As Fuqua School of Business Daytime MBA student and Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) Fellow and Launch Pad Winner Michelle Egger reflected on her summer 2019 internship at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she realized that the experience that most prepared her for the internship was her participation in the Fuqua Client Consulting Practicum (FCCP).
“My experience on my FCCP project last year was truly one of the most transformational experiences I have had at Fuqua,” said Egger. “Learning to appropriately scope and delineate a fuzzy project for an agile and ever-changing start-up in Myanmar really set the foundational skills I utilized over the summer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and in my work doing consulting for small socially-focused food companies.”
Each year, nearly 25 Daytime MBA students consult with a number of social enterprises from a variety of sectors around the world through FCCP. In addition to providing students like Egger with an opportunity to apply the skills from the classroom to real-life scenarios, the program also provides business clients with the fresh perspectives and technical expertise of MBA students.
“We, at Operation Smile, are so excited to work with Fuqua students through the FCCP program because we are at a critical juncture in growing to make an even bigger impact and we know we need some more business-minded folks to help us figure out the best approach,” said Melissa Hodges, Associate Vice President, Global Business Operations, Operation Smile and Fuqua Daytime MBA alumna. “Furthermore, as a former CASE Fellow – who really loves CASE and all they have to offer – I couldn’t be happier to have this opportunity to engage with CASE again.”
Similar to the FCCP, the CASE i3 Consulting Practicum (i3CP) also provides both students and organizations with opportunities to learn and grow, but specifically within the impact investing space addressing a particular question.
“At ECMC Group, we are focused on increasing access and improving outcomes for students and part of how we do that is through our impact investment portfolio, which concentrates on early-stage investments in post-secondary education and the future of work,” said Joe Watt, Director, Strategy, Business Development, and Impact Investing at ECMC Group and former CASE i3 Fellow. “As we continue to build our portfolio, it is critical that we have the framework and processes in place to fully measure and understand the impact we are having in support of our mission, which is why we are excited to work alongside the CASE i3 team.”
For more information about FCCP, please contact Robyn Fehrman at robyn.fehrman@duke.edu. For more information about CASE i3CP, please contact Carrie Gonnella at carrie.gonnella@duke.edu. To learn more about this year’s i3CP and FCCP clients, see below.
2019-2020 i3CP Clients
- Clean Energy Trust
- ECMC Group
- Global Endowment Management
- Rally Assets Inc.
- Soros Fund Management
- Upaya Social Ventures
- Y Analytics
2019-2020 FCCP Clients