Page 23 - EUREKA Winter 2017

“This program will help me develop my skills — it’ll be
like advancing from a screwdriver to a drill!”

the Shopify internships at a software multiple sales channels, including had tackled integrating practice and
development workshop for women. web, mobile, social media, brick-and- theory in creative ways. It turns out
“The fact that it was a combination mortar locations and pop-up shops. that no one had. Universities have
of Carleton and Shopify was huge,” Shopify currently powers more than recognized the need for a new model
says Kingsbury. “Industrial design is 325,000 businesses in approximately for experiential learning. In fact, the
about problem solving, but computer 150 countries, and is trusted by brands majority of Canadian universities have
science gives you tools and the such as Tesla Motors, Budweiser, Red it as a key pillar in their strategies. But
mindset you need to solve problems. Bull, the LA Lakers and many more. they haven’t been able to do much
This program will help me develop my “We talked with many interns about without a strong partnership with
skills — it’ll be like advancing from a staying on at Shopify,” says Lemieux, industry.
screwdriver to a drill!” “and although they all agreed that they “It was definitely time to shake
What’s more, she says, as a mature were learning so much by working things up. We dove in head-first. We
student who’ll be 30 years old at with the some of the best developers found in Carleton an amazing partner
graduation, the internship will give
her practical experience to list on her
resume, not only another degree. “It’s
like I hit the jackpot,” says Kingsbury.
“It doesn’t feel like I’m going back to
square one — it’s like I’m taking the
next step.”

The concept of a partnership like
this was conceived by Jean-Michel
Lemieux, Shopify’s senior vice-
president of engineering, when he
was working for software company
Atlassian in Australia. Lemieux brought
the idea to Canada when he moved
back home and began working at
Shopify in 2015.
“Over the years, Shopify has hired
high school and university interns as a
long-term investment in talent, and we
quickly realized that some of the best
ideas and contributions were coming
from our interns,” says Lemieux. “Our
internet-savvy interns cherished the
fact that they could practice what they
had learned on the internet in real time
Abdou Sarr had options after high school, but this internship made him choose Carleton.
at Shopify. Many took online courses or
worked on open source projects and
got the theory one day and applied it on the planet, the majority wanted a who had come to many of the same
the next.” degree for their future flexibility. Some conclusions that we had but, like us,
Shopify is the world’s leading of them saw their parents lose their needed a partner to make something
cloud-based, multi-channel commerce jobs in the crash of 2009 and 2010, truly innovative happen.”
platform designed for small- and and for them a university degree is an
medium-sized businesses. Merchants insurance policy. In January 2016, Carleton Faculty of
can use the software to design, set “We started talking to universities Science Dean Malcolm Butler and
up and manage their stores across and researching to see if someone Doug Howe, director of the School

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