Fellow Spotlight: Bernardo Crespo
Originally from Venezuela, Bernardo Crespo is a rising senior at Penn State University where he studies industrial engineering. In his free time, he enjoys playing soccer and SCUBA diving. In the following blog post, Bernardo reflects on his 2019 Beacon Fellowship experience.
Why did you choose to pursue the Beacon Fellowship?
I had been looking into consulting for a while, and I thought that the Beacon Fellowship was a perfect opportunity to explore that possibility as a future career. I have seen the consulting world now, and I like it. I think this Fellowship has been a big part of that.
What makes the program unique?
The Beacon Fellowship offered a very experienced Project Lead who served as a mentor and guide for us. The Project Lead is a huge benefit, but the real-world project was too. We got to actually do an entire project for a start-up. That’s huge - not many people can say they did an entire project during an internship.
How did your Project Lead add to your experience?
I’ve learned a lot. Yusuf gave us a lot of talks about preparation for interviews and ways to approach problems using real life examples. Yusuf taught me a couple of things which were really, really valuable. First of all, he gave great feedback. Maybe the biggest concept which is going to stick with me for a long time is the Pyramid Principle, which is a way to look at a problem from the bird’s eye view, seeing what the end goal is, and moving down from there.
Talk about the client.
I loved working with Edlinguist Solutions. It was great because we actually had one-on-one contact with the owner of the business, LaNysha, which was amazing. Not a lot of people get to say that! She was super nice and helpful.
Do you feel like the solutions you offered Edlinguist will be used?
I think a lot of things we did will be implemented, and I’m looking forward to seeing them in action.
What did you like about D.C.?
My mom went to Georgetown University, and she loved D.C., so I also wanted to see what it was like. I loved D.C. more than I thought I would. I love New York, LA and Miami; I’ve been living in Florida for ten years. But D.C. has a different pace and energy. I really enjoyed it.