Over Labor Day weekend while most Stern and YC students were enjoying their day off, Ariel Mintz (YC ’16), Ezra Kapetansky (SYMS ’16), Daniel Goldsmith (YC ’16) and Rebecca Saragossi (SYMS ’16) flew to Ann Arbor, Michigan for TAMID’s second annual conference. Saragossi, who is the National Director of Branding for the TAMID group and completed a fellowship in Israel this past summer, spoke at the conference, which hosted 100 students from around the U.S and one student from Israel.
Mintz, the president and founder of TAMID at YU, described the two-day conference as a “nice, leveled affair.” He elaborated and said, “National TAMID does a really professional job organizing these events–it is like any other professional organization’s conference.” However, what makes TAMID unlike any other organization, and what makes the success of their events and their network even more impressive, is that it was founded and is completely run by students.
Two University of Michigan students looking for an idea that would help them make a million dollars founded TAMID in Ann Arbour in 2008. While they did not make a million dollars, they came up with the idea to create student-led consulting groups from campuses. They chose the name “TAMID,” the Hebrew word for “always,” and news of the organization spread by word of mouth.
In the first year, branches opened up at Harvard, New York University, and University of Maryland. In the past five years, TAMID groups have popped up on multiple campuses, and the organization has started branding and creating a structure in order to expand further.
TAMID chapters on campus split up the year into two semesters. The first semester is the educational phase when participants learn about investment funds and consulting among other things. The second phase is when they take what they learned and out it into action, consulting and working with various startups and investment funds in Israel.
Mintz and Kapetansky founded TAMID at YU in 2013. They essentially transformed the previously named “Israel Business Club” into a group that would qualify to be accepted as a TAMID chapter. They were approved by the organization to start their branch for the fall semester.
The group at YU is still growing, and Mintz thinks that they can do a “better job publicizing it and showing how valuable the opportunity is.” But at their recent meet-and-greet receptions held on Beren campus on September 8th and Wilf on the 9th, over fifty students showed up, which in Saragossi’s eyes is a success. “On the guy’s campus thirty-eight people came, that’s a great turnout!” she exclaimed. “We are a small university. I think overall it makes sense.”
Recently, the TAMID group at YU was at odds regarding how many students to aim for to get involved on YU’s campus. While Mintz wants the group to expand, Saragossi, who in addition to her national position is on the advisory board of TAMID at YU, tried pushing for it to stay smaller.
In order to keep the group tight many TAMID groups create an intense application and interviewing process. However, the fear is that they will not recieve as many applicants to choose from, thereby limiting the variety of potential candidates. The University of Boston followed this model and only received 15 applicants.
The meet- and- greets proved successful, and Mintz is expecting over forty applications, with plans to only accept twenty or twenty-one students, the group size that the board compromised on. Alexandra Zimmer (SYMS ’17), who attended the meet-and-greet at Beren, said that it was “very casual and informative” and that it “definitely tweaked my interest. I am currently working on the application.” Jasmine Razi agreed, saying that the event was “very informative.” She liked that everyone had a chance to introduce themselves and name their favorite startup, meet with the board members, and learn more about the organization and their upcoming events on campus.
While Mintz is optimistic that there will be enough applicants, TAMID did not have a board member to act as recruiting director this past month. He is worried that this may affect the number of students who applied, or the number of students who knew enough about the organization to take interest. Only time will tell if the group expands and if the expected number of applicants is met.