Reflections Galore

Ah! As I write my final blog for this class, which is also my final assignment as a graduate student at SIPA, I have a range of thoughts and reflections to share: about the class, my project, my team, and graduate school as a whole.

On the class: The class started pretty much in full swing with Professor Flammer’s excellently curated list of clients and projects. With a few years of consulting experience under my belt, albeit not so much in the sustainable finance world, I was excited to learn about the projects and clients, and learn about my classmates’ rich backgrounds and interesting takes. Once we were matched with our projects of choice, Professor Flammer left the designing and execution up to us, which if I may say so, served as somewhat of a double-edged sword for me and my team. While we were free to set our own working pattern for the project without strict timelines, we somewhat got wavered along the path. Team members with different skill sets and strong opinions coming together, while very fruitful could also be challenging at times. In times like this, a slightly structured course plan may have helped, especially given that many students don’t come from a consulting background. This could mean having a general workplan template or a structure that teams follow to stay on track. Having said that, this consulting class has provided a great learning experience for me and I value it very much.

On the project: My project had to do with collecting data on Mission-Aligned Investing (MAI) that is being carried forward by foundations across the country. For me, this was a completely new area and I’m so grateful that I got a chance to learn more about this niche topic. While secondary data was our main data collection goal, we also conducted some primary research from heads of some of the foundations doing MAIs, and the biggest commonality there was the frustration faced by them in the space. This frustration mainly comes from the lack of regulations backing the MAI movement. While these foundations are ready to make the change, a larger movement is required to encourage a higher buy in from the philanthropic community. This is where our research comes in, hopefully it can be used to bring about the shift in investing mindsets towards foundations putting their money where their words are.

On the team: Over the course of the project, my team went through all 4 stages of team development: forming, storming, norming and performing. With different working styles being brought together, there’s always a risk of the end product suffering. While we had our issues in the ‘storming’ stage, with differences in opinions, we eventually came together and worked well towards the end goal: performing our very best. I am very proud to write that when we successfully delivered our final presentation to the client, who was happy with the end result and is excited to take the work forward.

On graduate school: Graduate school was always on the books for me! Even before I graduated from my Bachelors in Business Administration, I knew I was going back to school a few years down the road, just didn’t know what I would be studying. At the end of my grad school journey, I can say with full confidence that I’m pleased I chose the public policy route. At SIPA, I got the opportunity to explore the many different routes I could potentially take while still on the path of international development. This is how I found my way towards sustainable finance and eventually this class. Things have a way of working themselves out, I hope this continues to be a trend in the future and I keep getting chances to find and explore new passions!