Organizations are looking for talents that “fit” their cultures and competitive strategies. They do not mind newcomers if they “fit” the organization at personal, social, professional, and excitement levels beyond the CV-based level. Graduating students as newcomers must find a way to establish and demonstrate such a “fit.”

2022 Summer Direct Study with Dr. Ivy provides Northeastern University’s graduate students to serve as Case Consultants to perform consulting cases for local organizations with socially driven challenges and visions. These local organizations serve as Case Clients. Using the BE-EDGE Consult-a-thon framework allows them to connect at four levels: the personal level of meaning behind the challenge, the social level of connection and trust, the professional level of generated value, and the level of shared excitement. The experience incorporates mindfulness and design thinking frameworks, market and industry analysis, and stakeholder management and resource-based views on strategy.

The grant ‘IMPACT FOR EMPOWERMENT” from Dean Emery Trahan was dedicated to support the final level of connection between our Case Consultants (students) and Case Clients (companies) – the level of “we did it”, a shared joy and passion of the impact, that the implementation of the proposed solutions could make. As Dr. Ivy indicates, this grant would also make a meaningful contribution to students’ employability in the market and industry that they target. This is especially important for international students who strive for hands-on experience and personal relationships with US organizations and their executives.