The HBS Summer Fellows Program enables students to apply their classroom training as they explore career opportunities in roles or regions where compensation is generally lower than the traditional MBA level. This summer, we are connecting with some of our 78 Social Enterprise Summer Fellows, who are working around the world to develop skills and knowledge while having significant responsibility and high impact.
What are you working on this summer?
This summer I am interning at the Robin Hood Foundation, New York's largest poverty-fighting organization, focused on mental health and early childhood development. Robin Hood makes strategic, outcome-focused, and data-driven grants to fight poverty at all stages of life, and spearheads special initiatives to strengthen grant-making impact and address critical New Yorker needs.
My primary focus is building a strategic approach for investing in the mental health workforce and expanding mental health accessibility, so that more low-income New Yorkers can access quality care. To do so, I’m mapping workforce and service delivery challenges, evaluating scalable mental health models, and developing data-driven solutions. Along the way, I’m conducting stakeholder interviews and analyzing outcomes from past and ongoing initiatives, with the goal of delivering actionable insights that strengthen Robin Hood’s ability to close service gaps and drive sustainable impact.
Why did you choose this internship for the summer?
I chose this internship because I wanted to bring my government and nonprofit experience into the world of philanthropy—an area I’ve always been curious about but never had the chance to explore. As a former New York resident, I wanted to deepen my commitment to the city and my community, so I saw Robin Hood as the perfect place to deliver local impact. Robin Hood has been a trailblazer in this space, driving meaningful outcomes since 1988, and partnering with both public agencies and service providers. This role has given me the opportunity to see firsthand and expand my understanding of how philanthropic capital, evidence-based models, and emerging tools like AI can work together to drive measurable improvements in people’s lives.
What are your goals for this summer?
This summer I’m focused on a few key objectives. I hope to apply my policy‐focused undergraduate degree to strengthen the Robin Hood's health and mental health investments, evaluating emerging policy changes so that Robin Hood can adapt its strategy for sustained impact and resilience. I’m also eager to build hands‐on philanthropic experience by collaborating with the grant-making teams, and deepening my understanding of how nonprofits plan, finance, and measure their work. Finally, I aim to deliver clear, evidence-based insights, drawing on my professional background to produce recommendations that support Robin Hood’s long-term grant-making portfolio and ultimately improve outcomes for New Yorkers.
How has your MBA skillset prepared you to be successful in this role?
The technical and critical thinking skills I have honed at HBS have been indispensable to me this summer. With no previous experience in mental health, HBS equipped me to quickly understand the mental health landscape and — more importantly —identify what I don’t know. The operations-focused cases we had in Technology, Operations & Management (TOM) have allowed me to detangle mental health workforce-operation challenges and apply private-sector solutions to the nonprofit space. Even better, Robin Hood actually works closely with some of the organizations we had cases on this year!
How has the summer influenced your thinking on future involvement in social enterprise?
This summer has solidified my passion for social enterprise by showing me how targeted, data-driven investments, and cross-sector collaboration can provide real impact — work I aspire to continue throughout my career. It’s given me a new appreciation for all the actors and collaboration required to uplift communities and how to strategically invest in programs across a wide portfolio. In the future, I hope I expand my newfound appreciation for investing and creating financing solutions that help mission-driven organizations scale proven programs and deliver lasting change.
How can someone learn more about your organization?
You can learn more about the Robin Hood Foundation and its amazing work on its website and LinkedIn!
