Each year, Johns Hopkins Carey Business School hosts Scope-A-Thon, a day-long consulting sprint designed to empower both entrepreneurs and students to elevate their business strategies, explore innovative solutions, and build connections to fuel future success.

In partnership with Will Holmes, Carey entrepreneur in residence and founder of Will Homes Consulting, Scope-A-Thon matches Carey students with local founders and entrepreneurs in the Greater-Baltimore and Washington, D.C. areas. The students deliver pro-bono consulting services to business owners and collaborate to provide tailored, actionable business recommendations. Scope-A-Thon serves as a one-day introduction to Carey’s Community Consulting Lab, which is an eight-week hands-on, fully supported consulting experience and business accelerator program offered in the spring.

This year’s Scope-A-Thon took place on November 8, and brought together 15 local entrepreneurs and 54 students. Students created a list of solutions that would add value to the local businesses, which came from a range of industries including family services, staffing and recruiting, travel, investments, and ethical beauty.

The day began with a consulting workshop led by Will Holmes, who set the stage with insightful foundations of consulting. Participants jumped into the Scope-A-Thon event kickoff, which was an opportunity to explore the community impact of their work.

“I was excited about the chance to support small businesses in Baltimore. My main takeaways included techniques for establishing rapport with clients, the integration and use of AI in consulting, and the importance of understanding a client’s timeframe and budget from the outset,” said current Flexible MBA student Brian Greenberg.

The heart of the event was the consulting series, where student consultants worked directly with their clients to identify key challenges and develop their recommendations. Through a mix of working sessions, teamwork, and client conversations, the participants refined their strategies and prepared a presentation to share with their clients.

The presentations included recommendations for the clients, which demonstrated the creativity, problem-solving skills, and business knowledge and expertise the students have learned from their degree programs.

“This experience allowed me to apply my MBA learnings to support the incredible non-profit organization I had the privilege of working with. I walked away with a great sense of joy and fulfillment, knowing I contributed value and meaningful impact to a real organization,” said MBA candidate, Josephine Mac-Arthur.

Students were carefully matched with business clients and were required to meet a week beforehand to review client information, solidify the team in advance, and plan their initial approach to the client.

“The experience highlighted the power of leveraging team strengths. With only a week of preparation, we had to identify and align our individual value propositions to deliver impactful solutions. It was truly a powerful experience to witness the synergy created through diverse perspectives and collaboration in the room,” said Mac-Arthur.

Carey also partnered with Baltimore Homecoming and had two businesses from their Crab Tank Entrepreneurship Program participate and receive student consulting services.

“The opportunity to work closely with entrepreneurs, all of whom are doing phenomenal work for their community, further solidified my aspiration to become an entrepreneurship consultant, dedicated to helping businesses thrive and achieve sustainable success,” said Mac-Arthur.

Applications for the Community Consulting Lab open on December 2. To learn more, please visit the CCL webpage or reach out to Tracy Akinade at tracy.akinade@jhu.edu.