The key questions you provide us in section four will provide us insight both into your problem and the research that will be necessary to complete.

Some examples are:

• “How should we communicate with our volunteers to increase our retention rate?”

• “What schools/outside parties should we partner with to expand our reach in the community?”

• “Would it be financially sustainable to bring out after-school program in-house or continue to use tutors to lead the workshops?

• “How do other organizations market their professional development services to their employees and how can we utilize this knowledge to develop our own services?”

We recommend you detail any information you have that would benefit the LACI team’s research. For example, if you are looking into employee retention, you might outline some of the materials to which the LACI team would have access.

Although it is easy to use buzzwords to describe the problem and the project, describe what you mean when you use broader terms like “strategic analysis”, “marketing plan”, “infrastructure”, etc. By describing these terms, you are providing us context as to what these ideas mean for your organization.

We understand that at any one time, your organization might face many problems. With this in mind, you should submit a project that speaks to a single crucial problem you are looking to overcome. Should you have multiple projects in mind, submit multiple distinct applications with the expectation that only one project will be considered should you advance through to our interviews.

The work the LACI team can complete is limited to 10 weeks. Therefore, the scope of work should be suitable for the length of the project.

Your project should focus on describing a problem that will allow the LACI team to provide research-backed recommendations. Marketing plans, compilation of internal data, grant writing, or other similar materials fall outside of LACI’s scope of work. Therefore, you should not propose a project that expects these as guidelines.

LACI's written application launches on January 11, 2026 and closes on January 24, 2026 at 9:00 pm PST. Two information sessions will be held, the first on Wednesday, January 14 and the second on Tuesday, January 20. Applicants are also welcome to meet current LACI members outside of TCC, date TBD (check our Instagram for a more detailed timeline and updates!)

LACI looks for students who have a genuine desire to serve and improve the Los Angeles community. Our projects are team-based, so we look for applicants who will be valuable and effective team players. Commitment, problem-solving ability, and overall fit are key qualities that we emphasize. We highly encourage freshmen and non-Marshall students to apply. You do not need any prior consulting or business experience to join; LACI educates all new members on the consulting process through new members workshops.

During the course of a semester, you will have the opportunity to work on a consulting project which will teach you skills that are widely applicable. At the core, consultants are problem-solvers: they break down and analyze the problems that clients face, think critically and develop solutions, and propose strategic recommendations to address these challenges. In addition, LACI works with nonprofits and small businesses from a variety of sectors and industries, giving you the opportunity for broad exposure. Moreover, LACI provides a hands-on experience in which you can apply your specialized classroom knowledge to real-world business problems.

There is no quota on the number of members we select, so each semester is different. However, we invite between 10 and 15 applicants on average to join LACI. We look for strong applicants who fit well with LACI, so we encourage you to focus simply on demonstrating your strengths.

At our info session, we give a 20-minute presentation that introduces you to our organization, what we do, what our consulting projects look like, and how the application and membership processes work. Our other recruitment events like Meet LACI give students another chance to get to know our members personally and experience LACI’s fellowship.

These info sessions and events are completely optional. Our only aim is to give you multiple opportunities to learn about LACI, ask questions, and meet our members. Your attendance at these events is not required, and not attending will never count against you. Don’t worry if you can’t make it; all the essential information is listed on our website (including the info sessions slides), and if you have additional questions, feel free to email us!

No two projects are the same. There is no “typical” project because every client brings unique problems for us to solve. Much of the fun of being on a LACI project is identifying the highest priority challenges facing your client and finding a way to address those challenges within a ten-week window.

All LACI members are sent a list of the current semester’s clients, which includes detailed descriptions of the proposed project. Members complete a survey listing their top five project choices, and a board committee assigns teams based on a number of considerations, including project preference, member experience, and skillset. Each project team consists of 4-5 LACI members (with one experienced team leader) and is assigned to one client for the entire semester.

The number varies from semester to semester depending on how many people we can staff, but we usually work with 5-8 clients each semester. Each client translates to one ten-week project.