What:
Dalberg
Where:
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
What did you do this summer?
I spent my summer at Dalberg, a niche international development consulting, working on a project helping the US State department formulate their reconstruction strategy for Haiti. Although I was all set to enjoy a few months of good West Coast time in Dalberg’s San Francisco office, I ended up living in a tent on the US Embassy compound in Port-au-Prince for the majority of my summer. But tent-life was actually very appropriate given my particular focus. I was a member of the team tasked with developing a permanent housing strategy that would help serve the approximately 1.5 million Haitians displaced by the quake, many of whom are still living in temporary tent cities throughout Port-au-Prince replica breitling bentley 6.75. My role was to apply the consulting skillset (data analysis, interviews, powerpoint sliding, etc) to a post-disaster development problem.
What was your background prior to HBS replica breitling Aeromarine ?
I majored in international relations in college and then somehow found myself in management consulting. After three years at Bain, I decided to try out the non-profit sector and joined Teach For America in their corporate headquarters. Along the way I had also become involved with a start-up development investment fund. The fund (Sustainable Development Capital) was preparing to make its first investments in Swaziland so as a lame-duck pre-business school I decided to go to Swaziland to help facilitate the transfer of funds and support our early-stage investments.
Why did you choose to spend your internship at Dalberg www.replicaforbest.co.uk?
I liked that Dalberg was a for-profit enterprise (I had a hypothesis that this was a more sustainable model) dedicated to solving global problems that predominantly affect people in the developing world (a mission I found inspiring). I also thought that, as a former consultant, I would be able to meaningfully contribute during a 10-week internship and at the same time learn a lot about the international development sector. Dave Joynt and Erin Barringer are also pretty cool, compelling people.
What advice do you have for RCs looking for summer internships?
There are socially-oriented jobs on the job-bank, so don’t give up on it until you’ve tried it.
It’s ok to be proactive about communicating your interests and preferences with your summer employer even before the summer begins. Because the consulting experience is largely project-dependent, I made it clear that to the extent possible I wanted to be involved in my staffing assignment. And once I got wind that there was a potential Haiti project I lobbied for it.
Despite how well aligned Dalberg was with my interests, I had a hard time deciding to go with it. I couldn’t tell if my summer was supposed to be an opportunity to test out my future or to have one last opportunity to do something that was totally random for me. I spoke with a mentor and he advised me to “do what’s relevant.” Of course relevancy means different things to different people at different points in your life, so you’ll have to figure out what this means to you. But for me, it meant that I had already done a few different things before business school and the summer was a time to focus.
