University Impact

USA

UNIVERSITY IMPACT

Joel Fraser, Oriel College, Third Year Undergraduate, BA English and French, Remote Working

Work Projects

University Impact is an impact investment fund dedicated to tackling the most serious social, economic and environmental problems by impactful investment in social enterprises and NGOs. They seek to increase awareness of impact investing as an area of finance for students in the hope that they will be more equipped to enter the industry after their studies which is why they work with students, having identified a lack of opportunities and expertise for careerstarters.

The internship lasted four weeks, with a different group project to complete each week. The first week was a research project, followed by three memos on real-life investment opportunities. These differed regarding the type of investment that was on the table: the first was a grant, the second an investment in debt, the third in equity. Alongside these projects, there was extensive group training on areas important to impact investing, such as accounting, measuring social impact, evaluating management, clarity of expression for business writing, etc. There was also a guest speaker each day, ranging from NGO or startup founders and investment bankers to politicians and even an NBA player!

The first week's work was a research project tailored to a social/economic/environmental issue that we felt particularly passionate about. I had specified an interest in dealing with systemic poverty. As such, I was put on a team researching the informal economy in India, and the responses required in light of the pandemic in order to prevent large numbers of workers suffering as a result of the hit to the economy. The second week involved producing an investment memo evaluating the risks and opportunities of giving a grant to a company producing cheap ventilators to address shortages during the COVID pandemic. We also had to make a recommendation on the investment opportunity based on our research.

Daily Life

Daily life included logging into a Zoom call at around 10-11 each morning, sometimes having completed some further research on the project or training sessions beforehand, and having a catch up with my team. I was working with the South Africa and Oxford cohort which included three students from Oxford and four from Cape Town as well as two team leaders from University Impact.

We would often discuss how we had felt about the previous day, share findings from any research we had conducted and talk about how to progress with the weekly project. I would then usually work for about an hour on the weekly project. Normally this was done alone but with a Zoom call running in the background to check in with other team members if anyone had found something important.

Then we would have lunch and work afterwards until 2 or 3pm, at which point we would have a larger call with the US cohort. This would normally involve a training session and a guest speaker with time to reflect on what we had heard in smaller groups. The day would normally end around 6pm. Depending on the state of the project I sometimes did some more work in the evening, but I was often quite tired of looking at my computer screen by then!

Lasting Impressions

I absolutely loved the internship. I was genuinely expecting very little of a remote opportunity like this, but it was managed so well. The way that time could be split between smaller and larger groups, as well as some time listening to guest speakers and training sessions, made the day varied enough to avoid it feeling monotonous. Also, the different level of input required from, say, a discussion where active participation is encouraged, to a guest presentation where you are mainly listening, meant that you didn't always need to have your video switched on, which helped with 'Zoom fatigue'.

I gained a lot from the training; I study English and French and so practically all of the content was new to me. I similarly learnt a lot from the process of putting together an investment memo and the clarity of thought and expression that is required to make it readable for busy people who want to make quick and efficient decisions. The experience confirmed that I would like to work in some kind of area involved in tackling injustices like poverty and inequality. It made me believe I could do this even though I haven't really studied the area before.

Peter Wallich,St Hilda’s College,Second Year Undergraduate, BA Philosophy, Politics and Economics,Remote Working

Work Projects

Technically, the internship itself (which would have been held in-person in Provo, Utah) was cancelled, but what replaced it was a full-time experience that involved real work, unlike some online internships. The Summer Boot Camp included extensive training (2-3 hours per day over 4 weeks), calls with entrepreneurs, group investment memo research, and some excellent daily guest speakers (including a US Congressman and a Y Combinator backed entrepreneur)! It was really a great experience.

The work itself was interesting and challenging. Our main task was to write investment memos in groups. These memos would follow a standardised format and analyse the potential for high financial and social returns on investment, University Impact’s two main criteria as well as issues such as how an investment should be structured to best suit the interests of both our and the recipients organisations.

The investments we were looking at were very interesting and included a low-cost medical equipment provider targeting Latin America and a farm equipment leasing platform in a sub-Saharan African country. We would then present our findings to a larger group and vote on whether to continue the due diligence process, which would ultimately culminate in a review at an Investment Committee meeting for the most promising opportunities. (After the internship, we were invited to watch an Investment Committee meeting unfold, which I really enjoyed.)

Only a very small proportion of deals will actually be invested in, but I felt I was having an impact by playing a small part in a process that allows socially impactful organisations around the world to access the funding they often desperately need. We were given real autonomy and responsibility. Whole-cohort training was provided on impact and financial analysis, writing skills, the memo structure, company management evaluation, and more, and ranged from very good to excellent. Aside from this, we had plenty of time in smaller groups to ask questions and discuss ideas and were sometimes in smaller subgroups when writing the memos. This meant that, despite being entirely remote, I felt I made new friends across three continents.

Daily Life

I was lucky to be in a stable home with a healthy family and plenty of space, but I also think that the structure of the boot camp helped make it easier to work at home. Perhaps because of the shorter-than-usual duration (4 weeks) the work was intense in a good way and the programme was highly structured and synchronous. The majority of the time was spent on calls, but these were usually interesting and high-energy, so I very rarely felt Zoom fatigue.

The boot camp was excellently structured. I didn’t have to stay up late to work in Utah time because University Impact has Associates in Cape Town too. What this meant was that we had different groups within the whole cohort and would operate on different schedules to accommodate time differences. Most participants were recruited from Brigham Young University (Utah), the University of Pennsylvania, Oxford, and the University of Cape Town (UCT). Our Oxford-UCT group started at 10am or 11am UK time with group time and investment research.

The US participants then started early in their morning and joined our group in our afternoon for training and the guest speaker. After that, the US groups would have their group and research time in their afternoon. We did some presentations across multiple groups and they arranged some inter-group discussions and networking sessions, as well as taking on board our (daily!) feedback as we went through. We were officially done by 6pm on each day, although occasionally we chose to start earlier or work later. There was a lot to do in a short space of time, which was overwhelming for some people, but I really enjoyed the intensity of the boot camp, it was a bit like a more structured Oxford term, only half as long, faster-paced still, and with different deliverables.

In hindsight, I would have reduced my schedule before and after each day. As it was, I had a lot of video calls with friends, dozens of 1-on-1s with people from a global online conference, several interview chats with students applying for our new InsideUni Oxford team, and internal calls to discuss who would be best suited to the different roles on that team. I actually really enjoyed this fairly intense schedule, but I think I would have been more able to go above and beyond in my contributions during the boot camp if I had taken on less and got a little more sleep.

Lasting Impressions

I really enjoyed my internship, learned a huge amount, felt I contributed something and made friends I’m still in touch with today. It was a textbook model of how to provide an engaging and informative experience across three continents remotely, which was particularly impressive because it was the first time that University Impact had run such a boot camp.

I learned a fair bit about financial analysis and various other topics, as well as making great new friends. No prior knowledge is needed, and you really do learn a lot. I was offered the opportunity to take on more work with University Impact after the boot camp, although I declined because I felt I was at full capacity given other goals for the summer. I’m still in touch with University Impact about expansion to Oxford, which excites me.

Just before the last week of the boot camp, I read a book that challenged my perspective on global economic development and made me rethink a lot of assumptions about how I might be able to have the greatest possible positive impact with my career. I got interesting insights from discussions of this with people at University Impact. I now have a short-term plan for which my internship will be useful experience. I also enjoyed the opportunities for cultural exchange, including a long Zoom call with a former Mormon missionary trainer also on the programme.

After the University Impact boot camp, I did a virtual internship replacement programme with a large professional services company. I feel I gained more from my University Impact experience than from this later one. Although both were certainly valuable, only the University Impact boot camp involved real work and my second internship had much shorter hours.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Enjoy the experience! Learn as much as you can and take time to get to know people on the programme. Hopefully, you’ll be able to be in Utah, which I’ve heard is a great experience. If you’re not, don’t put as much on your schedule outside internship hours as I did. It can be difficult to wrap your head quickly around financial analysis. If you want to learn more, I found a great book called Financial Statements: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Creating Financial Reports (by Thomas Ittelson). That said, you’re not expected to have prior accounting knowledge.