What is Worse than Tourists on the Metro? Finals Season!

What is Worse than Tourists on the Metro? Finals Season!

Luckily for me, I don’t really have any finals or even a final thesis. Thank goodness. One thing that I really love about my masters program has been our final required capstone project. The capstone the Trachtenberg School for Public Policy and Public Administration functions as a real world experience consulting project.

My fellow classmates and myself selected our teams and then sent out several RFPs to assorted organizations that we would have an interest in working with. My group was fortunate to choose from 5 organizations that responded and I feel we made a great choice – a small nonprofit that sponsors leadership through sports programs over the summer.

The organization gave us several options to choose from to help them out with and we chose developing a strategic partnership plan. The small organization felt it had a solid program, but wanted to put in place some long-term financial solutions that would create a more sustainable environment that would give them greater impact. Our group set out to determine the perfect profile of a potential partner. We researched literature, did informational interviews, and discussed with their board of directors the wants and needs of the organization. Our group has successfully found a potential partner for them, as well as designed a profile of the type of partner that would be most likely to engage with them.

This was a great experience! It was great to have real application for all the skills that I had learned during my time in the MPA program. It has been a great way to cap off my graduate career. And unlike the tourist in the metro, it kept moving at a good steady pace with purposeful direction.