Having spent the past month forming a family with forty seven of the most phenomenal, talented and wonderful people I will ever meet, it’s still hard to believe that Shad MUN 2011 is actually over. That being said, as one chapter of my Shad experience ends, another looms over the horizon…
After returning to Markham for two fleeting days, I left the comforts of home behind once more and set out for Ottawa, where a month-long internship awaited me.
On my first day, I awoke at 6 o’clock, got dressed and was out the door at 6:45 to begin my two hour bus ride to Benbria, an award winning start-up company providing intelligent and innovative notifications solutions to clients around the globe. Benbria is was named one of Canada’s fastest growing companies in 2010 and was recently awarded “Product of the Year” by United Communications Magazine in April of 2011.
I was slightly nervous coming into a new company at first, however that quickly disappeared thanks to all of my friendly and hospitable co-workers (whose names I’m still working on!).Within two hours of arriving at the company, I was given a fifteen minute orientation/tour, a company t-shirt with “SOFTWARE NINJA!” on the back and I had finished my first company meeting. We discussed the progress of everyone’s respective projects, (potential) obstacles and plans for the future over a desk covered with a box of small snacks, video games, a chess board and miscellaneous figurines – but most importantly snacks and video games.
In the next half hour I was assigned my first project: program thirty-five computer modules to allow a set of speakers to function within Benbria’s VOIP notification system. On the side, I was also tasked with finding a way to manage and redirect incoming mobile phone internet traffic to the company’s website.
Much like my days at Shad, my first two days at Benbria have been exhausting but challenging and fun at the same time. I don’t know exactly what’s in store for the next month, but I’m sure it’ll be exciting and I can’t wait to find out!
Kevin Lau
Benbria
Ottawa, ON