[Insert catchy title here]

What a busy week eh. Firstly ‘eh’ is no longer pronounced as it is back home, rather as ‘ay’. That’s because I’m now living and working in Canada, as opposed to living and studying back in the not-so-sunny Granite City of Aberdeen. In defence of the Deen’s weather, there has already been a few days of rain and dullness here in Fredericton. Working full time at the Pond Deshpande Centre is a bit of a change from slugging it out for 15 hours per week in my local supermarket, stacking bananas and making sure the potatoes are up to standard. Don’t get me wrong I’m grateful for having such a good part-time employer that has allowed me to go away for a prolonged period again, but I’m equally relieved to be doing more with my summer than reducing fruit & veg to the delight of the regular bargain hunters. Instead I am working alongside people who are geared towards making a difference in the region of New Brunswick and beyond.

The Launch Pad event in Toronto has to go down as a fantastic success, as it allowed 18 like-minded people to meet, bond and ultimately realise that we can help each other out over summer with our various projects. It was great to be involved in such an instantly relaxed, humour-filled environment with other students who want to make a difference through social entrepreneurship. That concept is still extremely new to me, but I’m beginning to grasp just how entrepreneurs can shape business to make a difference within the community. Introducing myself to a room full of people for the first time would normally have been pretty daunting, but any tension was eradicated when I led with the line “Hi, I’m Chris and I am an alcoholic”. To be able to have a laugh at the same time as understanding the serious work we can achieve over summer was encouraging.

​​ ​We learnt about the difficulties of immersing yourself in a new culture, and that we should rid ourselves of assumptions and be open-minded as we all entered our new environments. ​On the Thursday night we even managed to go to a baseball game, at which I took full advantage of being able to buy beers at a sporting event. Although I genuinely was ​​interested in the game, the next morning I couldn’t remember what the score was. Safe to say I’m not the most dedicated Toronto Blue Jays fan.

In some ways it was a shame that we had to all go our separate ways, but the training days were jam-packed with useful information that set us up nicely for the summer to come. Onwards I went to Fredericton.

Seeing my pal Olivia for the first time in almost a year was great, still pretty amazing to think I have an internship in the same city as someone I met while studying abroad last year. So anyway, my first night in Fredericton consisted of getting hammered at a country music festival. Not a bad introduction to life out here. Apparently ordering “two vodka lemonades” is not how you acquire two drinks of vodka with lemonade. That reminds me of the only gripe I have with the way of life here, the fact that in the liquor stores (which are genuinely a thing that exists and means you cannot buy alcohol in the supermarkets) you cannot purchase mixers. Surely that’s obviously illogical, as nobody is buying a bottle of vodka without something to drink it with. Saying that, as my only gripe is that I cannot buy a bottle of Sprite in the same transaction as a 70 of Smirnoff shows that I really am enjoying this cultural transition. Everyone I’ve met so far, including at the various meetings I’ve been invited along to at work, have not only been extremely nice but also have been very intruiged by the SSIM program.

My first few days at the Pond Deshpande Centre have been extremely interesting and insightful. I mean my first day began by sitting through a board meeting which was a lot to take in and yet was probably the best way to be introduced into the goings-on of the Centre. In terms of actual work, I have begun work on a project aiming to map out the social enterprise ecosystem within Atlantic Canada. For those who aren’t sure what that entails exactly (aka me this time last week), basically I am researching all the different opportunities in the 3 provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island for those who wish to become social entrepreneurs. This includes opportunities to be educated in social entrepreneurship, potential funding sources and more generally who is out there to provide support. That research will then be translated into a fancy network diagram which people at all stages of their entrepreneurial careers can then have access to in order to identify the organisations out there that can help them in their venture.

Okay so as far as expectations of what my first blog would be like, I did not expect it to be this long… Apologies to those of you who have forced yourself to make it this far. I’ll try and make the next one shorter.

#chrisburnett #SSIMexchange