When you think of an internship, what comes to mind? Is it countless hours of data entry? Getting coffee for the boss? Being dead last in the office hierarchy? My internship at Machteld Faas Xander was anything but. Let’s start with the space itself. Forget the drab interiors of your typical office building. Located in the reclaimed Lang Tannery building in Downtown Kitchener, visitors to the MFX office are first greeted with a fleet of Plasma Cars. Need to get someone’s attention? No bells here, try honking the old fashioned horn instead. The original factory floor and ceiling are sharply contrasted by a healthy serving of glass and splashes of neon pink, green, and blue. Sticky notes abound, and the creative desk arrangements are a far cry from your standard office cubicle. Convention doesn’t exist here, and, if I’m not mistaken, they like it that way.

Let’s move on to the work I did. I would describe my time at MFX in two words: 1) meaningful and 2) multifarious. I’ll begin with meaningful. One of the first conversations I had with Rebecca was about what I could expect to be doing during my internship. She told me that one of her goals was to have me contribute directly to a project and to see it through from start to finish. I was immediately struck by this notion in a profound way. It was empowering to know that my employer wanted me not just to help out with a project or two but to be able to take some ownership over the end result. This became apparent during our work with Guelph Region and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation where we facilitated a number of sessions in order to help complete the Guelph Regional Self-Assessment Handbook, a document intended to improve entrepreneurial services across the province. I attended meetings with representatives from different organizations in Guelph, was directly involved with the facilitation sessions, and was trusted with directly contacting important stakeholders. Being given direct input on the project made it a much more meaningful experience for me.

Working with Waterloo City Council to create their Vision for Uptown is a second example of meaningful work. At a Council Meeting, the mayor and council members were presented with over 30 projects taken by MFX from a number of documents detailing the future of Uptown Waterloo. Together, the councilors selected their top 10 projects that will soon be appearing in the Uptown area. Knowing that I will be able to walk through Waterloo and see projects that I was able to contribute to makes it a meaningful experience for me. It was also rewarding to see the diversity of projects selected by the Waterloo City Council, which brings me to my next point, the multifarious nature of my work at Machteld Faas Xander.

Varied, multifarious, and dynamic are all words I would use to describe the work I did. From Regional Self Assessments to Council’s Vision for Uptown, from technology and operations departments to researching nanotechnology, my two months at MFX were diverse, to say the least. As a strategic design and communications consultancy, MFX has run the gamut when it comes to projects. This much was clear to me when in two months I worked on five distinct projects. Two months has given me just a small taste of life at Machteld Faas Xander. A regular internship, it was not. I have enjoyed every minute of my time spent working with John and Rebecca and the rest of the team. Passionate Creative People could not be a more fitting slogan. I hope to be back again soon.