Consult Your Community Helps Emory Students Find Their Flock
Last week's Find Your Flock was a master class in research and strategic thinking by members of Consult Your Community. The Hatchery's Find Your Flock program showcases the innovation work of Emory student groups—on campus and beyond—with tips for how students can get involved and make difference. Consult Your Community (CYC) is a national nonprofit organization that mobilizes and trains undergraduate students across the country to provide pro-bono consulting services to minority-owned small businesses and nonprofits. Through semester-long consulting engagements, students leverage their education, digital fluency, and business knowledge to ensure minority entrepreneurs in their communities achieve sustainable financial success. Founded at the University of California, Berkeley in 2013, CYC has expanded to 22 universities across the country, with students volunteering over 60,000 pro-bono hours to 112 different small businesses in 2019.
CYC began the episode of Find Your Flock with one of their consulting teams sharing a report they had produced for their client. This client specialized in ethically sourced hair care products and was looking to expand from selling to individual customers to working with other businesses with funding from institutional backers. Additionally, they were exploring innovation through vertical integration by growing the raw materials for their products. The CYC student consultants did an incredible job thoroughly researching each of these options and making well-informed strategic recommendations to the client.
During the Q&A CYC was asked how they created an environment where high-level work like the presentation was done. CYC does this by carefully codifying their process and investing time and energy into the training of their newly recruited student analysts who are often Freshmen. The organization does not restrict its membership to the business school and prides itself on its ability to train people with diverse academic backgrounds on the essential business knowledge and skills to be a successful member of a consulting team. The CYC team also demonstrated throughout the call that they create a culture of support and respect for their members and this inclusivity certainly is leading to powerful outcomes for club members and clients.
The students of CYC are doing great work at an incredibly high-level! To learn more about CYC check out their Instagram. To see the consulting team's presentation you can watch the recording of the event. To stay up-to-date with all things The Hatchery subscribe to their newsletter.
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