BizAcademy Reflection
Sharri Chin participated in the 2009 Toronto BizAcademy. She reflects on her experience with the program.
My experience in Biz Academy was fun and challenging I never thought it would be so hectic.
It all started when I was at one of my music programmes and my friend introduce this programme to all of us so I said ok let me give it a try and I did. I was actually surprised when I made it when I got the phone call from Javid that I got in I was so happy but I didn’t show it over the phone. Monday morning I woke up early and went downtown to salesforce. I didn’t really know what I should wear but I found something that looked office like. I was the first person there so I sat there and met Kimberly then some more people came later. On the first morning everyone was asking each other “do my clothes look office looking?” We had breakfast then that’s when the work began.
We all got our binders then we all had our groups that we would be working with the whole week. When we went into our groups we were giving each person our roles in our company. My teammates said I should be the Vice President of creativity and design. They decided this because I told everyone to call me by my nickname C-BONE so they thought that was creative and artistic of me. I eventually told them what I do on my spare time; I am an artist. I emcee, sing, play piano, play guitar, and act so then they decided it was final my role in the company was perfect. We had so much work to do the next couple of days.
We had workshops and presentations by people from salesforce and some who weren’t from salesforce. They helped us out with our project and gave us some helpful advice because our group had a lot of good ideas but we couldn’t settle on one thing and everything was jumbled to a point where we were lost. Finally we settled on an idea thanks to one of the people from salesforce who helped us. It was a lot of hard work and planning to get what we needed done and the pressure was on. We had our good days and our bad days. I worked late nights on our project with my team mates on msn till the next morning. We were up past 2am working on our project then we had to go to salesforce with the little sleep we got. In all, our project was looking good. We all pitched in to do our parts and practiced before the big day hoping it was good.
The last couple days the pressure was on. The other groups wanted to know what everyone was doing. They were spying through the window of our office or asking everyone “so how’s your project going so far, “ but no one gave out their secret plans. The last day everyone was kind of freaking out a bit and we said… no one make mistakes when we present… but no one’s perfect so... but it went well. Everyone was glad it was over then everyone finally shared their ideas at last and we all celebrated at salesforce. Some of us got together after and went out for dinner and pool that same day in the evening.
We all thought one week was to short it should have been two weeks at least. We couldn’t believe it was over all ready because we made friendships. In my group we argued, laughed, we lost faith in our project, and gained it back at the last two days plus we all learned something about each other. I felt important going downtown everyday to the office. I felt accepted in society for one week because people thought I was up to their so called level. I gained respect in one week being someone else and lost it the next week for being myself? I got no awkward stares or frowns at me on the train. The bus actually waited for me and it never drove off like usual. The people actually smiled at me and said good morning and asked me which office do I work in. They sat beside me and they actually started a conversation with me. It’s the way you dress that counts and the area you’re in people still label and stereotype people which is a shame but this experience was different to me than the usual so I loved it very much, if only it stayed liked that after the programme was done.
I really missed being at salesforce after it was done because I knew it was back to my old life. I was sad for about a week or so but I got over it and snapped back into reality. I’m going to take what I learned and use it in the future when I decide to go back to college or maybe this time I’ll go to university. I currently don’t know what I want to take/be so I’m thinking still I come from Jane ST. Which is depicted as a negative place but it’s not all bad I hoped my presence at salesforce proved that it don’t matter where you live you can still do anything you want to do.
That’s why I’ll keep expressing myself through my music and my other talents to show what my life is and how I’m feeling and how others are feeling and where we live and what we got to go through. This was a wonderful experience and I would advise anyone to do it - you won’t be disappointed. The only advice I can give is don’t stress out, think out things thoroughly, and if you have a job already try to book that week off. I was working 5 - 10 and got home around 11 and had to work on my project so it was hard but I had to work, I needed the money, I missed sleep so much that week .
I still talk to many of other participants and have a friendship with them out side of the programme. I loved the experience and the view from the window it was beautiful. Thank you for letting me be a part of this experience. I’ll never forget it and I’ll utilize what I learned now and in the future.