As a first-year student in Accounting and Financial Management (AFM), one of my goals was to expand my university experience beyond the classroom. I wanted to accomplish this by combining my passion for socially-conscious endeavours and entrepreneurship. I wanted to help the world, while building something for myself. I learned about entrepreneurship through family and mentors. I also led Global Entrepreneurship Week in Windsor, Ontario and helped plan the Impact National Conference. It was through these experiences and the people in my life that I realized I had a passion for entrepreneurship. In 2010, I turned this vision into reality by helping co-found Shopanthropic Inc. as the Chief Innovation Officer.

Shopanthropic was born from the concept of combining consumerism with enabling social change locally and internationally. We train and work with artisans from around the world, representing the creativity that lies in all corners of the earth. Many of these artisans are from some of the most deprived and disadvantaged communities, with very little opportunity for self-development and growth. In most cases, their work and their identity both remain uncounted or undercounted and unseen. We give them a stage to share their stories, an ability to grow, and the opportunity to better their lives and their communities. We work with non-profits in building fundraising campaigns and helping those in their communities both locally and internationally. We also work with corporations in developing products that enable them to carry forward their corporate social responsibility missions in the gifts they give out to employees and clients.

Helping launch a business while trying to get comfortable with a fast-paced university life has been an experience, but it’s also brought a lot of value to my first-year as an AFM student. Learning about the business world and the economy through my courses in school has taught me about the bottom line. Working with not-profits and charities in high school and university has shown me the importance of contributing positively to the local community and the world. Combining these passions has taught me the importance of the triple bottom line – being economically viable, environmentally sustainable, and socially conscious. Moreover, it gave me a chance to develop skills like time management, prioritizing, and problem solving, all of which have carried over into my academic work.

I hope to continue doing the work I do with Shopanthropic, while continuing to promote entrepreneurship and social enterprise on campus, and getting involved in other initiatives on campus.

To learn more about Shopanthropic visit www.shopanthropic.com or follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/enablechange).