Today marks the end of the first day of the second week at Shad. I can’t believe it’s already been a week! As cheesy as it sounds, time flies when you’re having fun! My experience here so far has been amazing. There are almost no words to describe how much I’ve been able to accomplish with my fellow Shads in just one week.
We started off the day as usual with a little bit of breakfast in the cafeteria. After filling up on potatoes, eggs and some fruit I headed off to the lounge for the first official meeting with our “soft projects” group. As I’m part of the month book committee, we decided the first step in the process was to look through previous month books to draw inspiration and ideas from. This was a cool experience as I got a glimpse of previous Shads’ experiences at the Lakehead campus. Everyone looked like they were having the times of their lives in each picture which was great because I could actually understand where they were coming from. Many people see Shad as just being an intensive program that pushes you to your limits; however it’s so much more than that. Working with other people that have the same drive, passions and talents as you can really help you to reach your full potential.
Following the soft projects meeting, we had a lecture on the importance of sustainable businesses. With all the natural disasters that have occurred recently, I’m starting to realize how important taking care of the environment is; not only for our generation but for the ones to come as well. The lecture explained how businesses can actually increase profit by 38% by following an environmentally friendly approach which I thought was really interesting. Next was part 3 of Shad Speaks. At first I was a little hesitant when first hearing about the idea of making a presentation on a topic for a whole ten minutes but now I realize how beneficial the idea is for us. It gives us an opportunity to practice our public speaking skills in a warm, supportive environment. We also get a chance to learn about interesting topics too. The topics presented today were Gene Therapy, the challenges of product development, Cryonics and consumer behavior. Each presentation was unique, informative and very well presented. Everyone that has presented so far has been very polished and professional which is great!
Shad Speaks was followed by a fitness session where we got the chance to play capture the flag. The way it worked was that we were brought to a wooded area and split up into groups of 3. Each group hid their flags (mostly high up in trees I might add!) and the game started. I have to admit this was one of the most intense games of capture the flag I’ve ever played. I was tiptoeing around trees and pretty much crawling through bushes all in search of the other teams’ flags. The only drawback was that the area was pretty big so it was a little confusing. We ended the session with a lap around the field and rushed back to residence to change before the next lecture.
The next lecture was on Geriatrics. This was perfect as it related perfectly to the theme of our Shad Cup project. The presentation was really interesting and included a lot of cool facts and quotes. For example, I learned that the oldest living person is named Jeanne Calment and lived until she was 122! Following this we had our Shad Cup team meetings. During this meeting we narrowed down our ideas from 100 to about 5 – 10. We started to research the specific products to see if they were feasible and met all the constraints of the aging population. Late night ended the day with a snack and a chance to catch up with fellow Shads. All in all it was a great day and I can’t wait to see what the rest of them hold!
Hometown: Ottawa, Ontario
