August 13 - Working with Impact

The sound of an alarm. A crack of sunlight pouring in and the melody of songbirds. Two minutes later, I’m sitting in a meeting with my colleagues giving a progress report, planning out the projects we’ll be doing over the next week, and bouncing ideas off each other.

After scribbling down more than page of notes, the meeting wraps up and I venture downstairs to—eat breakfast. Have I gained powers of teleportation? Not quite, but I am enjoying one of the many benefits of an internship with Impact Entrepreneurship Group; with members across the entire breadth of the country, meetings are held online, communication is by email, and my home is my office.

Impact is not your normal organization; our assignments are open-ended and we aren’t spoon fed expectations—most of the time we’re given a vague problem and have to find the solutions ourselves. This week, I’ve been working to find the best way put together as much data as possible to evaluate the effectiveness of Impact’s various programs with regard to fostering entrepreneurship and encouraging professional development.

Working directly with Alex Shipillo—Impact’s national president, and another fellow Shad from Carleton, we’ve put together a plan to collect data from a few alumni of Impact’s programs to get an idea of how successful they’ve been since participating.

I’ve found my experience at Impact to parallel that of my experience at Shad. The whole team is open and accepting, personal growth is encouraged, and everyone is actively engaged in furthering Impact’s mission to fuel the entrepreneurial spirit.

This summer has helped develop many parts of my character, and I’ve learned much more than I ever thought was possible. Alex has been playing an active role as a mentor, encouraging me to register a domain name for my blog, giving advice for finding the right university, and showing us what it takes to run an organization like Impact. I’m glad that Shad has allowed me to discover this opportunity, and will definitely be staying with Impact long after the official internship is over.

Bill Mei
Hometown: Mississauga, ON