Kunal Modi is out to prove that getting ahead and giving back can be one and the same. A Weinberg ’06 grad, Modi has been bettering the community since his freshman year at NU. Modi and fellow grad Molly Day, SESP ’07, were both avid volunteers and launched campusCATALYST in 2007, a program that pairs student consulting teams with local non-profits. The organization is mostly comprised of NU students and faculty, but is expanding to the greater community. Three years after graduation, Modi is living the altruistic dream.

AT NU

Modi was involved with LIFT, a national non-profit organization where students help low-income individuals who are working to become self sufficient. Volunteering with LIFT experience was “inspiring, humbling and ultimately rewarding… I felt empowered to impact my community.” Modi also volunteered at Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky’s and then-Senator Obama’s offices as an undergraduate. He finished NU in three years with a double major in Economics and political science.

GRADUATION

Modi decided to continue his noble efforts after leaving NU and moved to D.C. for a year-long stint with AmeriCorps VISTA. Toward the end of his service Modi and Day started campusCATALYST, and he worked on the program full-time for three months before starting at the Chicago office of consulting firm McKinsey & Company. “We started the pilot program in Evanston and went around for a whole summer, telling everyone who would listen.”

NOW

Modi splits his time between campusCATALYST, in which a number of NU students are currently participating, as well as his job at McKinsey. After two years in McKinsey’s Chicago office, he moved to New York to work for McKinsey’s Nonprofit Corps, where he connects consultants with nonprofit organizations.

FUTURE

Modi plans to get his MBA in Public Policy and continue to work toward his goal of becoming “an evangelist of social policy,” as he says. “I don’t have plans for a specific job title or capacity, but there are a lot of things I’m interested in. In the long-term, I want to impart the idea that you don’t have to choose between getting ahead and lending a hand.”