A vast majority of students want to make a positive impact on society and are seeking new ways to leverage their expertise to help their communities throughout their academic careers. Across the country, professional students are joining and starting pro bono consulting programs and clubs as a means of immersing themselves within their local communities to create a lasting impact on worthy organizations.
Many schools are starting to take notice of this trend and are dedicating precious resources and staff to support these efforts– a crucial step in creating sustainable programs. We’ve created an online showcase of some of the top pro bono programs in professional schools across the country to share best practices, foster learning, and promote collaboration across fields and schools.
One of these programs is the IDEA corps Challenge which partners MBA students from schools like Northwestern Kellogg, Chicago Booth, Berkeley Haas School of Business, DePaul University, and Stanford GBS, with business professionals from companies like Google and Salesforce.com to solve business challenges for participating organizations. For the final two weeks of this program, students traveled to New Orleans to complete their projects and present the findings in a case competition setting. To take a deeper look at this program, or to create a Program Profile of your own program, check out our Professional School Program Profiles.
These student consultants are not only taking part in the pro bono movement, they are also paving the way for future generations. I have no doubt many participants in university pro bono will lead the way for corporate pro bono and philanthropy, and challenge the culture of the professional world. They are truly pro bono junkies in training!
Jaime Hiraishi is a Recruitment Coordinator at the Taproot Foundation. She also leads the Taproot Foundation’s efforts to promote the pro bono ethic in professional schools.
