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Meet our Amazing intern, Jay Ong

Jay-Ong-intern

In lieu of Giving Week 2018, we would like to give acknowledgement to the fantastic interns we've had over this summer. They have given us so much with their positive attitude to learn and do, the initiative to think and plan, patience and compassion.
Meet Mr Jay Ong, the 1st of two interns we are showcasing.

 

I’m Jay, a 2nd-year student at Yale-NUS College. Over the summer of 2018, I interned with Conjunct Consulting under the Partners team.

Why did you want to join Conjunct?

I knew I wanted to spend my summer doing something related to the social sector. I was searching around and ended up on the Conjunct website. While scrolling through it, I saw a post contributed by Zixin, one of my friends who happened to be one of the previous Conjunct interns. I dropped her a message and found out that she happened to be visiting a friend in Yale-NUS the very next day. We arranged a meeting. I learnt more about what Conjunct did, and I thought it was very cool and decided to apply to intern at Conjunct!

What did you do?

I was part of the Partners Team under Christina, VP – Partners. I had the opportunity to scope many projects for Conjunct’s upcoming cycle, work on several consulting projects, update Conjunct’s CRM and conduct some quantitative and qualitative research.

What is your most memorable experience with Conjunct?

Attending scoping meetings with different non-profits. During these meetings, we find out what difficulties various non-profits are facing and figure out what a Conjunct team can reasonably deliver in 1 or 2 consulting cycles.  These meetings were very eye-opening for me because even though I’ve had experience volunteering “on the ground”, this was the first time I’ve interacted with so many different non-profits on a strategic planning level. After meeting several non-profits, I came to realise that even though these non-profits all advocate for various causes, they face several common difficulties.

What did you enjoy about Conjunct?

The Conjunct team is very lean, and as a result, there is a solid culture of trust within the office. As a result, I was entrusted with many responsibilities that I was not expecting from an internship. Looking back, it felt like my contributions truly mattered, and the trust they had in me is something I genuinely enjoy about Conjunct.

What is your biggest takeaway?

My biggest takeaway would be the deeper understanding I gained about the difficulties faced by different non-profits. Unlike the corporate world where efficiency is vital, the social sector places a premium on knowledge and empathy as well. As a result, the most efficient solution is not necessarily the best solution. It’s challenging to strike a balance between the two, and while it is a conceptually straightforward idea, it was very inspiring to see it play out in real life through my time at Conjunct.

Follow Conjunct Consulting @ https://www.facebook.com/conjunctconsulting/

Learn how you can join Conjunct Consulting here

 

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