What the rise of student consulting clubs means

THE EMAIL had a businesslike tone. From a “client recruitment director”, it was “reaching out” to offer The Economist services. In the next sentence, the word “leverage” was used as a verb, relating to a “perspective”. It concluded with a question: “Would you be able to hop on a 15-minute call”? Yet it stood out from the guff that clutters journalists’ inboxes for one reason: it came not from an established firm but from an undergraduate economics student at Yale University. The perspective to be “leveraged” was that of “Gen Z”, a marketing term for people now aged from roughly 11 to 26. The offer was made on behalf of the Yale Undergraduate Consulting Group, a student club with around 60 members.