Soapbox South Africa - Management Consulting Intern
Experience Description:
Soapbox SA is a behavioral design agency that helps organizations develop profound projects, marketing, and communications in Africa focused on education, healthcare, financial inclusion, and sustainability. For instance, Soapbox SA developed a primary school program called Captain Fanplastic (CFP) that strives to contribute to the United Nations’ SDG Goal 14: “Reduce pollution in our oceans”. Through this program, they raise awareness on the impact of plastic, but also on the value it holds.
Responsibilities:
Consultant for the School of Sustainable Development, a program that educates young learners about the value of the SDGs
The reason why I chose this experience was because I've done a lot of research on the United Nations SDGs from my Global Health courses, so this was a great way to apply my knowledge to a real-life situation. Also, I appreciated how the company's mission is to educate young learners (8-12 years old) about the importance of achieving the SDGs. If children are aware of this knowledge at a young age, then they can maintain that mindset as they grow older and hopefully contribute to helping achieve these goals in the future.
Soapbox SA is a behavioral design agency that helps organizations develop profound projects, marketing, and communications in Africa focused on education, healthcare, financial inclusion, and sustainability. For instance, Soapbox SA developed a primary school program called Captain Fanplastic (CFP) that strives to contribute to the United Nations’ SDG Goal 14: “Reduce pollution in our oceans”. Through this program, they raise awareness on the impact of plastic, but also on the value it holds.
Responsibilities:
Consultant for the School of Sustainable Development, a program that educates young learners about the value of the SDGs
- Modeled challenges in achieving the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 15 countries using Excel, research output used to advise the client on which SDGs to target for future education modules
- Performed financial analysis to determine SDG funding trends; identified 5 different grants that could fund the program
- Created a 360° Screening Tool to pinpoint countries with the best potential to expand an e-learning platform globally
The reason why I chose this experience was because I've done a lot of research on the United Nations SDGs from my Global Health courses, so this was a great way to apply my knowledge to a real-life situation. Also, I appreciated how the company's mission is to educate young learners (8-12 years old) about the importance of achieving the SDGs. If children are aware of this knowledge at a young age, then they can maintain that mindset as they grow older and hopefully contribute to helping achieve these goals in the future.
Reflection:
The primary question that my team and I were tasked to answer is how can the School of Sustainable Development education programs be scaled via an experiential e-learning platform globally. To access if a country would be suitable for the SDG online education programs, my partner and I developed a 360° Screening Tool which helped pinpoint future growth opportunities and potential challenges. The screening tool focused on four main categories: technology, SDGs, target audience, and education. Within each of these categories are subcategories such as access to computers for the technology section and total SDG funding available for the SDG section. Then by conducting extensive research, each subcategory was given an overall feasibility score for expanding the e-learning platform.
A time that I failed during this internship experience was when I neglected to ask for help when I was struggling to find potential grant opportunities for the School of Sustainable Development program. Since Soapbox SA is a for-profit organization, it was challenging to find a grant that they would be eligible for. Most entities who offer grant funding require that the organization be a nonprofit, so there are not many opportunities where for-profit organizations can receive grants. Instead of voicing these obstacles to my team, I wasted a lot of time trying to find a solution myself which set back the scheduled date I was supposed to present my findings to the client. The lesson I learned was that I should not be ashamed to ask for help. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of strength. In fact, asking for help from a team with a diverse set of thinking can create better results for the client.
Key Learnings:
The primary question that my team and I were tasked to answer is how can the School of Sustainable Development education programs be scaled via an experiential e-learning platform globally. To access if a country would be suitable for the SDG online education programs, my partner and I developed a 360° Screening Tool which helped pinpoint future growth opportunities and potential challenges. The screening tool focused on four main categories: technology, SDGs, target audience, and education. Within each of these categories are subcategories such as access to computers for the technology section and total SDG funding available for the SDG section. Then by conducting extensive research, each subcategory was given an overall feasibility score for expanding the e-learning platform.
A time that I failed during this internship experience was when I neglected to ask for help when I was struggling to find potential grant opportunities for the School of Sustainable Development program. Since Soapbox SA is a for-profit organization, it was challenging to find a grant that they would be eligible for. Most entities who offer grant funding require that the organization be a nonprofit, so there are not many opportunities where for-profit organizations can receive grants. Instead of voicing these obstacles to my team, I wasted a lot of time trying to find a solution myself which set back the scheduled date I was supposed to present my findings to the client. The lesson I learned was that I should not be ashamed to ask for help. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of strength. In fact, asking for help from a team with a diverse set of thinking can create better results for the client.
Key Learnings:
- An important skill that I learned during this internship was how to effectively use Excel. Being able to organize everything in a detailed spreadsheet makes understanding and analyzing information a lot easier.
- The program also taught me the importance of maintaining a good relationship with the client. In efforts to try to get to know the client better in a virtual environment, we started off each meeting with an icebreaker question and even scheduled a day to play an online game together (code words). Having these positive interactions made it easier to have open conversations with each other.
Artifact:
Below is the final deliverable for the client that encompasses all of my team's research throughout the internship. The deliverable includes a potential business model for the e-learning platform, funding trends and partners, a screening tool and more.
Below is the final deliverable for the client that encompasses all of my team's research throughout the internship. The deliverable includes a potential business model for the e-learning platform, funding trends and partners, a screening tool and more.