Fostering Connections at Virginia Tech

In the consulting industry, building and nurturing relationships is a cornerstone for success. Summit is proud to maintain a relationship with Virginia Tech since 2019. The partnership began when Summit senior consultant Kyle Crane sat on a panel assessing students’ semester-long projects for the Department of Economics’ “R in Economics” course, open to juniors and seniors.

Since then, Summit has developed a strong pipeline of both undergraduate and graduate talent from the university, including students in economics, statistics, and computational modeling and data analytics (CMDA). In that time, Summit has supported other classes at Virginia Tech, including sponsoring student teams in the CMDA program’s capstone project, a course where students are encouraged to step outside of the classroom and solve real-world problems using data science.

Summit senior consultant Kyle Crane at the Virginia Tech career fair in October 2023.

Beyond coursework, Summit and Virginia Tech have a strong relationship supporting one another professionally as well. In October, Crane spent a week in Blacksburg to bolster existing relationships and forge new connections across campus. This week included attending the following events put on by Virginia Tech’s Department of Statistics:

• Career fair: Summit joined the annual career fair, which is open to undergraduate and graduate students studying statistics. As a direct result of that attendance, Summit has met with and interviewed more than a dozen prospective candidates ranging from undergraduate-level interns to PhD candidates interested in joining the Summit team.
• Annual advisory board meeting: Several industry leaders including Summit met with Virginia Tech faculty to discuss current curricula and what tools students need to be successful following graduation. These discussions help shape both undergraduate and graduate programs to set students—and their future employers—up for success.
• Graduate poster session: This conference-style reception allowed master’s and PhD candidates to showcase their research projects and demonstrate how their skills will translate into the job market.

Attendees at the Virginia Tech graduate poster session.

Summit and Virginia Tech have a public partnership agreement to support both the university’s efforts as well as Summit’s important work for the federal government, and Virginia Tech faculty are often tapped as subject-matter experts on Summit projects. We are honored to support data science initiatives at universities like Virginia Tech and look forward to continuing our partnership with the Hokies in years to come.