Master of Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology (MBET) student, Dan Allison, reflects on Ignition Week activity at Innersee.
Each year, the new class of MBET students participates in Ignition Week before classes begin. Ignition Week is a week-long introductory program to MBET, where students get to know each other, and are familiarized with the fundamentals of the program and life at Conrad.
During Ignition Week, our group of MBET students did a lot of team building activities. Among all of them, Innersee was in my opinion the best activity of the week. Innersee’s program consists of challenges that inspire individuals explore new ways of working together as a team in order to be successful, and acts as a way to get people out of their normal environment and comfort zone. It was also great that we had the opportunity to get outside and enjoy the Waterloo region countryside for the day.
I personally found the activities both challenging and motivating. The activities we did acted as a great icebreaker, as they helped us all put aside any personal barriers and focus on the task at hand instead. Additionally, each group member brought different skills to the table, which resulted in a sharing of leadership roles in every activity.
Discovering tenacity and leadership
One example that stands out for me was when my group was stuck on a task right before lunch, and my follow classmates, Jonathan and Pablo, stepped up as tenacious leaders, encouraging all to continue until we were successful. After an hour at the challenge we did break for lunch, but that didn’t stop these two from continuing to work on the problem and eventually find a solution. This said a lot about our group and the character of the people in it.
Our group this year is the most diverse that I have ever had to work with. We have professionals from every continent coming to the program with a huge variety of life skills. Through these activities we not only got to know each other better, but Innersee acted as a confidence booster for many of us—providing a great start to the year.
About Dan
Dan comes to the MBET program with seven years of professional experience working for higher education organizations. First working for Wilfrid Laurier University, and then joining the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario in 2009. In 2011, Dan was promoted to the role of Business Development Manager – Corporate Relations, where he was the face of the organization with all external stakeholders. While developing his marketing and recruitment career with CPA, he combined his interest in post-secondary education and real-estate by owning and operating a student housing company since 2009.