In school, students spend most of their time working on homework assignments and projects, which, despite their importance in reinforcing skills learned in class, have no immediate benefit to the world. Similarly, in traditional management consulting roles, employees often utilize the latest tools to solve their clients’ problems, often without considering the impacts beyond the client themselves. To have an impact on the world outside of the classroom or office, individuals need to search for other opportunities to work on meaningful projects.
Enter Social Entrepreneurship!
Social entrepreneurship combines the problem solving, product design, and strategic implementation associated with traditional entrepreneurial and consulting roles with large scale societal impact. While the beneficiaries of these projects are often greater in number (think entire villages, countries, or regions of the world), there are also greater challenges. While traditional entrepreneurs usually vie for seed funding, angel investing, and, occasionally, money from Shark Tank, social entrepreneurs do not have wealthy clients giving them money for their projects. Thus, there are inherent challenges in funding these types of ventures.
Let us look at an example as a sort of case study. Today we will look at a student group at Duke University called the Duke Interdisciplinary Social Innovators (DISI). We will look at how DISI is organized, which should allow you to go form a similar club at your school or form a start-up company with a similar goal in mind.
DISI brings together small groups of graduate students who are interested in creating unique solutions for pressing social issues. Each project lasts one semester, during which the students perform services for various community organizations, such as evaluating the impact of certain parameters on profit, implementing new tools and technologies, developing strategic financial plans, and more. There are typically six to ten projects per semester. In the recent past, partner organizations included Child Care Services, Book Harvest, Safe Haven for Cats, and Benevolence Farm. Projects have ranged from database management and data survey to impact assessment and market research. At the conclusion of each semester, there is a showcase where students share their projects, and everything starts again the next semester with a new kick-off event.
Students fulfill various roles within DISI and collaborate with one another to brainstorm ideas and turn them into reality. Project Innovators (PIs) commit a few hours a week to provide support for the analysis and implementation of the projects. PIs bring in their own technical expertise with students coming from engineering backgrounds at Pratt, public policy backgrounds at Sanford, or even medical and law backgrounds. PIs work with each other to complete tasks and the variety of skills and experiences they bring together allows the teams to develop complex solutions for these challenges. The innovators also attend skill sessions, where they learn about topics from survey building to project management. Students can choose to become an innovator for as many semesters as they like.
Project Innovators provide the deliverables in a timely fashion by working with Project Managers (PMs). These students coordinate the activities of five innovators while reporting to the Director of Operations on the Executive Board. PMs also work directly with the industry and community partners, requiring slightly more of a time commitment in comparison to the innovators. In addition to the normal skill sessions, students in the management level also attend seminars to improve their leadership skills. These managers provide the necessary bridge between the innovators, the executive board, and the community partners, facilitating the success of each project.
In addition to filling these roles on project teams, students can also apply to be part of the Executive Board. There are over ten positions that are chosen each semester, and they include co-presidents, marketing, strategy, and operations. The Executive Board oversees each project during the semester, plans the kick-off and showcase events, and hosts skills seminars and training sessions, among other responsibilities. Students often work their way up the chain of command into executive board positions through continued participation, but there is no structured prerequisite to be able to apply for these positions.
Due to the various positions within DISI, effective collaboration is critical to the mission of each project. Throughout the semester, the teams visit their clients to discuss the progress of their projects. Sometimes, they also complete team-building exercises such as “Escape the Room”.
I wanted to learn about DISI from firsthand experience, so I interviewed its two Co-Presidents. Here is a snapshot of our discussion:
What brought you to DISI?
Charlotte was brought to DISI due to her desire for community outreach; on the other hand, Nick was interested in opportunities to develop skills outside of the laboratory.
Graduate students spend large amounts of time conducting research, studying textbooks, and completing homework assignments. DISI offers an opportunity to complete unique and technical projects with community partners, while improving soft skills and management techniques in the process.
With the semester-long project limit, students can choose which semesters they participate, providing a flexibility that is appealing to graduate students.
Why did you choose to pursue an executive board member position within DISI?
Charlotte and Nick both agreed that serving as executive board members has provided them with a greater appreciation for the impacts on the community that the teams are creating. Innovators can focus on the details of a particular task for a specific project. However, the executive board members get the chance to help put the pieces together to form the big picture.
What would you like others to know about DISI?
Charlotte mentioned that alumni from DISI go on to secure consulting jobs at companies as big as McKinsey and Triangle Insights Group. DISI provides students with plenty of skills and experiences to talk about during job interviews.
Nick added that there is a position for everyone in DISI. Depending on what you are looking to get out of the experience, there is plenty of room for growth and development, whether you participate for one semester or six.
Ricky Hollenbach is a third year Ph.D. student at Duke University in Mechanical Engineering, studying unsteady aerodynamics and mechanical vibrations in jet engines and turbomachinery. He aspires to become a management consultant in the aerospace and defense fields.
Image: Pexels
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