It was Saturday, January 18th at 8:55 am when I finally found the door marked “Beedie Protégé”. I was tired since I am never up that early on Saturdays, and stressed out because of the huge pile of homework neatly stacked in my residence room awaiting my inevitable return. Entering this “Beedie Protégé” room I had no idea what to expect; however, our first activity set the precedent for what Protégé would be all about.
To start, the whole group received a piece of paper with about thirty different squares with unique questions in each one. These questions ranged from an individual who is interested in starting their own company, to someone who can deliver an elevator pitch. Our job? Fill as many squares with other students’ names as possible in the next twenty minutes. The mood of the room switched immediately from lethargic and tentative, to competitive and determined. Everyone was up and about meeting new people and establishing new connections. Once the twenty minutes were up, the completed sheets were collected. Personally, I was feeling confident since I had just finished filling in all the squares. Justin, the Coordinator in the Beedie Student Engagement Office, selected my sheet first from the top of the pile and began reading it. Just as I was settling back into my seat, he called on me and asked a simple question: “Dylan, who do you have listed for the category of starting their own company?” I honestly had no idea whose name I had put there. What’s worse is that I couldn’t even remember what business they wanted to create. Unable to answer, he tossed my sheet to the side.
From that moment, I had already learned a valuable lesson from Protégé – networking and getting to know people isn’t based on being able to check their name off on some list, or fill some category that you are trying to find. The value comes from understanding who they are and what their value is. A person can’t be a good resource to you unless you know what they have to offer, and they know what value you can offer them.
This experience captured the essence of Beedie Protégé program. Every activity we do serves a purpose to educate us on how to not only be better business students inside the classroom, but outside as well. The program itself consists of four workshops run on consecutive Saturdays from 9am-4pm. There are 52 Beedie students in the program, and we have the privilege of engaging with many Beedie faculty, staff, senior students and alumni in various lessons and activities such as stress management, finding our strengths, effective corporate sponsorship and learning about the benefits of having a mentor. Although we are only halfway through the program, I have already started to realize the benefits that a program like this has to offer. I would recommend it to all business students in their early years at Beedie who are looking to learn interpersonal skills, self-awareness, and confidence while creating new connections within the Beedie community.
Dylan is currently in his first year at the Beedie School of Business and has yet to decide on a concentration. This year he has participated in BASS FROSH, the BASS Mentorship Program and is currently enrolled in the Beedie Protégé Program. Through these experiences, he has recognized the potential benefits of experiential learning and is actively looking to become more involved with student clubs at Beedie. Dylan has thoroughly enjoyed his time at SFU thus far and looks forward to continuing his degree while taking advantage of the variety of involvement opportunities that are available to Beedie students.