer for the first five years of the event. "Both my awareness of and my desire to participate in the social sector," says Knight, "were enhanced by my experiences as a summer fellow."

Jennifer Leidich (MBA '98), who now works as a microfinance consultant in Mexico, gained international and consulting experience during her summer fellowship with the Center for Middle East Competitive Strategy, her first professional experience in the nonprofit sector. "I can honestly say that the summer fellowship led me to look for a position in nonprofit work after graduation," notes Leidich.

While summer fellows gain experience, knowledge, and skills, nonprofit employers benefit from the fellows' participation. "The value of hiring an HBS student is significant," observes John Zanardelli, executive director and CEO of United Methodist Services for the Aging in Pittsburgh. "Our summer associate brought conceptual skills; problem-solving frameworks; and specific tools in finance, marketing, operations, and strategy."

In some cases, the program has come full circle as alumni take advantage of the opportunity to employ summer associates from the current generation of HBS students. Dan Katzir (MBA '91), who spent his fellowship summer at the then-newly founded Teach for America, currently directs The Broad Foundation, a venture philanthropy organization that funds innovative efforts to improve large urban school systems. When Katzir needed help evaluating the Foundation's grants and its overall portfolio, he hired Jessica D. Porten (HBS '02), who was given the chance both to learn about strategic philanthropy in education and to experience a fun, hardworking start-up. She remarks, "It was amazing to watch Dan in action and learn that an organization can maintain a social mission while managing its day-to-day activities in a businesslike way. He made it easy to feel that what I was doing was having a significant effect on society."

The impact of the summer fellowship program on both students and the organizations they serve is evident to the program's donors. Initially funded from MBA student-generated funds, the fellowships first received external support from Richard L. Menschel (MBA '59) through the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation. Fellowships are now supported by nine funds to supplement the fellows' salaries at the hiring organizations.

Fellowship donor Robert Rimsky (MBA '41), who has been involved in nonprofit institutions for many years, says that the training at HBS is ideal preparation for people who wish to devote their lives to the public sector. "The reports I receive from participating students at the end of the summer," Rimsky notes, "certainly attest to the gratifying results for them as well as for the organizations."