Inspired to advocate and activate what they have accumulated from their studies at LKYSPP over the past year, Mansi Dhingra, Master in Public Policy initiated the idea of convening a Social Policy Consulting Club at our school. With the positive feedback and encouragement from her fellow classmate, Kohima Goyal, and Adjunct faculty Professor Gambhir Bhatta, who is the current faculty advisor for the Club, the duo pushed forward their plan.
Asked how they forged ahead, they shared this: “We recognise that starting a student club on top of our studies is challenging but the inherent passion to make a positive difference in the learning journeys and professional aspirations of our fellow students motivated us to compartmentalize the various activities. Bringing these multiple elements together, though seemed challenging at the beginning, through continuous talks, support, feedback from the Academic Affairs and professors made this possible.”
By August 2022, we launched the LKYSPP Social Policy Consulting Club (SPCC). Since then, the Club has attracted many student members from different programmes who share a similar passion for consulting. The events organized by the Club directly added to the professional development journey of the students.
Since its inception, the club has also organised engaging events focusing on logical reasoning, structured thinking and problem solving. The Club vision is to inculcate approaches and tricks of solving cases that are part of the interview process of social policy consulting organisations. Sessions conducted by the Club helps create a consultative culture amongst the policy students by arranging case study sessions and inviting policy consultants for external webinars and workshops in this domain.
The club was headed by a team of six executive members comprising of following students:
• Mansi Dhingra, MPP Senior - President
• Kohima Goyal, MPP Senior - Vice President
• Alimpan Banerjee, MPA - Secretary
• Tan Chia How, MPA - Secretary
• Alaa Ayesh D. Almajnuni, MPA - Social Media Representative
• Arzalia Wahida, MPP Junior - Data Protection Officer
The Club successfully organised three events during the Academic Year 2022/23 and 2023/24. The first was held in September 2022 which focused on cases in the policy advocacy space. The second was held in October 2022 which focused on tricks and approaches to solve social policy cases. During the third event in October 2022, the Club organised a workshop where a professional from ADB helped the student community explore consultancy positions and also gave career advice on how to pursue a consultancy position at international organisations such as ADB. The events conducted by the group have seen a significant buy-in from the student community and they have expressed that the group is relevant to prepare them efficiently for achieving their professional goals.
Before handing over the club to the juniors, the Club organised Fireside Chat with the Consultants from Meta, Deloitte and EY Parthenon. With the aim of successful operations and continuity of the Club, recently new executive committee has been formed comprising of following students:
• Anusuiya, MPP Junior - President
• Vartika Chaturvedi, MPP Junior - Vice President (External Outreach)
• Mohammed Jallibah, Vice President, MPP Junior - Vice President (Programs & Operations)
• Philip, MIA Junior - Treasurer
• Kanika Kaur, MIA Junior - Communications Representative
With representatives from all cohorts (MPP, MIA and MPA) at LKYSPP, SPCC’s new committee promises a greater exchange of ideas in specialisation and collaboration from the different cohorts.