Last month, UCLA Anderson Net Impact wrapped up the Eighth Annual Net Impact Consulting Challenge (NICC), a two-week consulting project that offers students the opportunity to assist local nonprofits and for-profit social ventures with specific business challenges. All 17 student teams presented their strategic plans to teams of judges and members of their assigned organizations. After the first round of presentations, the finalists were called on stage in Korn Hall to present once more, this time in front of a crowded auditorium. And the winners are…
First place: The Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice - Kiara Barrett (MBA 2013), Diana Lin (MBA 2014), Ana Peña (MBA 2013), Alisa Sommer (JD/MBA 2013)
Second place: The Mary Magdalene Project - Megan Groh (MBA 2014), Suzanne Howard (MBA 2014), Shuhan (Bali) Majid (MBA 2014), Ada LingJun Peng (MPP 2013)
Third place: EVO Farms - Chris Calice (FEMBA 2015), Dan Freeman (FEMBA 2015), Axel Guerra (FEMBA 2015), Don Sutherland (FEMBA 2015), Allyson Tom (FEMBA 2015)
Congratulations to all winners!
NICC proved an extremely valuable experience for both the partner organizations and student teams. In talking with the participating students following the competition, one thing was very clear. All of us felt proud to have done work that had real impact on a real organization. It made us realize just how much we have learned in business school so far!
Many of the organizations have asked the student teams to present their recommendations at upcoming board meetings. In fact, just last week my team attended our client’s board meeting to give a presentation and discuss how our recommendations can be implemented going forward. This was a great opportunity for us to get to know the board members on a personal level as well as to address their questions and concerns. The board was very excited to get going on the plan we created, and to show their appreciation they even got us a cake!
All in all, NICC was a very rewarding experience that I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in putting their newly acquired MBA skills to use to have a real impact on a real client in the Los Angeles community. So all you first-years and incoming students out there, remember to sign up next year!
