I worked with Professor Bruce Usher, who is leading an initiative seeking to improve climate change education at business schools. Our project consisted of three different phases. The first, understanding how CBS wanted to approach the challenge and their ambitions. Secondly, how it is taught today. We spoke to numerous academics from a variety of institutions to learn what is available today. Based on these two initial phases we then designed a new proposition based on our learnings from both Professor Usher and CBS, as well as what is available in the market today and where we saw the biggest need or demand.

During this internship, I worked closely with a number of individuals across the Tamer Center and CBS. It was really enjoyable to collaborate and be part of a mission the wider school is increasingly focused on. Likewise, on a personal note it was great to see how seriously CBS is taking the issue and is subsequently seeking to lead on.

Previously I worked in the tech industry without any kind of professional training to help structure my thinking. At CBS, however, I was able to take a number of courses related to proposition design including Product Management with Professor Chris LaSala, Foundations of Entrepreneurship, Marketing, and Strategy Formulation. I found these courses helpful in bridging my professional knowledge into this context.

In undertaking this internship I was able to take these skills out of the classroom. I found the process of applying this knowledge in a topic I am very interested in — like climate change — extremely motivating. Particularly in acutely understanding what is the real problem we are trying to solve versus what is nice to have for an initiative being led by Professor Usher, who would also ultimately end up being a user of any solution. I would recommend this program or something similar for anyone interested in digital transformation consulting.

The project I worked on was not a typical internship with very clear milestones and expectations each week or month of deliverables. The internship was very much focused on being flexible, comfortable with ambiguity, and comfortable with taking initiative to explore unknowns. With this in mind, Professor Usher and Ivy Hatsengate were extremely helpful in providing guidance within and outside of CBS for people who might be relevant to speak to. I found them a very valuable resource as a sounding board to help navigate any concerns I had on project direction, or whether they were happy with the deliverables. I would recommend anyone in a similar position to seek out senior figures who can help guide them with transparent conversations about successes and failures.

It was a great experience to work so closely with Professor Usher, Ivy, Sandra Navalli and others at the Tamer Center. I also really enjoyed the ability to work closely with other students at CBS also undertaking an internship within the climate change initiative at CBS. Going forward, my career will benefit from being made aware of this community, which I believe is an increasingly growing one within CBS.

I also enjoyed working with Professor Usher in the context of something outside of the classroom, which I can hopefully one day showcase to someone. Sometimes work done in internships can be hard to demonstrate, but my hope with my time is that there will be a clear value proposition and digital presence I can illustrate to peers, friends and employers on the value of my time there. Particularly in this emerging and expanding space of climate change. The value of collaboration and teamwork was also made clear to me in watching how Professor Usher, Ivy and others navigated internal and external stakeholders. This is something I believe I will remember and keep in mind when working in the short- and long-term.