What’s it like to be a student consultant for a rewilding NGO?
Spoiler: it’s one of the most rewarding things we’ve done during our Bachelor’s.
We’re a group of five students from Rotterdam School of Management, and over the past
academic year we had the chance to work as student consultants for Sylvester Rewilding, as
part of our university’s extracurricular “I Do” program, which pairs student teams with NGOs
for a full year of hands-on consulting.
So what does that actually look like? The first few months are all about immersion: sitting in
on meetings, asking lots of questions, and really getting under the skin of how the
organisation works. From there, you develop strategic recommendations that are both
genuinely useful and something your team can actually help implement. For us, that meant
working on internal structure to help Sylvester’s operations run more smoothly.
What surprised us most was how quickly we felt like part of the team. The Sylvester crew is
warm, open, and genuinely engaged; questions got answered fast, communication was
always honest, and our ideas were taken seriously. Even when deadlines stacked up (it is
extracurricular, after all), we always found a way to make it work together.
If you’re a student looking for real-world experience with an organisation doing meaningful
work… this is it. You’ll build consulting skills, contribute to something that actually matters,
and work alongside people who make you feel valued from day one.
We’ll definitely be staying involved.
And we hope you’ll consider joining too.
Leo, Nadia, Tjalle, Jeanne & Tessa
