By Sandra Wu
On April 1st, Communication Leadership Consulting gathered students and faculty members for this year’s Volunteer Appreciation Event. This was an evening dedicated to recognizing the talent, commitment, and creativity of the students who partnered with real clients throughout the academic year.
The event was both a celebration and a reflection. It honored the countless hours students devoted to solving communications challenges for organizations across industries, while also creating space to consider what those experiences taught them about leadership, teamwork, and the future of work.
Since 2020, Communication Leadership Consulting has partnered with 425+ organizations, engaged 500+ students, and completed 500+ projects. This academic year alone, students completed 130+ paid and unpaid projects, with 140+ students engaged and 100+ organizations served. We also experienced remarkable momentum, with an average 150% quarter-over-quarter volunteer growth and 155% quarter-over-quarter client growth throughout the year.
These milestones reflect more than scale. Instead, they represent hundreds of opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience while helping organizations solve meaningful communications challenges.
This year’s celebration featured guest speaker Jay Picard, Executive Vice President of Creative at WE Communications, who shared lessons from his own career in advertising, branding, and creative leadership. His remarks resonated deeply with students navigating the early stages of their professional journeys and offered a fitting lens through which to reflect on the impact of consultancy work.
Finding Joy in the Work
One of Jay’s central messages was about perseverance and mindset.
He posed a question many professionals eventually face: Will you find joy in this frustrating, never-ending circumstance?
In fast-paced industries, meaningful work can be demanding, ambiguous, and at times exhausting. Yet Jay emphasized that fulfillment cannot depend solely on achievements or external milestones.
“The joy can’t just come from success at the end of the day. It must come from the work itself.”
As Jay shared.
That message closely reflects the student consultancy experience: real-world client work often requires navigating shifting priorities, unexpected obstacles, and evolving goals. Yet it is through the process itself, such as researching a challenge, refining ideas, collaborating with teammates and building solutions, that students develop confidence and capability.
Growth Lives in the Pocket of Fear
Jay also spoke candidly about imposter syndrome, sharing that even as he transitioned through different roles in his career, he sometimes worried: They’re going to find me out.
Rather than treating fear as something to eliminate, he encouraged students to reframe it.
“As a mentor of mine says, ‘growth is in the pocket of fear.’”
Discomfort, he suggested, is often a sign that someone is stretching into unfamiliar territory, learning new skills, and stepping into larger opportunities.
His practical advice was equally memorable: take “turtle steps.”
Instead of waiting for confidence to arrive all at once, Jay encouraged students to make small, achievable moves forward. One step builds momentum for the next. Over time, those modest actions create significant progress.
That philosophy mirrors the work students completed this year, where many projects required stepping into unfamiliar spaces and learning by doing.
Student Spotlight: Sabrina Ho and Nook & Cranny Books
During the event, Sabrina Ho presented her work with Nook & Cranny Books, an independent bookstore in Seattle’s U District specializing in world literature, queer literature, translated works, and social justice titles.
After relocating from Capitol Hill, the store faced slower foot traffic and declining sales, while Instagram posts reached only a small portion of followers. Sabrina’s role focused on strengthening the bookstore’s social media strategy, promoting events and books, and increasing engagement online.
“Since Nook & Cranny is an indie bookstore, I knew I wanted to target the local community.”
Sabrina explained that it was important to highlight store events such as open mic nights, book clubs, and collaborations with other small businesses.
She also wanted the bookstore’s online presence to feel as warm and distinctive as the store itself. Through reels, visual storytelling, and consistent branding templates, Sabrina helped showcase the store’s atmosphere and curated selection while creating a content system the owner could realistically maintain long-term.
Sabrina also emphasized the importance of analytics, noting how tools like Meta Business Suite allowed her to monitor reach, compare performance, and adjust content in real time.
Her presentation demonstrated what makes consultancy work so valuable: students are not only building creative ideas, but learning how to pair strategy, storytelling, and data to create measurable impact for real organizations.
Mentorship That Moves Both Ways
Jay also reminded attendees that career growth is never a solo journey.
“Always have a mentor, and always be a mentor.”
He shared that he still speaks monthly with two mentors who helped shape his career. His message emphasized that mentorship is not only about receiving advice, but also about giving support, encouragement, and perspective to others.
That philosophy is deeply reflected in Communication Leadership Consulting’s own Mentorship Program. Our mentors are alumni who once stood in the same position as today’s students, whether it’s navigating coursework, building portfolios, exploring career paths, or stepping into new professional opportunities. Many of them benefited from mentors during their own journeys and now return to give back to the next generation of Comm Lead students. Because they understand the experience firsthand, alumni mentors offer practical advice rooted in real experience: how to navigate uncertainty, grow confidence, build meaningful careers, and make the most of opportunities inside and outside the classroom.
Our mentorship program creates a powerful full-circle community where students can learn from those who have already walked the path, and where alumni can continue shaping the future of Communication Leadership Consulting.
Building Trust in Community
Jay closed with a reminder to trust in three places: your team, your community, and yourself.
That message really captured the spirit of the evening. The Volunteer Appreciation Event was both a recognition of completed deliverables and a celebration of trust built through collaboration between students and clients, peers and mentors, and individuals learning to trust their own abilities.
Throughout the year, Communication Leadership Consulting students have designed digital experiences, conducted research, built strategies, solved communications challenges, and supported organizations doing meaningful work.
In doing so, they gained something equally valuable: practical experience, professional confidence, and a community invested in their success.
As this year’s event made clear, the work students do through Communication Leadership Consulting extends far beyond the classroom. It prepares them to lead, adapt, and create impact wherever their careers take them next!
University of Washington