Technology Consulting
IN THE Global Community
TOGETHER WE CAN
Bridge THE
Digital Divide
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
What is TCinGC?
Technology Consulting in the Global Community (TCinGC) is a student consulting program run by Carnegie Mellon University. Over our 20 year history, we have connected 166 student consultants with 61 different community organizations in 15 countries around the world.
What is our Goal?
We strive to make information technology an available and sustainable reality for everyone. We work towards this by creating partnerships between student consultants and local leaders in government ministries, nonprofits, hospitals, schools, businesses, NGOs, and other organizations that contribute to the social good.
What is a Student Consultant?
Our student consultants are undergraduate and graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University specializing in a variety of tech fields including Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering, Human Computer Interaction, and more. Our students come prepared with strong technical expertise and development skills, and are trained to work with you to achieve your goals.
What does Partnering Mean?
For 10 weeks every summer, typically starting around the 3rd week of May, your TCinGC student consultant will collaborate with you to find solutions that will help your organization to use technology to solve a problem. Therefore, the student consultant will not be performing traditional work-for-hire services, and instead will be offering assistance in deploying Information Technology solutions in a jointly agreed-upon project, so that you both can learn from one another, share your expertise, and grow from the experience.
What happens after? Do I have to keep working with TCinGC to use the technology?
All of our technology solutions are intended to be sustainable: able to be managed and maintainable by your organization without the need for ongoing outside help. The solutions implemented in collaboration with the student consultants are developed with your organization's needs, abilities, and longevity in mind. Beyond that, we would love to keep working with your organization on the next problem year after year!
We Believe Everyone Deserves Access To
Information Technology
ELIGIBILITY
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Is your organization a school, government ministry, hospital, business, or other community based organization that contributes to the social good?
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Do you hold a leadership role, either administratively or programmatically, within this organization?
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Does your organization have computers, Internet access, and the basic ICT infrastructure that you want to build and develop further?
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Are you and/or your staff interested in developing, using, and maintaining technology-based solutions?
If you answered YES to these questions, then you are
ELIGIBLE to be a TCinGC Global Partner!
We ask that our Global Partners are able to:
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Commit at least 3 hours a week of personal work time to working with your student consultant throughout their 10 week stay.
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Share information about your organization with your student consultant.
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Read project reports prepared by your student consultant and give prompt feedback.
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Provide interim status reports and a final evaluation to the TCinGC program director.
COST
WHAT IS THE MINIMAL EXPECTED COST?
As a Global Partner, you are required to provide for your Student Consultant:
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Local Housing Accommodations
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Local Transportation between the accommodations and the work site(s)
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A locally-appropriate daily Stipend for food and incidental expenses
*
*
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WHAT IS INCLUDED IN A STIPEND?
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Meals or groceries for 3 meals a day, 7 days a week
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Occasional food from local food carts or informal restaurants (simple places, whatever locals eat)
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Laundry
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Minimal allowance to experience local culture
TESTIMONIALS
"Through its TCinGC initiative, Carnegie Mellon has provided Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village with crucial resources that we may not have otherwise been able to access. The consultancies continue to provide invaluable exposure to expertise, training, and information and have resulted in increased and better services for the children whose lives are profoundly improved during their time at ASYV"
- Tamar M. Copeland, Executive Director
Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, Rwanda
Julia Poepping
FAQ
If I agree to become a global partner, what can I expect to happen?
The partnership will be scheduled for 10 weeks starting in late May. The student consultant will begin to communicate with you well before they arrive in order to gather background information and to begin to understand your needs and situation. When they do arrive, they will work full time with you and your key staff for the duration of their visit.
During this time you, your key staff, and the student consultant work together. The student facilitates a process that moves from assessment, to analysis of problems and opportunities, defining a scope of work, developing a work plan, implementing the technology solution, analyzing outcomes, and documenting the final results.
As the development partner, you are the consulting client. You provide information and discuss that information with the student consultant. But you are more than a client; you are also a learner. As in any capacity-building approach, the client owns the problem as well as its solution. The consultant facilitates the client in achieving that solution. The consultant doesn’t “do for” the client. Rather, the consultant works “with” the client. As you move through the process together, you will be learning. Once the partnership determines the scope of work, you implement that scope of work together, taking on the roles that makes sense in your organization.
What types of activities are typically included in a scope of work?
Each scope of work is unique and depends solely upon the specific needs and opportunities of the Global Partner. In the past, partnerships have focused on a wide range of activities, including: communicating more effectively using web sites, web and mobile applications; managing information better with databases and information systems; managing technology more effectively through project management and technology planning, and much more. See our Projects pages for many specific examples.
Joe Mertz
Program Director
& Teaching Professor
Dietrich & Heinz College
Information Systems
Telephone: +412.268.2540
E-mail: joemertz@cmu.edu
Julia Poepping
Associate Director
of Partnership
Development
Dietrich & Heinz College
Information Systems
E-mail: jpoeppin@andrew.cmu.edu