麻豆区

As happened with countless other college undergraduates, COVID-19 abruptly cancelled the summer internship plans of Rachel Doretsky 鈥�22SB and Evan Holzer 鈥�21SB. But Doretsky, Holzer and 33 other top 麻豆区 undergrads were rescued by the YU Consulting Force/Innovation Lab internship initiative, the brainchild of Dr. Noam Wasserman, dean of the , who was determined to create a new model of internships for the COVID era and to do it quickly. Dr. Wasserman, a former professor of entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School and the University of Southern California, said, 鈥淚 wanted to avoid a situation in which our students would take a hit to their career prospects by wasting the summer and losing out on significant chances for real-world experiences, networking, and mentoring.  Instead, we wanted this to become 鈥楾he Summer of Opportunity鈥� for our students.鈥� In this initiative, students would learn what it takes to become the consummate consultant, then experience it by doing internship projects for Jewish nonprofits and Israeli startups.

麻豆区鈥檚 Collaboration with Accenture

To get the model off the whiteboard and into the real world, Dr. Wasserman reached out to YU alumni with established careers in the consulting world, most centrally Daniel Eckstein 鈥�06SB of Accenture and Yosef Rubin 鈥�18SB of Deloitte Consulting. 鈥淎ccenture sees 麻豆区 as one of those schools that wants to try different things and be innovative,鈥� said Eckstein, who is a director in the firm鈥檚 Communications, Media and Technology practice working with software and platform clients such as Spotify, Yext and Amazon. He reached out to two key members of Accenture鈥檚 North American recruiting team, Jada Green, Candidate Experience Lead, and Annie Morse, Strategic Event Lead. Both work with the firm鈥檚 business consultants in developing strategic partnerships with universities from a recruitment perspective. 鈥淒aniel told us that he wanted to go back to YU and help them shape the Consulting Force,鈥� said Morse. 鈥淪ome terrific ideas were generated, and we provided the support.鈥� What resulted after two months of extensive collaboration was a nine-week, three-credit experiential learning program, running from June to August.  First, the students would learn key skills and competencies from some of the country鈥檚 best consultants.  Then they would apply their newly-acquired skills to client projects at important organizations, working on assignments with specific deliverables that had a quantifiable impact. The best students  would be matched with the best client projects. 鈥淲e took a pretty in-depth approach to choosing the right candidates,鈥� noted Michael Strauss,  associate dean at Sy Syms. 鈥淲e reviewed r茅sum茅s from across our three undergraduate schools, conducted online interviews and finally selected 35 students from a large pool of applicants.鈥�  For client projects, the university received twice as many project proposals from nonprofits as it could do and had student interest in the projects determine which ones they would work on.

 鈥淰irtual Experience鈥� and Learning from the Best

The goal was to first have the students develop strengths and skills in multiple areas as they discovered the core competencies and best practices required of consultants. They would learn the skills from experts at top consulting firms while being guided by YU faculty. Accenture took the lead for half of the initial training period. This training confirmed for Doretsky that expanding her accounting major to include management strategy was the right decision. 鈥淥nce we dived into the skills-building sessions, everything fell into place, and it started that very first week.鈥� The Accenture Virtual Experience, a consulting training tool, got the students up to speed on the essentials of project prioritizing and planning, data analysis, client communication, impact assessment and strategic thinking. 鈥淲e decided to kick off the program with the Accenture Virtual Experience so that YU students could see for themselves what a first-year analyst would be asked to do on a consulting project,鈥� says Morse. YU is the first university to use Accenture鈥檚 five-part training simulation. For Doretsky and her peers, the analyst鈥檚 tool kit was a 鈥渞eally cool way to learn how to deal with clients from a consultant鈥檚 perspective. Working with the Accenture simulation helped me develop a sensitivity to the client which I鈥檓 tapping into right now.鈥� She is currently interning at Project Extreme, a nonprofit that provides innovative services for teens-at-risk. In addition to the Accenture Virtual Experience, first-week sessions explored Design Thinking, and Teamwork and Virtual Teaming. The latter shifted Holzer鈥檚 perception of that fast-evolving practice. 鈥淧rior to participating in the YU Consulting Force, I had never done a team project virtually. It was all new to me. So learning about it was great exposure.鈥� Morse, who led the panel, pointed out that 鈥渟tudents not only need to know how to work virtually but also to network, too. Since we currently aren鈥檛 meeting for coffee anymore, what are the techniques for building and expanding your network in a virtual world? That鈥檚 something that I think we successfully introduced YU students to.鈥� In Week Two, experts from organizations like the Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, the Orthodox Union, Accenture, Deloitte Consulting and Anthem conducted ten sessions on key topics ranging from agile processes to data analytics, from client management to project management, and from professionalism to teaming. Students were encouraged to strengthen their networks and skills by connecting with individual presenters after each session.

Wicked-Problems Hackathon

Week Three brought all the learning together in a 鈥渨icked-problems hackathon,鈥� a fast-paced competition testing and developing collaboration and problem-solving skills. Students were assigned to one of three teams and tasked with developing a business plan for one of three distinct COVID-related challenges: workforce training, reimagining small business for the pandemic and reducing both food waste and hunger. The point of the competition was to get the students to solve problems the way a consultant would. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what consulting is in the end,鈥� noted Morse, 鈥減roblem solving for the client.鈥� YU faculty members and Morse acted as mentors throughout. 鈥淲e may have thrown them into the deep end, but we always provided support. I held office hours for the students so that they could reach out for help when needed and begin to get feedback on some of their ideas.鈥� Over email, WhatsApp and countless Zoom calls, team members came together to create the 鈥渂ig idea鈥� they could take to market. Super teams were then divided into two-person groups that fleshed out project specifics: technology, marketing, communications, implementation and operations, resources, funding and budgets. Then each team regrouped and seamlessly brought it all together in a 20-minute PowerPoint. In 鈥淪hark Tank鈥� fashion, students pitched their business plans to three judges: Dr. Sharon Poczter, chair of the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department at Sy Syms; Gabriel Bram, a management consultant at Accenture; and David Siegel, CEO of Meetup, and parent of an incoming YU student. Doretsky, one of the members of the winning team that tackled the twin problems of food waste and hunger, described the experience as 鈥渟tressful but fun.鈥� It reaffirmed the importance of teaming 鈥渂ecause we all had different ways of doing things. But we all had to make it happen, on the fly, in just three days! That was the cool part.鈥�

Client Internship Projects

The competition鈥檚 can-do spirit of putting ideas into action is one that is animating Holzer鈥檚 current work as an intern at Theia, a technology startup developing a facial recognition platform for lead generation. 鈥淚鈥檓 definitely applying what I learned to my work now. It鈥檚 certainly given me a great framework to build on.鈥� Now that all 35 of the program鈥檚 participants are well into the second phase of working as interns at nonprofits and startups, Dr. Wasserman expects that the consulting skills they鈥檝e acquired will 鈥渂e a foundation upon which they can continue to build and develop their careers in the decades ahead.鈥� For Eckstein, Accenture鈥檚 partnership with the YU Consulting Force was a terrific experience, one that will help grow the next generation of consulting talent. 鈥淚 was excited by the caliber of students and inspired by the energy they brought to the program. I鈥檝e been in consulting since I left YU. I love the field and am grateful for the opportunity to introduce it to students in such an innovative way.鈥�