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Interns in Action 
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Jevone Nicholas
McGill, MBA student
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As an MBA student at McGill, I applied for several internships offered
by CEI. I was highly fortunate to have been chosen by Evergreen,
a national environmental NGO based in Toronto. I worked at this organization
for ninety days in the Summer of 2001. My role, along with my McGill
BComm colleague, was to prepare Evergreen's first-ever Strategic Plan
and lead the organization through the process. In addition, we were
to develop the group's annual 2002 Operating Plan from the Strategic
Plan template.
I started this position with much experience in private sector strategic
planning. Consciously or subconsciously, I expected to apply many
of the same principles and approaches to this exercise. I was quickly
proven wrong. My term at Evergreen was a dramatic yet utterly refreshing
re-education for me. I was eventually compelled to jettison all of
my pre-existent thinking and start anew. I believe that this experience
was invaluable. I basically learned entirely new approaches to strategic
planning and the rationales behind them.
We eventually utilized the "learning" school of planning.
Put very simply, this is an approach in which the organization intelligently
feels it way through the dark. That is what my colleague and I did...and
we were the leaders of the exercise! Nonetheless, our efforts were
fruitful and we were both much wiser and seasoned for the better.
If anything, some of the creative and unusual methods we used will
hopefully be of benefit to me in future, in more traditional endeavours.
Best,
Jevone Nicholas
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