By Holly Riddle
NLCG showcase |Photo provided
In recent years, startups, Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits have come to Penn State’s University Park campus, seeking help to solve industry issues, not from researchers or professors, like you might expect. Instead, these critical insights come from a group of highly motivated students who make up the Nittany Lion Consulting Group (NLCG).
Born out of multiple student groups eager for hands-on learning experiences in the management consulting space, NLCG is an exclusive group, requiring students complete a 10-week training program before they can even apply to join, after which they’ll receive three credits per semester. According to the Smeal College of Business’s David Lenze, the faculty director for NLCG, about a hundred students sign up for the training program each semester, about 75 finish the training and then maybe 20–25 students will actually make the cut. Once you’re in, you have to work your way up from the bottom over multiple semesters, starting as an individual contributor on client engagement teams, before applying for higher-up positions as a manager or executive.
“It’s pretty selective,” Lenze said, describing the participating students as overachievers who aren’t after the credits for any major or minor, but who simply want to be there, to glean that invaluable experience.
As rising Penn State junior Colton Shiry, NLCG’s current vice president of consulting services, said, “The people that are doing NLCG aren’t doing it for the credits. They’re doing it because — and I genuinely say this — I don’t think there’s another space at Penn State that provides this experience. It’s one-of-a-kind…. You’re working with real clients. You’re having real client meetings and you’re seeing some of the projects that you work on actually come to fruition in the real world. That’s why people do it. And the people that do it, they’re passionate about it.”
Once in the program, students essentially operate a consulting firm. “They staff, operate and lead,” said Lenze. “They have to run the business. They have to source the new clients, do the HR stuff, do the finance.”
NLCG takes clients ranging from startups to small businesses to multi-national companies, most who’re seeking to grow a business in some way or improve upon their processes. Past clients have included Dell, IBM, Johnson & Johnson and more. One NLCG team helped Bollman Hat Company explore how they could incorporate virtual tools such as augmented reality into their operations; another worked with The Rivet in State College to discover the feasibility of creating a new revenue stream through the creation of date night-style events.
“I want you to pretend that you’re writing a $10,000 check. What would you expect? That’s where I want you to hold the bar for this team.”
Clients meet with their faculty-overseen NLCG team over a semester, and during that time, the team works on providing a deliverable that solves a problem for the client — and at no charge to that client. Even though NLCG provides its services for free, Lenze noted that clients should expect a high level of results.
He said, “I tell the clients, ‘I want you to pretend that you’re writing a $10,000 check. What would you expect? That’s where I want you to hold the bar for this team. This isn’t like you’re hiring McKinsey or Deloitte, because [the students are] learning — but they’re smart and they’re going to deliver.’”
NLCG clients weigh in with their experiences
“We are an inexpensive and easy way to tap into some bright folks, and a resource to help with some of the challenges [clients] face as a business.”
So how are clients getting their $10,000’s worth?
Carl Crider Jr., president and CEO at DelGrosso’s Park and Laguna Splash, said that he was connected with NLCG at just the right time. “We’d been brainstorming various opportunities to increase our attendance and revenue,” he said. “The timing was kind of perfect.”
DelGrosso’s partnered with two NLCG teams, one of which worked on researching, analyzing and making recommendations for various revenue generation opportunities, while the other worked on a more specific revenue generator. The process, Crider said, was valuable and rewarding for both sides.
Students visit DelGrosso Amusement Park | Photo provided
“They put out a lot of ideas and I was very impressed with them,” he added. “I would look at their presentation…how they carried themselves, the professionalism as young as they were — it was really great to see that. I told them, ‘You’re all going to be successful. You’re all going to be great business leaders going forward.’”
Bruce Kraselsky, CEO at X-Hab 3D, had a similarly positive experience working with NLCG. He recounted, “The experience was excellent. [They were] really, really smart, young folks, with varying degrees of experience but very quick to catch on… They’re all motivated. They’re all probably at the top of their class…They worked with us on some really difficult subjects and they did a great job.”
One project that NLCG worked on for X-Hab 3D required students to examine, from an industry standpoint, how to scale the use of magnesium oxide as an alternative to Portland cement (a material that’s singularly responsible for approximately 9% of the planet’s manmade carbon footprint).
“It’s enormous when you try to put your head around it,” said Kraselsky. “One of the reasons we asked [NLCG] to do this was because we’re limited on bandwidth as a startup. I had ideas, but didn’t have time to do it.” By the end of the semester, NLCG had managed to put together a credible base of assumptions and initial financial model that X-Hab 3D can continue to work with moving forward.
Prepping students for more than just consulting
“[NLCG] stepped up to the plate. They were excited, they were creative and they were just a pleasure to work with.”
Of course, benefits to industry clients aside, it’s worth acknowledging the substantial benefits that NLCG provides to its student participants — and while most NLCG students go on to work in consulting roles, Shiry noted that the skills one learns in NLCG are applicable to far more career paths.
“In terms of career preparation, [NLCG is] a huge accelerator, but not just for consulting,” he said. “So many people that join NLCG and participate don’t go into consulting. The skills that they’re learning in NLCG are so applicable and transferable to whatever industry people decide to pursue. So, again, while it is hard work and it is time consuming, the value that people are getting from it… I really can’t find anywhere else that you’re getting the same value.”
This fall, rising senior Jessica Krieger will work as a director within NLCG and, since she joined the group, she’s worked with clients such as Clark Associates, TEDxPSU and, most recently, the Penn State Center for the Performing Arts. A State College native, Krieger said this project was particularly rewarding, having performed in Eisenhower Auditorium as a child. The project included analyzing ways the Center could update the auditorium to be more conducive to the performing arts and more valuable as a spot for student programming.
Like Shiry, Krieger acknowledged that NLCG has given her far more than just hands-on experience in a consulting role. She said, “NLCG has really prepared me for my upcoming internships, as well as recruiting and how to represent myself as a young professional. The professional development sessions that we have…have been really helpful for me to understand how a business runs, why they are the way they are, and we’ve been able to ask really pointed questions about the consulting industry. That kind of small group engagement and discussion has totally transformed my understanding of the business world and really prepared me.”
Interested in working with NLCG?
Both Crider and Kraselsky say it’s a good choice.
“It’s a win-win,” Crider said. “Everything was positive.”
Kraselsky added, “[NLCG] stepped up to the plate. They were excited, they were creative and they were just a pleasure to work with.”
Lenze concluded, “We want our clients to be people who have real business problems and believe we can help them… We are a resource for businesses, [a resource] that people can tap into [at] a low cost [for] a source of insights and solutions, and a potential pool of talent… We are an inexpensive and easy way to tap into some bright folks, and a resource to help with some of the challenges [clients] face as a business.”
NLCG is currently accepting project proposals for Fall 2024 and Spring 2025. Learn more here.
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