There’s nothing like a crisis to spark new ideas. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, The Brink Small Business Development Center at the University of San Diego School of Business was challenged with how to help their clients not only survive the economic effects of the pandemic, but to thrive through uncertainty.
The Brink is an on-campus organization that works with small businesses that are growing fast in the local San Diego region. With a team of over ten advisors, it supports hundreds of companies with marketing strategy, securing government grants, innovation coaching and more.
The Lightbulb Goes On
Amidst the crisis, it spotted a new opportunity. “We’re really excited to launch the Junior Consultants program this summer,” says Rachel Christensen, assistant director of programs at The Brink. “It accomplishes two major objectives for us. The first is to offer even more support to our clients in a time of need and the second is to create real-world learning opportunities for USD students. Specifically, Junior Consultants gives business graduate students a coveted job opportunity and learning experience at a time when job offers are on the decline.”
Three business graduate students joined the Junior Consultants program this summer, all personally recommended to The Brink by staff and faculty from the USD School of Business. They have been supporting The Brink on a number of tasks and learning from the collective experience of its advisory team. Meet this year’s inaugural Junior Consultants cohort.
