Learning and Contributing: Mutual Benefits for Summer Fellows and Organizations
Summer should be a time of growth and discovery. Thanks to the HBS Social Enterprise Summer Fellowship program, each year a significant number of students are able to explore career opportunities in the nonprofit and public sectors. This year close to 60 MBA students spent the summer applying their knowledge and building skills in regions near and far, from São Paulo to San Francisco. The program, which supplements the salaries that organizations provide, aims to give students a chance to demonstrate their knowledge and to learn firsthand what it is like to work in social enterprises. The Fellowship Program also receives high marks from the nonprofit and government agencies that benefit from the business acumen that MBAs bring to the table.
Among this year's fellows were three members of the Class of 2006 who worked alongside top administrators at the Chicago Public Schools and nine students who traveled to south Asia to lend a hand to the tsunami reconstruction effort.
Chicago Public Schools
Carice Anderson (HBS '06) was a summer associate in the Human Resources area of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), while classmates Monica Lee worked in Technology Services and Amanda Eisel Gulland in Library Services.
Anderson worked closely with Arnetta Mason, CPS deputy chief of Human Resources. "It was wonderful to have someone who could step in and hit the ground running," says Mason, whose department is currently restructuring and implementing new technology. "Carice's business, management, and personal skills were very valuable. I wish she could have stayed longer."
Carice Anderson (HBS '06)
Anderson, who worked at Deloitte and Arthur Andersen prior to coming to HBS, used her business skills in CPS projects that focused on evaluating the organizational and compensation structure in the school system and measuring teacher return on investment. She also assisted with the preparation of a new technology implementation plan that will allow CPS to better meet the needs of its employees. "I was very impressed with the leadership," says Anderson, noting that many of her colleagues are people who moved from careers in the private sector in order to help improve education. "I've learned a ton."
Anderson, copresident of the Social Enterprise Club at HBS, plans to continue to work in education when she graduates in June, although in five years she anticipates starting her own business. "If you want to impact the largest number of children," says the Alabama native, "there's no better way to do it than through public education."
Tsunami Relief
Halfway around the world, several organizations working to help those affected by the December 2004 tsunami also benefited from the experience of HBS MBAs. The nine HBS students were associates at five different relief-related agencies. (See listing)
John Serafini (HBS '06) found his position at the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) in Singapore to be "rewarding and engaging." NVPC is an NGO that specializes in promoting volunteerism and philanthropy. NVPC charged Serafini and his three HBS colleagues with making strategic recommendations on how the organization could offer better assistance in future humanitarian aid efforts. (One such colleague was Nayana Mawilmada [MBA '05], a native of Sri Lanka who helped the Social Enterprise Initiative organize the summer fellowship positions.)
The HBS summer associates set out to identify key constraints and recommend strategies for creating an efficient and well-coordinated disaster relief response from Singapore nonprofit organizations and to explore mechanisms that can foster their growth, professionalism, and maturation. Through interviews with Singapore nonprofits, government agencies, private donors, and corporations, Serafini says the group gained a sense of the "issues and bottlenecks encountered by organizations during the tsunami response." The team then traveled to Galle, Sri Lanka, and Meulaboh, Indonesia, to conduct further research. "These short deployments offered a wealth of information concerning best practices and issues on the ground," notes Serafini. "Our experiences within these regions provided the impetus for a number of our final recommendations."
"Our HBS summer fellows brought intellectual strength and rigor," says Tan Chee Koon, CEO of the NVPC. "Their strategic thinking was extremely valuable. Their neutrality as third-party observers helped to draw out sentiments, comments, and suggestions that we ourselves would not have been able to derive."
Like hundreds of MBAs who have come before them, many of this year's social enterprise fellows said their summer positions will help them explore future involvement in social enterprise through different roles in their careers.
Tsunami Relief Effort Summer Fellows
Board of Investment, Sri Lanka: Hiran Embuldeniya, MBA '05. International Organization for Migration: Anusha Srinivasan, MBA '05. National Volunteer & amp; Philanthropy Centre, Singapore: Nayana Mawilmada, MBA '05, Chiinga Musonda, HBS '06, John Serafini, HBS '06, Alberto Suarez, MBA '05. Navajeevana Development Alternatives: Matthew Adams, HBS '06, Jessica Freireich, HBS '06. Task Force for Rebuilding the Nation (TAFREN): Annie Bertrand, HBS '07.
Annie Bertrand: Staying Power
Amidst the devastation and confusion that the Asian tsunami brought, one thing was crystal clear to Annie Bertrand: She wanted to help. Bertrand had come to HBS in order to transition from a career as a consul- tant in banking and manufacturing to work that has a larger impact on society.
Annie Bertrand trains "Livlihood" officers hired to consult communities affected by the tsunami.
"I knew that management expertise would be needed to rebuild the nation and the livelihoods of the 800,000 people affected by the tsunami," says Bertrand, who jumped at the chance to work for the summer at the Task Force for Rebuilding the Nation (TAFREN) in Sri Lanka.
Her position on the "Livelihood" team at TAFREN provided a sometimes overwhelming amount of opportunities for her to test her skills. Two weeks into the job-when her three colleagues, all volunteers, left to go back to their jobs-she was creating and managing committees with government officials, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the community. Then she hired nine district officers who would coordinate an Income Recovery Programme throughout the region. Next, she launched a data collection project to understand and communicate what services were being offered by NGOs and to support local coordination.
As the end of the summer approached, Bertrand found herself fully engaged in her work. Realizing that the experience offered a once-in-a-lifetime chance to really make a difference, she decided to defer her second year at HBS in order to stay on at TAFREN. "If your personal goal in life is to have a positive impact on people's lives, the decision to stay in a country affected by the deadliest natural disaster in modern history is easy to make," says Bertrand, who is now the monitoring and evaluation advisor of TAFREN's Income Recovery Programme, designed by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Her decision centered in part on the importance of continuity in times of struggle. "In regions where telecommunications are destroyed or nonexistent, personal relationships are critical to ensuring progress," she observes.
Bertrand will bring her new experiences and skills back to HBS when she returns in the fall of 2006. Upon graduation, she plans to continue her career in the social sector. "I think it is possible to align NGOs toward the common goal of helping those in need," she says. And that is exactly what Bertrand will continue to focus on once she earns her MBA.
