It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to the Shad Valley Impact Internship Blogging project. As 2009 Shad Valley Laval Alum, and a Shad Intern 2 years ago, I am greatly honoured to be Co-Director of the Shad Intern Program along with Tam Nguyen (Shad UBC 2010 Alum). This is my second year with this role and I absolutely loved my job last year and getting to know each of the Shads. Impact has many amazing programs but I love this role because it allows me to relive some of my best moments in my life. Shad was definitely the best experience of my life, and I am very thankful for this internship that got me involved with Impact for over two years.
Shad Valley is an award-winning summer enrichment program for the top high school students in the country to experience 4 weeks of business, entrepreneurship, science, engineering, and leadership. In this month long program, the students are placed at one of ten universities campuses across Canada, where they experience real university life, participate in lectures, seminars, design competitions, and much more. Shad is a truly life changing experience as all the students make life-long friendships, and discover themselves in ways they never thought possible. Personally, Shad has allowed me to discover my talents, pushed me beyond my limits, and definitely made me step outside my comfort zone. I thank Shad for all the opportunities it provided me with, especially getting involved in Impact.
Impact is proud of our partnership with Shad Valley. Our Founder, Kunal Gupta, was a Shad and has since been named Shad Alumnus of the year for his work with Impact. We have dozens of Shad Valley alumni as current and past Impact members. Most importantly, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Canada’s top high school students as part of the Shad Valley Internship program. During the month of August, each student is placed on a project or team and is mentored by current Impact members. The internship provides a great opportunity for the students to apply their skills from Shad and get a close-up look at one of Canada’s largest student-run organizations.
This year, we have selected 11 incredible interns (out of over 100 applicants!) working within our organization. Over the next month, each Shad intern will be writing a blog post about his or her experience with Impact. Thank you to all of the Shads for their hard work and an even bigger thank you to the Shad Valley organization for providing us with the opportunity to take part in their incredible program.
Susie Pan
Shad Valley Internship Program Director
Shad Laval 2009
