Acadia Business Society xeChangebusiness.acadiau.ca/axechanges/February2007.pdf · Volume 1; Issue 1 Iona Green Surprisingly profes-sor’s expectations are replicated in the workforce.

AxeChangeAcadia Business Society

Volume 1; Issue 1

Iona GreenSurprisingly profes-sor’s expectations are replicated in the workforce. - p. 3

Chris GrahamThe path to Law school. How to get there and what to take with you. - p. 4

Andrew Wahba Mr. Zimmering Dave RankinThe truth about the BBAH program from a current honours student. - p. 8

An Acadia graduate who took an unortho-dox route to travel the world. - p. 5

Chris Ferguson continues his interview with Lawrence Zimmering. - p. 6

Mr. Zimmering talks about the state of entrepreneurship in

Canada

Lawrence Zimmering

Finding out what to do is the most frustrating part of the journey.Christopher Ferguson

BBA Honours Candidate

continued - p.6

www.AcadiaBusinessSociety.ca

Long before outsourcing became etched in the wider Ca-nadian consciousness – branded as globalization’s great threat to the middle class – Lawrence Zimmering, along with business partner Jay Hennick, bet their respec-tive houses (literally) on Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). Inspired by the desire to create value by building businesses, Mr. Zimmering and Mr. Hennick bought what is now Resolve Corporation some 15 years ago, and since then Mr. Zimmering has led it from $9 million in annual revenues to $300 million, from 150 to 3,900 employees, and ultimately transformed Resolve into a public company traded on the TSX (RBO.UN), where it is now valued at $171 million.

While not revered as iconic of the national dream like in the United States, stories of Canadians creating great wealth on the shoulders of big ideas do exist. Mr. Zim-mering’s and Resolve’s tale is just such a testament to pos-sibility.

Beyond the potential of uncommon fortunes, entrepreneurship also allows for the uncommon satisfaction of looking back at one’s own inspired idea being brought to life. Great leaps forward – contrary to what Mao thought – usually do not come at the hands of large bureaucracies; rather they come from small scale ambition and inspiration. It took a Google to perfect internet

� AxeChange • February �007

Careers 101Professor Green gives the do’s and don’ts of how to kick start your career and what to expect

- p.3

Letter from law schoolA past Acadia student explains the path to law school

- p.4

Canadian Entrepreneurship

Chris Furgeson interviews Lawrence Zimmering on the state of Canadian Entrepreneurship.

- p.6

Co-op CornerAn insight into the benefits of Acadia’s Co-op program

- p.8

Memoirs of an Honours StudentDavid Rankin reminisces about his time as an Acadia Business Honours Student

- p.8

Dear reader,

Welcome to the first issue of the AxeChange in over five years. The re-launch of the AxeChange has brought with it a change in direction. The Change (pardon the pun) is in its audience and direction. The former AxeChange was oriented towards Alumni, while the current production is orientated towards current students; that said alumni are more than welcome to enjoy our fine product and are encouraged to participate.

The AxeChange is meant to be used as a channel for you, the ‘future leaders of tomorrow’ to gain insight into the world that is outside of academia while at the same time tying Acadia into the outside world; it’s a complicated mess of reverse osmosis that I am even having trouble with myself. However, there are three direct channels that should be evident in every AxeChange issue.

First, at the academic level, each issue brings opportunity to Acadia Students to get work published. Honours students can have a crack at trying to explain part of their thesis, marketing students can write articles about research they are doing. The AxeChange acts as a channel for students to get their ideas out of their heads and papers and into the minds of the Acadia Community.

Second, at the Acadia Community level the AxeChange strives to integrate students with the rest of the university. One way we will be doing this (hopefully) is by presenting professor biographies which allow students to see where professors have come from, and what valuable experiences they may have; Acadia professors truly do have a wealth of experience and expertise that is the true jewel of Acadia.

Third, the AxeChange wishes to introduce students to larger business concerns; hopefully piquing readers into looking at things from different angles and to start asking questions. I am not trying to start a 60’s style revolutionary ‘fight the man’ men-tality, I just hope that the publication gives readers the tools to stretch those analytical muscles that our professors continually try to empower.

This issue’s theme (as each following issue will have) is employment. It comes at a time when grads have already made, or should be in the process of making, plans for after graduation. It includes biographies of past students experiences, tips on how to get the most out of your career, and opportunities that readers can look into. I hope you enjoy the re-birth of the AxeChange and I look forward to your input. Please send any and all enquiries about the AxeChange to [email protected]. Enjoy!

Alastair CollierEditor In Chief, AxeChangeBBA Honours Candidate

Letter From Thailand

Acadia Graduate reminisces on his time at Acadia and the top things he learned at Acadia

- p.5

The editorial connection

�AxeChange • February �007

For the majority of students, the skills, work habits, and personal con-nections that have been developed and fostered here at Acadia are truly the building blocks for their future. For students that will com-plete their formal education upon graduation from Acadia, the work-place awaits. So what type of job should you be looking for? Some students will know exactly what occupational area they are interested in and exactly what compa-ny they are going to work for. The major-ity of students however, will not.

Nevertheless, their employment ex-pectations may be as ambitious as secur-ing a entry-level job paying $200,000 a year. Personally, I do not know of any legal employment opportunities for new grads that start in this compensation range. You are more likely to find employment in the $25-$45,000 range, depending on your degree and location of employment. Obviously an employer in Calgary will need to offer more compensation to offset the increased cost of living, as compared to a similar employer in Summerside, PEI, everything else being equal.

Certainly we all wish to be adequately compensated, but when looking for your first job, compensation should not be the primary motivation. Choose a job that will offer you the opportunity to work on an interesting project or develop new skills over a job with an im-portant sounding job title but with little ‘value-added.’ It is highly unlikely that you will stay with your first employer until retirement – most people have numerous employers, not to mention careers, over their productive working life. Think of your first job as the first step on your career ladder.

Once you have landed your job, it is very important that you make a commitment to your employer for an appropriate amount of time. Employers allocate considerable resources to finding and training a new employee and the expectation is that you will stay with the com-pany long enough to offset this investment. Certainly there will be situations where it will be beneficial for you to sever ties and move on, but key here is the awareness that you cannot job hop without raising a red flag to future employers. You will be able to explain one short-term job, but a pattern of frequent job changes will not be looked

upon favorably. Generally speaking, most em-

ployers will be looking for someone that demonstrates similar skills and work eth-ics that your professors encourage. For example, when an assignment is due at 3:00 p.m., it is due at 3:00 p.m. Many times students will send me an email say-ing they missed the deadline and offer a lame excuse. My response is the due date is the due date. Period. In a competitive job market, punctuality will be the differ-ence between keeping a job and getting a promotion. A successful employee is the

one who gets the job done as requested, on time and on budget.Finally, when I was a student, I recall being envious of those stu-

dents who planted trees for the summer while I toiled away in a hot dusty lab, titrating flasks of chemicals. Certainly they had consider-ably more disposable income than I did the following semester. My envy however dissipated when I was able to use my summer employ-ment experience to better grasp concepts in more advanced classes, and secure long term employment in a job related area following graduation. The corollary for graduating business students is that first jobs need not be in a wilderness; though a wilderness (either the natural or glass-and-cement variety) as the starting point of a career is not necessarily disadvantageous for those who know where they want to go and are willing to commit to the first step.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Starting a CareerEmployers and Professors have Similar Expectations

Iona GreenAcadia Professor

In a competitive job market, punctuality will be the differ-ence between keeping a job and getting a promotion. A successful employee is the one who gets the job done as requested, on time and on

budget.

www.thinkintrinsic.comThinkintrinsic is an entrepreneurial investment analysis company

started by Acadia students Jordan Smith and Andrew McKeown. Based out of their apartment here in Wolfville, Thinkintrinisic pro-duces articles for subscribing members to read about undervalued companies. Thinkintrinsic focuses on market exceeding returns from low-risk opportunities.

Jordan spoke to AxeChange and had this to say: “We have a very

specific focus on small public companies, as well as “special situa-tions” including spin-offs, which for many reasons we discuss tend to outperform the averages.

Since we started the site in November, our recommenda-tions have done very well. None of our recommendations have lost money. Our highlights include Premier Exhibitions (PRXI) which has gone from just above $6 to $10.32, and Peace Arch En-tertainment (PAE) which has gone from about $1 to $1.28 as of today. Our other recommendations (which are all spin-offs) are WU, SBH, and HBI which are up 5%, 5%, and 9%, respectively.

The employment connection

� AxeChange • February �007

Graduating in the spring of 2004, I spent the summer in Wolfville be-fore moving (back) to Toronto to study at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. In just three months I will graduate with the Faculty’s Class of 2007. Needless to say, much has happened in the intervening years, and as another convoca-tion approaches I find myself increasingly in a reflective frame of mind. So, it was very timely for the Axechange to invite this contribution, and I am grateful for the opportunity to bring some of these reflections into sharper focus.

When I started law school – which, inciden-tally, is attended by a surprising number of busi-ness school graduates – my father, a lawyer, told me that the experience would unfold, roughly, as follows: “First Year they scare you; Second Year they work you; Third Year they bore you.” Looking back, his account of the first two years was unnervingly apt – especially when one considers that my father graduated from law school in 1975. (Yes, lawyers are a conservative group.) Thankfully, the Third Year has proven not boring but rather pleasant. Most everyone has their post-school arrangements settled (this being the dominant preoccupation of the first two years – see below) and is finally free to work through, with tremendous care, some interest-ing legal problems.

First and Second Year, however, are rather a different story. There are two reasons why First Year is “scary”: “fact patterns” and really smart people. Fact patterns are what law schools call the type of questions given on the fi-nal exams. Essentially, they are stories about people doing outrageous things and then asking for legal advice. (The stories are truly fantastic: my torts exam involved a gentleman being helped onto a moving train by porters, who accidentally knocked a package out of the gentleman’s arms that happened to conceal fireworks, which then ignited and caromed down the platform, dislodging weigh scales that toppled onto a lady named, of all things, Ms. Palsgraf. Actually, that was a real case: Palsgraf v. Long Island Railway.) The idea is for students to apply the law to the facts, rather than simply regurgi-tate legal principles by rote. This is really a very effective method of exami-nation, just very different from what everyone is accustomed to and so there is the natural anxiety about the unknown. Enter the second reason: very intelligent, very serious colleagues. It is difficult to imagine how one could possibly compete with all these scholars – virtually everyone thinks that the

admissions people made a special exception just for them. Obviously this is balderdash: the Faculty only made one exception in my year (me) and gener-ally does not make a practice of admitting incapable students.

In second year, the courses cover more material in less time. (All First Year courses – at least at the Faculty – are two terms, whereas upper year courses are only one term.) This accounts for the “work you” part. Second Year is also the time when the majority of students secure their post-graduate

work placement. Recruiting season opens in late August and closes in November. “O’er woodland crests, The ceaseless fusillade of terror ran” – and so the law firms descend upon the students. To say that this is a dis-traction would be a massive understatement – it is a surreal example of efficient human processing. Thankfully, the Faculty awakens in the New Year to blissful repose – except, of course, for the first year students (see above).

In between my first and second years I worked and lived in Calgary, Alberta. (In First Year there are some smaller recruit-ing events, for those looking to prolong the experience for a full twelve months.) Never having been west of Ontario, this was an op-portunity to see a beautiful part of Canada, and I even managed to dip my toe into the Pacific Ocean before returning home. Last summer I worked and lived in New York City, and will return there next fall to prac-tice corporate law. (This is tremendously ex-citing: New York really is “the city that never

sleeps”.) Closer to home, I have become an active “mooter” at the Faculty (mooting being, essentially, a more formal and deferential version of univer-sity debates involving questions of law, not fact), something that has permit-ted me to argue in “moot courts” presided over by Appeal Court judges and, this year, the Honourable Justice Rosalie Abella of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Throughout these past three years I have been pleasantly surprised by how frequently Acadia people have appeared in my path. Regardless of the place (Toronto, Calgary, New York – even Nome, Alaska, should I ever get there) there has always been a connection to our university. Most of them I knew personally – my contemporaries, sometimes cronies – but there were always new friends in tow, and often a professional contact is also available.

Three years out, I am happy to report that the Acadia community ex-tends far beyond the campus proper. Your colleagues are (and will be) doing exciting things, so be sure to keep in touch. These connections become more treasured as we meet more and more people that do not share “our story”.

Christopher GrahamLetter from Law School

Christopher GrahamAcadia BBA Graduate

Flavelle House, U of T Campus Jane Kidner

The alumni connection

�AxeChange • February �007

Andrew WahbaThe Exploration of a Not-For-Profit Route

Andrew WahbaAcadia BBA Graduate

My professional life since convocating from Acadia has been somewhat of a winding road. I have had over 10 jobs in many different parts of the world. I have worked in the private and public sector and have further ex-plored the world of academia. What I am doing now is something that I would never have dreamed of during my time at Acadia. However, I have learned that anything is possible with a little imagination and the ability to recognize the transferability of your skill set.

I graduated from Acadia with a Business Administration degree in 2001. My course load focused mainly on fi-nance. At the time I was quite certain that my professional career would involve finance in some manner. During my final two years at Acadia, I searched for jobs in the industry but could not find any that really intrigued me. If the work did, the hours didn’t. I was not interested in spending my life behind a com-puter in a cubicle. At risk of sounding too ide-alistic, I believe there is more to life than that. I wanted to find a job that balanced my work and life interests.

In my final semester at Acadia I took a Business Policy course with Prof Edith Cal-laghan. It was in this course where I was in-troduced to the concept of sustainable devel-opment. We spent a lot of time discussing corporate social responsibility and the relationship between business and the natural environment. These concepts particularly sparked my interest. I wanted to study these topics at a greater depth and decided to enroll for one more semester at Acadia. Dur-ing this semester, I focused my studies on business and the environment. I pursued this area of education further at the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto. There I completed both a Masters in Environmental Studies focusing on Business and Sustainable Development and a graduate diploma through the Schulich School of Business in Busi-ness and the Environment.

While completing my Masters, I had the opportunity to intern with Enbridge Gas Distribution in the Sustainable Energy Department. I also worked as the project manager for RiverSides, a Toronto based Non-Gov-ernmental Organization that focuses on water quality issues.

Unlike professional and most graduate programs, my academic work did not lead to a specific job. It allowed great flexibility to pursue work in the public or private sector and left the door open to the world of academia. I chose to explore the international and not for profit route.

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in the Ca-

nadian Government’s Young Professionals International Program. Through this program and the Canadian based Hispanic Development Council, I worked for six months in Cordoba, Argentina. I worked for the Center for Human Rights and Environment as the project manager for their Respon-sible Business Program.

While in Argentina, I met a number of travelers who were searching for volunteer opportunities and other ways to integrate more with the lo-cal community. Many had found opportunities through meaningful travel agents and paid a significant amount of money to volunteer. I decided to create a not for profit organization that would bridge this gap between no fee volunteer opportunities and volunteers around the world. Armed with the Acadia Advantage, I felt the best way to do this was to create a website where free information could be shared between travelers, volunteers, and

organizations. Upon my return to Canada I took

a number of part time jobs to pay the bills while establishing the True Trav-ellers Society (www.truetravellers.org). I worked as a manual labourer in a power plant, a project leader with Katimavik, a bartender, and a utility man in a hotel. Once I had the web-site running, I decided to hit the road again. I traveled to Mexico and Cuba to look for different opportunities to add to our organization’s growing da-tabase. While in Mexico, I found out that I had been accepted to volunteer with Right to Play.

Right to Play is an international organization that uses sport and play for development. I worked with Right to Play as a project coordinator at two refugee camps in Thailand located near the Myanmar border. The op-portunity to work in a refugee camp was a fascinating and rewarding experi-ence.

In retrospect, Acadia was a pivotal place for me. An environmentalist in the business world often draws some puzzled looks, as does a business person in the presence of environmentalists. . Acadia allowed me the aca-demic freedom to explore both business and the environment. It equipped me with the skills to explore a number of different professional routes.

Since convocating from Acadia with a business administration degree my personal experience has shown me that your opportunities are only lim-ited by your imagination. A business degree does not destine you to a life in a cubicle hammering away at a computer. All sectors of society and areas of employment have management involved. They all require the skills that you learn and develop in business school. It is up to you to demonstrate to others how your skills are transferable and how they can benefit a particular organization or company. The possibilities are endless. Life truly is what you make of it.

Andrew at a refugee camp Andrew Wahba

The alumni connection

� AxeChange • February �007

Lawrence Zimmering

David EmmetMr. Zimmering being interviewed at the Arthur Irving

search, as Microsoft sat on its monopolies. It took an Apple to market the personal computer, while IBM sat on the technology.

So for business students who find the tales of Irvings, Research in Mo-tions, and Bombardiers irresistibly seductive, the question remains: How does one break away from the autopilot BBA, to Monster.ca, to Middle Management career path, and make the leap as a self lead business person? Furthermore, how does one make such a leap prosperously?

Incubating the Entrepreneur

Successful entrepreneurs, like successful individuals in general, tend to be both very bright and fiercely disciplined. More particular to entrepre-neurs however, is an insatiable curiosity that results in a world view that is, in Mr. Zimmering’s words, transcendent, and one that enables the suc-cessful entrepreneur to break beyond the bounds of convention. Successful ideas usually require a leap not possible using formulaic deduction, or strict adherence to conventional wisdom.

Amongst entrepreneurs, there seems to be two great sources of inspira-tion that deliver that big idea. Occasionally, opportunity or circumstance can conjure up the idea out of necessity, or more mundanely, the successful vision can come from carefully considered introspection. Mr. Zimmering’s career offers examples of both.

In the case of circumstance forcing the hand of necessity, consider the story of the now ubiquitous Weather Network. Mr. Zimmering, while head-ing up a division at SNC-Lavalin that provided 24/7 weather forecasting to oil rigs off Nova Scotia, was confronted with the simultaneous closure of all the offshore rigs as the federal government pulled the plug on their funding. Consequently, all those people who worked in the division were in danger of finding themselves without a job. Knowing of the Weather Channel in the United States, Mr. Zimmering and his team decided to create the Weather Network. The forecasters provided, well, the forecasting, while the isolated souls who actually observed the weather on the rigs did all the creative work. It turns out that the people who wanted to go to sea for months on end

were writers, producers, and artists searching for solitude. Necessity ended up leading to opportunity.

Resolve Corporation, on the other hand, did not come about with a back to the wall; rather it came from 2 dis-ciplined weeks spent simply thinking of something to do, and trying to find partners to do it with. For those wishing to make a business of their own, Mr. Zimmering offers the following: “be as discipline, and spend as much time, think-ing for yourself as you would working for someone else”. Sometimes, and this is something to which many multi-majored university students can relate, finding out what to do is the most frustrating part of the journey.

The Plunge

“Who’s going to be really excited if you drop out? You’re go-ing to be really excited. Who else is going to be really excited?

When you do this, if you do this, nobody will support you. Your parents will not like it, they will think its a bad thing. My mother, to this day, sends me a Stanford watch every Christmas, and says “I will send one every year until you graduate”” - Joe Liemandt: Founder and CEO of Trilogy, Provider of Software to Fortune 1000 companies

His mother still can’t get over it – and he’s been on the cover of Forbes. What does the Mr. Liemandt’s statement suggest about the perception

of the aspiring entrepreneur? For one, it suggests that no one, not even their parents, have confidence in the wide eyed dreamer. Furthermore, it also sug-gest that being a small time entrepreneur is not perceived as a credible career (if not your mom would be proud of you dropping out).

Flourishing in a confidence vacuum requires an unwavering passion for what one is doing, and an outlook that is, in the words of Blogger founder Evan Williams, “hallucinogenically optimistic”. The crisis of credibility, on the other hand, must be faced with relentless discipline, which is useful not only for building professional equity, but also making sure all the necessaries, and there will be a lot of them, get taken care of.

Beyond these outside forces, the newly minted entrepreneur must also be able to manage personal uncertainty. Professionally – the vast majority of the time – people deal with favourable odds: it is likely that that undergrad can be completed, it is likely that that job will still be there in a year. How-ever, as an entrepreneur, one has to deal with probable failure. Whatever the life stage when making the plunge, there will likely be a sacrifice of security – whether it be the security of a stable paycheck, or the security of campus life. Here, Mr. Zimmering offers simple advice: be prepared to fail. There is no shame in failure, and it is important not to be intimidated by it.

That being said, Mr. Zimmering also advises that the best very way to manage uncertainty is to become an entrepreneur at a young age, before the responsibilities of a family become a concern (i.e. while there is nothing to lose). After an undergrad, not much else beyond personal prosperity is rid-ing on finding the first paycheck; there is no mortgage (and thankfully the banks can’t repossess an education), there are no car payments, and there are no hungry mouths at home (but yours).

As Mr. Liemandt put it: “when you’re an undergraduate getting out, you don’t have a whole lot to lose. I know you think you do … but I’m telling you, now is the time”.

continued from front page

continued - p.7

7AxeChange • February �007

Lucky Partnerships

One of the themes raised time and time again by entrepreneurs, whether it was Mr. Zimmering, or serial entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, was the im-portance of personal partnerships. The success of the entrepreneurial ven-ture often rests on the bonds between, and the calibre of, its partners.

It is impossible to be better than everybody at everything, and it is crucial to do business with people who, while sharing the same values and passions, have a variety of talents. This diversity of ability is crucial; Blogger founder Evan Williams blames his largest failures on partnering with individuals with similar skills, and the role definition confusions that this causes.

Beyond having the right skill set amongst partners, one must also, as Mr. Zimmering put it, “connect authentically” with people, so that these relation-ships are based on trust and integrity. While this may not seem immediately

important, every start-up, whether an abysmal failure or a resounding suc-cess, will face rough times, and thus strain its internal relationships. Because of this, Janice Fraser, CEO and founder of Adaptive Path and a serial entre-preneur in Silicon Valley, advises that “ [you should] Choose your partners based on who you want to go through the rough times with”.

Finally, hypothesize a situation where someone is very bright, inspired, and bold. They also have a high tolerance for uncertainty, and they know the right people with the right skills. They’re set right? Well, not really. Success-ful ventures are ones where “opportunity meets good preparation”. Unfortu-nately, as much as successful people hate to admit it, success in life is as much about luck as it is about ability (with ability being the prerequisite), and this is certainly true with entrepreneurial ventures.

All in all, the entrepreneurial career offers a shot at glory, wealth, and experiences not (as of this writing) yet listed on Monster.ca to those groups of individuals who are bright, bold and blessed enough to recognize and capitalize uncommon opportunity. If one believes they too have a $300 mil-lion brain child, this is the only way to build it.

- continued from page 6Lawrence Zimmering

To the readers of the AxeChange,

After many years of ups and downs, it is evident that the Acadia Business Society and business students are still standing strong. This has been a ground breaking year for the students of the Fred C. Manning School of Business. The executive is very impressed by the passion, drive and desire that we have seen this year. From the very beginning of the year BBQ, it was evident that this year would be different. Business students are truly beginning to breakdown the barriers that have been pres-ent in the past years. Students from a variety of years, interests and backgrounds are beginning to interact and build strong personal and professional relationships.

This is not to say that there haven’t been challenges, namely the implementation of the CORE Program. However, with the help of our excellent year reps, the executive strongly believes that the issues in the CORE program are well on their way to being resolved. I would like to take this opportunity to express my absolute delight with all the business students that have partici-pated in the society’s events this year. Furthermore, I would like to encourage each and every business student to participate in future business related events - attend a conference, join us at a social event or play on an intramural team! There are plenty of opportunities available for you to interact with other business students, meet industry professionals or explore the wonderful world of business. On behalf of all the executive and representatives, I hope you have a great winter semester and good luck to all of you looking for future job opportunities!

Yours in Acadia Spirit, Amanda Bella2006-07 Acadia Business Society President

Meet the ABS Executive:

Amanda Bella (President)Alex Tims (VP Internal)Brad Marcotte (VP Finance)Bronwyn Sorbie (VP External)Craig Scott (VP Events and Activities)

Meet the REPS:

Dee Popat (1st year)Ashley Hannon (2nd year)Mary Sohn (3rd year)Carolyn Fung (4th year)Carl Huang (International)Sam MacKay (Sports)Alastair Collier (AxeChange)

The Acadia Business Society

Interested in running for an executive position for 2007/2008? Nomination period ends February 24th at 12:00 p.m.

The society connection

� AxeChange • February �007

Memoirs of an Honours StudentDave Rankin

Acadia BBA Honours Candidate

The first day of the honours program is, like the first day of most things academic, an awkward experience. If you’re anything like me, you will feel clumsy and gawky from the moment that you walk in on the first day (to find all of the top students in business sitting around an intimidating confer-ence table) to the moment that you leave – feeling slightly embarrassed that you seem to be the only one who didn’t do any prep work over the summer (don’t worry, nobody else did either, but it sure doesn’t seem that way!). You don’t have a supervisor; you don’t have a specialty or a topic of interest. Es-sentially, you don’t have any idea why you’re there in the first place. On this day, the honours program seems like a much bigger piece of the academic pie than you ever wanted to chew.

Why am I telling you this? Because these are all of the normal thoughts that a good student goes through long before the decision to visit Don Wright, the coordinator of the program, in his lofty Rhodes Hall of-fice. Sadly, it is also what keeps the program so small. For one reason or another, the very students who belong in the program turn up their noses prematurely. The illustrious ‘H’ seems far from worth its apparent cost.

But take it from an old hand of the program, honours isn’t about adding an H to your degree (yes, this surprised me also). It’s about the op-portunities. Honours is about the opportunity to study and learn on your own, the opportunity to make money and attend conferences, the enhanced opportunity to get into graduate or professional school, and, most impor-tantly, the opportunity to form relationships with some of the preeminent scholars of the Fred C. Manning School of Business Administration. I can see graduation on the horizon, and to Acadia I say: “keep the H!” I’ve gotten

more out of the program already than I ever could have anticipated. Let me recount a few specifics. Over the summer every business

honours student who applied received a research grant. Sounds daunting, right? Think again. Acadia literally paid us (in the form of a summer job) to work on our respective theses – which is essentially like being paid to take a 6 credit hour course. No fine print; no drawbacks. Personally, I took this as an opportunity to finish my thesis, submit a paper to a conference, work on my French, and relax. With regard to the conference paper, this translated into an award, a lot of recognition, and a trip! If it wasn’t for honours or my supervisor Dr. Jun Yang, I wouldn’t have obtained any of these things.

In October I applied to several law schools, and honours (the ex-perience, not the H) came in handy when it came to writing personal state-ments. If you’re thinking about graduate or professional school, honours is worth its weight in gold. Not only do the majority of successful applicants have honours degrees, but it’s really easy to show independent learning and interests when a significant part of your undergraduate degree is based on a self-made curriculum. If nothing else, honours is an opportunity to tailor your BBA to your specifications. I took out the finance waist-line. But your alterations are up to you.

If you’re in second year and have read to this point in this article, no doubt you’re asking “should I consider honours?” Don’t ask me, I don’t know you. But if you like to study to learn (and not just for marks): prob-ably. If you’re a disciplined self-starter: almost certainly. If you’re up for a challenge: most definitely. Honours is amongst the most valuable opportu-nities available at Acadia – not just for the final product degree, but for all of the experiences and perks that come along the way (did I mention you get an office?). I said it before, and I will say it again: the honours program is worth its weight in gold.

Happy New Year and welcome to another busy and exciting semester from the Co-operative Ed-ucation Office!

Overall enrolment in Business Co-op in-creased by 27 students this year. These students have successfully completed Professional De-velopment Workshops, constructed resumes to showcase their talents and are ready to apply for their first co-op work term! Congratulations!

WHAT IS CO-OP? Co-operative Education is “hands-on” educa-

tion, extending the learning process beyond the classroom and into the workplace by alternating academic terms with paid study-related co-op terms.

Students normally enroll in co-op at the be-ginning of their second year of study. Students entering their third year of study are eligible for late entrance to the co-op program by following the application procedure which includes attend-ing an Information Session held in September

and completing an application form. For further information including deadline dates, etc. please see www.acadiau.ca/employment.

FEATURE ALUMNUS!Glenn VanAgten, a recent graduate of the

BBA Co-op program, is currently employed with Deloitte and Touche, LLP as a Consultant.

Glenn completed his first co-op work term with Maritime Life Assurance Company, then moved on to a second work term with Larsen Packers and completed the Co-op Option with a third work term at Deloitte and Touche, LLP. Prior to graduation Glenn was offered a full-time position with Deloitte and has this to say about his co-op experience:

“Acadia’s Co-op program was invaluable in launching me into a successful career. I had 3 ex-cellent, well paying work terms that boosted my resume and helped me see the direction I wanted to go in. I wasn’t even finished my last work term

and I was already offered a full-time posi-

tion. If you’re studying business, do co-op! It’s win-win all the way.”

Jackie Gomes, Senior Human Resources Manager with Deloitte and Touche, LLP offers the following comments: “Deloitte has been very fortunate to be involved in several Co-op Pro-grams over the years. These programs help us identify potential permanent employees and also gives the co-op students an opportunity to expe-rience life at a Professional Services firm to see if it is a good fit for their career aspirations.”

Co-op Corner

Glenn VanAgten - BBA (Co-op) ‘05

Shelley McMullin, Business Co-op Coordinator