Current students gain nonprofit experience through Kellogg program

Kellogg students need not wait until they graduate to gain experience with nonprofit boards. In fact, this academic year a new Board Fellows Program matched 15 of them with organizations for which they served as non-voting members.

"They're getting an intimate, inside look at a nonprofit board in ways they don't normally," says Kellogg Professor Wally Scott, who helps run the program. "Essentially they have a mentor on that board who will look out for them and try to give them an understanding of how that board works."

Some 40 students have been accepted for the second year of this program, which requires that they take a five-week course that introduces them to the roles, responsibilities and obligations of board members.

Professor Anne Cohn Donnelly, who teaches that course, says the Fellows then spend the next year attending meetings, serving on committees and possibly performing a special service or project. This year, such projects have included setting up a junior board, helping develop a strategic plan, helping develop programmatic performance measures and assisting with fund raising, she says.

Throughout the fellowship, students also meet with faculty and one another to compare notes and hear from speakers on subjects like legal issues.

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