2020 Internship Experiences
About our Internships
In the summer of 2020, Business+Impact provided extra funding for a number of internship opportunities with a broad spectrum of organizations. Students from Ross and Ford developed their skills while helping mission-driven organizations in Detroit and around the world.
Our Summer Fund helped place Masters and BBA students with government and impact organizations across the country, with funding from Business+Impact and the student-run Give-A-Day Fund. This year interns primarily were asked to work from home, due to the coronavirus epidemic. However, they remained productive and valuable.
Internships are an important part of the work that Business+Impact does. Students who engage in internships are consistently amazed at the passion and purpose of the impact organizations with which they partner. Students are challenged to apply business learning to ambiguous organizational challenges. It requires a level of flexibility and insight to be successful.
WE CAUGHT UP WITH EIGHT STUDENTS AS THEY WERE FINISHING THEIR ASSIGNMENTS THIS SUMMER, AND THEY PROVIDED US A WINDOW INTO THE BROAD EXPERIENCES THAT STUDENTS CAN EXPECT FROM FUNDED IMPACT INTERNSHIPS. SOME PROFILES BELOW INCLUDE VIDEO LINKS:
Claire Babilonia – Ashoka – Virginia
Claire Babilonia, MBA
- Type of Internship: Give-A-Day
- Organization: Ashoka
- Location: Arlington, VA
- Project: The primary objective of the project is to evolve Ashoka’s corporate products to increase employee engagement and corporate transformation practices for corporate partners.
How did your work specifically help deliver social impact through this experience?
My contribution will equip more of Ashoka’s corporate partners with the tools and success measurements to transform their organizations and identify as changemakers. Many of the organizations Ashoka partners with now are based in Europe, yet this summer project will help Ashoka launch new partnerships with large US corporations who are committed to incorporating social impact into their core businesses and value creation strategies.
How do you predict that this internship will affect your career path?
This project cemented my interest in pursuing internal strategy roles after graduation and gave me the opportunity to lead a cross-team strategic project. I will now point to this internship as an example of my ability to lead and direct strategy in an ambiguous setting.
What advice do you have for future interns?
Take ownership over your project from day one, identify who can help advance the work and actively ask for their input, and set aside time in your schedule to chat with teammates who you find interesting!
How did the Give-A-Day funding you received improve your intern experience?
The Give-A-Day funding was an enormous help this summer. Having the monetary support to not worry about working part-time or feel concerned over living expenses helped me focus more of my time and effort on the actual internship. Thank you for this opportunity!
Explain the most unique part of your internship experience.
I got to interview over 15 social impact and corporate transformation experts across Ashoka and the globe! Their insights were a critical part of the project and it was a blast learning about their background, expertise, and sharing reflections on what it means to be a changemaker.
Kelsey Casey – Global Good Fund – Maryland
Kelsey Casey, MBA
- Type of Internship: Give-A-Day
- Organization: Global Good Fund
- Location: Columbia, MD
- Project: The purpose of my internship is to help GGF build a diverse funding pipeline to support multi-year, sustainable growth goals as well as develop innovative programming recommendations that may be translated into the organization’s future strategy.
How did your work specifically help deliver social impact through this experience?
My internship thus far has allowed me to have a direct impact in achieving global good through the development of aspiring social entrepreneurs.
How do you predict that this internship will affect your career path?
My internship has allowed me to see behind the curtain of a nonprofit, start-up organization and serves at the perfect nexus of human capital and social impact work. I hope to work for a similar organization later in my career after my return to consulting after school.
What advice do you have for future interns?
Don’t be afraid to reach out to random people on LinkedIn that work for a place that sounds interesting to you! For the most part, people want to help you succeed and are happy to lend a helping hand. I made many long-lasting connections with complete strangers on LinkedIn that I look forward to leveraging as I grow in my career and seek mentorship.
How did the Give-A-Day funding you received improve your intern experience?
GADF provided the funding I needed to pursue this internship in the first place! I’m forever grateful for this opportunity to be funded by my peers and work for an organization that I fully believe in.
Explain the most unique part of your internship experience.
I recognized an opportunity to intentionally strengthen the internal culture of The Global Good Fund and have stepped up as the honorary culture lead for the summer as a result. Each week, I lead our team through a series of activities that target the theories and practices I learned as a +LAB Fellow with the Center for Positive Organization. I’ve seen a direct impact on the way we work together as a team and honor each other’s strengths and backgrounds. This has by far been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had so far in my internship.
Suman Gidwani – VoteTripling.org – Los Angeles
Suman Gidwani, MBA
- Type of Internship: Give-A-Day
- Organization: VoteTripling.org
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
- Project Description: I am helping the organization develop new strategies to promote voting in the November election, which will be affected by coronavirus. Many of these ideas build off of and amplify the organization’s key tactic: vote tripling. I have spent my time on several different work streams at VoteTripling.org.
How did your work specifically help deliver social impact through this experience?
I hope that the tests that I do will refine new voter turnout programs like polling place vote tripling and swing state vote tripling so that they can have the greatest impact. I also hope that my work to recruit partners will help scale our solutions, such as the voting ambassador program, reaching many more communities and voters. Finally, I believe that by identifying and creating solutions for newly identified problems in the voting process, I can help lots of voters overcome common behavioral problems. Hopefully all of this work will help voters seize their right to vote and ensure a win for the Democratic party in November.
How do you predict that this internship will affect your career path?
This internship has already had a huge effect on my career. I have learned how important community organizing and understanding human behavior is in helping people overcome simple barriers, like putting a mail ballot envelope in the mail. It has also shown me how important it is to connect existing organizations to amplify their work, rather than duplicating work that other organizations are already doing. Finally, I hope to serve in public office one day and this has been a crash course/bootcamp in how officials are elected.
What advice do you have for future interns?
My advice is to jump in right away – read as much as you can, talk to as many people in the field as you can, attend lots of meetings early on to understand everything happening in the org, have coffee chats with all team members.
How did the Give-A-Day funding you received improve your intern experience?
I would not have been able to do this internship without the Give-A-Day fund so it has made my internship and my summer!
Explain the most unique part of your internship experience.
The most unique and fun part of the internship thus far has been running the pilot polling place vote tripling program in NJ. It was cool to see how real people reacted to our interventions.
Andrey Higashi – Fleming Medicina – Brazil
Andrey Higashi, MBA
- Type of Internship: Give-A-Day
- Organization: Fleming Medicina
- Location: Porto Alegre Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
- Project: My internship project encompasses the review of Fleming Medicina’s strategic plan as well as the creation of a strategy to launch a student loan program.
How did your work specifically help deliver social impact through this experience?
Many students who are currently studying for entrance exams of medical schools in Brazil have the potential to enter private schools but lack the financial resources to afford the course. Therefore, developing financial products tailored to medical school students would address such financial constraints. Since these students are very likely to earn relatively high salaries as they graduate, providing them with the appropriate financing option could be life-changing.
How do you predict that this internship will affect your career path?
Besides allowing me to have an experience in a Search Fund, this internship provides me with the opportunity to explore the education sector, my primary sector of interest. Education has an attribute that makes it very special: the capacity to multiply impact – education unlocks people’s potential for personal and professional development, which creates a positive impact on other people, who in turn will be able to impact others. Therefore, this internship will allow me to learn things that could be directly applicable in my long-term career aspirations: among others, the challenges involved in running an education business, strategies for growth, main operational problems and best practices – everything applied in my geography of interest: Brazil. In addition, given the current trying situation caused by COVID-19, this experience would also offer me a single chance to learn how to deal with such a massive crisis.
What advice do you have for future interns?
Develop self-awareness – the more you know yourself, the more likely you are to find out the career that will fulfill you.
How did the Give-A-Day funding you received improve your intern experience?
Without the Give-A-Day funding, I wouldn’t have received any funding at all for this internship. I really appreciate this opportunity!
Explain the most unique part of your internship experience.
The most unique part of this internship is having direct contact with the CEO of the company – being able to learn directly from him has been a great chance to accelerate my learning curve while at the same time contributing to generate positive impact in the Brazilian educational sector.
Dustin Huibregtse – Quorum – Minneapolis
Dustin Huibregtse, MBA
- Type of Internship: Give-A-Day
- Organization: Quorum: The Twin Cities GLBTA Chamber of Commerce
- Location: Minneapolis, MN
- Project: I am working with Rebecca Waggoner, the Executive Director of the LGBTQ Minneapolis / St. Paul Chamber of Commerce, to provide both strategic recommendations to the Chamber and provide ongoing ad-hoc support through weekly touchpoints.
How did your work specifically help deliver social impact through this experience?
Through both weekly meetings, where I was able to provide ideas, perspectives, and MBA resources to Rebecca to help her in the moment, and through the strategic recommendations that pulled together ideas and needs from over a dozen interviews with EDs across the country, board members, and members, I was able to provide Rebecca with frameworks, research, and perspectives for how to work through the next two years of Quorum, and how to strategically position the organization to be in a place to thrive when this difficult time is behind us.
How do you predict that this internship will affect your career path?
I personally believe that it gave me the chance to write my own Letter of Engagement and work with a local nonprofit that I love and with an Executive Director who is both a close friend and incredibly respectful of my viewpoint. I believe that I could continue to do this type of work as a side hustle or leverage it to join nonprofit board(s) in the future.
What advice do you have for future interns?
I remember calling Rebecca to ask for advice on a potential company that I could work with to apply for the B+I grant. As they say, in asking for advice, one may actually offer you an opportunity instead. With that, I made sure to spend time designing a clear letter of engagement on the front side of the project with a clear set of expectations and deliverables. Be detailed, thoughtful, yet leave wiggle room in the case that certain deliverables no longer hold as much value as some other work. Also, enjoy the conversations! I looked forward to calls with the ED and other EDs from around the country because I learned so much about how they are responding to the COVID crisis for their members, who are small LGBTQ owned businesses or larger corporations.
How did the Give-A-Day funding you received improve your intern experience?
I wouldn’t have been able to do this project if it wasn’t for the funding. My original internship was canceled because of COVID, and this funding was not only critical for getting through the summer financially, but it allowed the ED of Quorum to feel that she was contributing in return without having to look for funding in what is a scarce set of resources.
Explain the most unique part of your internship experience.
I still had calls twice a week with Rebecca when the George Floyd protests began in Minneapolis, and throughout the entire protest period. She is a well-known community organizer and does a lot of amazing work in the community, and is looked to for advice to companies on how to be better. I was able to learn so much from her about how she engaged, how she explored the concept of allyship for herself and for her members, and also in her sharing stories about what was truly happening each day in Minneapolis.
J’Taime Lyons – East Durham Children’s Initiative – Durham
J’Taime Lyons, MBA/MPP
- Type of Internship: Give-A-Day
- Organization: East Durham Children’s Initiative
- Location: Durham, NC
- Project: Community engagement action plan to ensure that the ECAP process produces equitable results and systems change.
How did your work specifically help deliver social impact through this experience?
EDCI did not have the capacity to incorporate community engagement at first. Durham county residents demanded their voices be heard and by creating this plan and workflows, the ECAP manager and workgroup co- chairs now have a plan to follow and modify to ensure the community voice is heard.
How do you predict that this internship will affect your career path?
I would like to start a social impact consulting firm that aligns high poverty areas resources to increase and strengthen cradle to career pipelines. My internship provided me the opportunity to see how a collective impact organization and multiple partners are coming together to align services. My internship would be fulfilling as my dream career.
What advice do you have for future interns?
Ensure you engage managers early about deliverables and the scope of your work. The internship goes by fast and you want to make sure you have a clear understanding of the end goal to add value to the organization and yourself.
How did the Give-A-Day funding you received improve your intern experience?
If it was not for funding, I would have had to work part time in order to pay my living expenses and prepare for the fall.
Explain the most unique part of your internship experience.
I have loved being engaged as a valuable thought partner and building items from scratch that the organization has never had.
Avani Sharma – Teach for India – New Delhi
Avani Sharma, MBA
- Type of Internship: Give-A-Day
- Organization: Teach for India
- Location: New Delhi, India
- Project: The primary objective of my project was to identify the root cause of the decline in applications and eventual matriculation of Fellows in the the Teach For India Fellowship through analysis, evaluation and planning.
How did your work specifically help deliver social impact through this experience?
The organization’s mission is to bring more talent into the education sector by exposing them to the ground reality of education through a Fellowship. Currently they have seen that over 70% of Fellowship alumni continue working in the education sector and impacting students.
By creating a marketing plan to bring more individuals I was able to help them continue to bring in that talent that will make an impact in the future. Additionally, I was able to bring in efficiency into their functioning which allowed them to get more time for innovation and Covid-response.
How do you predict that this internship will affect your career path?
The internship gave me the opportunity to consult and implement a marketing plan for a non-profit in order to help them increase their reach. My goal is to go in to non-profit consulting and this was a great opportunity to practice that.
What advice do you have for future interns?
Make sure you have a mentor at the organization you want to work with who will be able to guide you and support you through your internship. It is extremely important to have someone to learn from when the program is not as structured as a typical internship.
How did the Give-A-Day funding you received improve your intern experience?
GADF funding allowed me to cover my living expenses so that I was able to work at a non-profit that due to Covid had frozen hiring and was not able to contribute to my salary.
Explain the most unique part of your internship experience.
Building credibility with a completely new team while working remotely.
Allie Taikowski – Henry Health – Washington DC
Allie Taikowski, MBA
- Type of Internship: Give-A-Day
- Organization: Henry Health
- Location: Washington, DC
- Project: I’ve been performing a chief of staff-like role at Henry Health. This has primarily meant that I help Hh’s CEO, Kevin, with fundraising activities including putting together pitch decks, responding to due diligence requests, and organizing documentation. I’ve also done some strategy work for the company.
How did your work specifically help deliver social impact through this experience?
Traditional therapy techniques are based on studies of white, middle class people. As a result, Black and marginalized people may not feel truly heard in traditional therapy. Henry Health’s therapists are unique in that they are trained to not ignore topics around culture and race but rather proactively discuss these topics with their patients. As a result, Henry Health has a much higher retention rate from its members in therapy than those who use traditional therapy. As important as Henry Health’s mission is, it has been hard for the company to secure funding from investors. This is at least partially due to discrimination and the wide generational wealth gap between white and Black people. I have been able to shoulder some of the burden our CEO faces in raising funds so that he can pursue additional leads, solve operational problems on the team, etc. And as we secure additional funding, we will be able to provide this essential service to additional markets, continuing to increase our social impact.
How do you predict that this internship will affect your career path?
This internship has exposed me to a lot of functions in business that I had no exposure to before. As a result, I’ve been able to narrow in on the type of role I’d like to pursue after business school (Operations) and confirm the types of roles I absolutely do not want to pursue (Sales, HR). I’ve also realized that being a founder is probably not for me, nor is the very early stage startup life.
What advice do you have for future interns?
Talk to as many people at the company as you can right when you get there to establish relationships and connections that will help you throughout the internship and the rest of your career.
How did the Give-A-Day funding you received improve your intern experience?
It made me feel less worried about paying bills, buying groceries, etc.
Explain the most unique part of your internship experience.
I was the only person at the company outside of our CEO with access to many important documents and information. I’ve never had that kind of clearance!