My name is DonoVaughn Tulloch and I’m an undergraduate student at Duke University. This past summer I completed the remote program where I took a skills-based course in Management Consulting and a virtual internship with a company based in Cape Town, South Africa.
The program truly encouraged me to explore my interests, step out of my comfort zone, and discover new strengths that I can now utilize throughout my life. I appreciated that the program classes were kept small to make it easier to build close relationships with the Headteacher, TAs, and classmates. I also valued that the program was structured to have students use the skills that they have just learned through the course in a real-world setting. Participating in this experience exposed me to various industries and allowed me to gain a global perspective!
I believe that taking part in the Management Consulting course allowed me to understand what it really takes to be a consultant. Through learning about the different problem-solving, Excel modeling, and PowerPoint presentation skills consultants use day-to-day; I feel more prepared to do this work in the future. Also, I loved how the Headteacher and teaching assistants were always there to help me out every step of the way! Even though we were working remotely, we still were able to find creative ways to get to know each other better.
The internship component of the program taught me the value of maintaining a good relationship with a client and how important a consultant’s work can be to a company. Consulting for a company abroad allowed me to explore the different perspectives offered by people living in South Africa. It also taught me how to effectively work in a team remotely through Zoom!
While you will be doing a lot of valuable work for the company you are working for, you will also build a great connection with the client and your internship team since you’ll be having zoom meetings very often! In efforts to try to get to know each other better in a virtual environment, my team started off each meeting with an icebreaker question and even scheduled a day to play an online game together!
Let’s just say if I was given the opportunity to participate in this experience again, I would absolutely do it! It was such a great way to spend my summer!
