Rainmakers Internship Preparation Program Aligned Activity:
Rainmakers Design Challenge
An important work/life skill is making progress toward a goal regardless of available resources and opposing forces. In the Rainmakers Design Challenge, our Rainmakers Candidates work under a deadline with limited resources in small teams to ‘form’ a company, define a mission, develop a logo and tagline, and assume various roles within the company.
Student teams conceive and name a marketable product, fabricate a model of that product using limited materials, script and record a 60-second commercial, all under serious time constraints. They submit their final products to a panel of judges who select the winning team.
All this fun and excitement has a deeper motivation. We want to make sure that students know how to work in accountable, competitive teams. Few students come to the workplace prepared for the dichotomy of a work team. In school, every team member can get an ‘A’ because teachers judge students against a standard of performance. In work, team members are more often judged against each other, and everyone competes for limited resources (titles, salaries, bonuses, company cars, even bigger offices).
Thus, students learn that constraints cannot be excuses and stress cannot be allowed to impact professionalism.