Faculty should take note of this new organization, Community Engagement Consulting, which hopes to bridge the gap between business minds and service organizations. See below for more details.
A group of students within George Washington University School of Business have recently launched a program called Community Engagement Consulting. Junior Dylan Tally, sophomore Courtney Pellegrino and freshman Colin Medwick have been assisting local nonprofit Life Pieces to Masterpieces with general daily operations and development strategies.
CEC is designed to bridge the gap between business minds and service organizations. Tally, the founder, has found in previous consulting experience that there is often a disconnect between students who are business-oriented and those who are passionate about service. He sought out students who not only have essential business skills, but are interested in social causes and nonprofit organizations.
This semester's pilot at Life Pieces to Masterpieces has been successful, and CEC is looking to expand to assist other nonprofits in the area. They are currently in the process of recruiting other students within the business school to serve as consultants.
At last Thursday's "Bagels for Best Practices" the three current students in CEC discussed some of the challenges they faced in their experience with local nonprofit leaders. It was found that many faced similar problems and were interested to hear about the resources CEC could provide. Evroy Marett, a representative from U.S. Dream Academy, spoke highly of the idea of CEC, saying "We often think of business and community engagement as very different, but there's a lot of overlap, and I'm glad you bring that mindset to the School of Business."
