Jordon Zhong is a first year Law/Actuarial Studies student who joined 180DC UNSW as a Project Consultant in PC1 of 2021. A graduate from The Scots College, Jordon likes to play golf, go out with mates and has once clocked over five hours on TikTok in one day.
Now departing in August for NYU Stern, Jordon has loved and cherished the memories he has made at UNSW and is looking forward to continuing his journey with 180DC in the US. He shares with us what his experience has been like as a consultant at 180DC UNSW for the past project cycle.
1. What made you choose to join 180DC UNSW?
180DC was first introduced to me when Nat Ware (Founder of 180DC) was the guest speaker at an Ashburner’s Meeting in Year 12. He presented his story behind 180DC which sparked me to research more into consulting. After finding out that there was a branch at UNSW, I was lucky enough to be selected as Consultant for 2021 PC1.
2. How has 180DC allowed you to apply the specific skills from your degree background?
Invaluable skills learnt from law research came into use throughout the project. During the cycle I was tasked with researching grant bases and summarising numerous documents and the past project’s work. It may not seem like much but the frequent skim reading I did during my law homework helped shave hours off my workload.
Furthermore, university assignments like oral presentations refined my communication and expression which was crucial during client meetings, the Interim Presentation as well as the Social Impact Pitch Night.
3. What has been the most rewarding aspect of 180DC for you so far?
I have loved every second spent working side-by-side with my project group led by Anish. From slide deck creation to grant directory research to even the little stuff like macros in our excel spreadsheet, it has been one of the most enjoyable learning experiences I have had throughout my short time at UNSW.
But if I had to choose the most rewarding aspect of my time at 180DC, it would have to be the people that I have met along the way. Each person played such an instrumental role in orchestrating the impact we had on The Overcomers’ Place. External judges and project mentors presented fresh and insightful tips throughout the course this cycle. Our project leader, Anish, tailored our workload such that it would accommodate every consultant’s external commitments whilst maximising the benefit we could give to TOP. Moreover, he created an environment that was extremely welcoming for my fellow consultants and I.
Overall, I could not have asked for a better project leader to tackle the challenges that our charity faced.
4. How have you found your project with The Overcomers Place?
Our project with TOP was met with a bit of resistance on both internal and external levels. Initially when we were informed of TOP’s progress after the last project cycle, I thought that the impact of our group on TOP would be slightly compromised due to their lack of resources.
After the brainstorming phase, we came up with solutions that would integrate perfectly into TOP’s workflow. Overall, the creation of the Grant Identification Framework (GIF) as well as the Action Plan would generate a significant and long-lasting impact on TOP.
Thank you to Jordon for joining us for this article! If you would also like to become a project consultant with us, recruitment for Project Cycle 2 at 180DC UNSW is now open. Applications close at Wednesday 21st July 11:59PM. To find out more information on how to apply, please visit our recruitment event here. You can also keep updated with 180DC UNSW on our Facebook and LinkedIn.
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