One of the Best Ways To Learn…By Doing

Going into this class, I felt intimidated since I had not taken any courses related to sustainability yet. I had spent my coursework studying international economic policy and planned to use my last year for sustainability related classes. I had done research on my own, but I was not sure how I would react to being thrown into the fire – taking on a real-world client. I felt that I had been given a unique opportunity to dive head on into something I was interested in for several years and to really learn by doing. The pressure was taken off by the empathy, support, and smarts I felt from my classmates and Professor Minard. The process of consulting was explained in such an organized and detailed manner. Not only were we about to dive deep into studying impact investing and measurement, but we were also really being taught a new skill set – consulting. Upon being assigned to Team #4, meeting my teammates, and thinking about the problem presented to us, I felt confident and thought we had the fundamental skills to produce a viable solution for our client. We had our first client meeting, and I no longer felt the same level of confidence. As we listened to and took in information from the partner at the VC firm we were consulting for, I had a better picture of the problem, which seemed more complicated than I had first read. Questions came to mind about the VC firm’s company selection process, due diligence process, relationship management process with its portfolio companies, and the viability of its impact measurement metrics. I knew that there was public scrutiny around transparency and how impact was measured in the ESG space. This situation seemed like the perfect example of just this, and we had the opportunity to come up with a solution. After a busy week, we had a two-day consulting workshop hosted by a former SIPA student. It got me thinking more deeply about how to address the problem we were presented with…why was this measurement framework not working and why did the clients not provide the data that was needed? Besides working on the client’s problem, this workshop was also an eye-opener about my own skills, strengths, and weaknesses. I became more aware of how others perceive me and picked up on some areas in which I would like to improve. All in all, the level of support I felt from everyone around me was the best I have experienced at SIPA thus far. The first few weeks of class have been what I feel learning should be about – learning by doing, by being thrown into the actual work through a real-world experience. There are some things we’ve learned throughout class discussions and the workshop that I wish I had known earlier on in the semester. I would have approached the first client meeting and team discussions differently. All in all, it seems like this course will be challenging yet will really help us become better consultants. I’m looking forward to the rest of the semester!