Students at the Ted Rogers School of Management now have a new way to learn about business. Thanks to a collaboration with CIBC Mellon, the university was able to launch the Business Innovation Hub (BIH), which will bring together five Ryerson students and five CIBC Mellon employees for a transformative educational experience.
The Business Innovation Hub is a four-month experience where students—from accounting to environmental biology—will meet up with CIBC Mellon employees to identify key challenges facing CIBC Mellon and to come up with out-of-the-box, innovative solutions. The experience is focused on honing critical skills including problem-solving, presentation and relationship-building. And for students, it’s a paid position that’s part of the student’s work placement.
It’s a unique experiential learning experience that’s a critical part of Ryerson’s zone-learning ecosystem. Zone learning is all about allowing students to work as part of teams to gain practical, first-hand experience and to create social change. When asked about the new Business Innovation Hub, Brendan Corney, a third-year environmental biology co-op student had this to say.
“The Business Innovation Hub will give me a unique opportunity to work with my peers from different programs and with talented business professionals in a creative, fun and collaborative work environment,” he said in a press release. “I firmly believe multidisciplinary collaboration will become increasingly important in the future–not just in business, but in all sectors.”
The other members of the Ted Rogers BIH Team include:
- Aliyah Dawood, a fourth-year Business Technology Management student
- Anisan Luxmekanthan, a fourth-year Chemical Engineering student
- Daniel Bansgopaul, a third-year Accounting & Finance student
- Kanan Shah, a second-year Business Management student
For MBAs at Ted Rogers, their final term provides a similar opportunity. For both part-time and full-time MBAs, their last semester is considered an “Integrative Semester” meaning that students write a Major Research Paper (MRP) and apply their knowledge in work placement (internship or current place of employment), international exchange or study abroad.