My name is Mariam and I am entering my third year of the undergraduate program at McGill University with a double major concentration in Economics and International Development Studies and a minor in Social Entrepreneurship. This summer, thanks to the McGill Arts Internship Office, I had a great opportunity to expand my knowledge in the blockchain industry and experience life in one of the most vibrant and intercultural cities of East Asia. I was interning in Hong Kong with NexChange Group, an innovation and media platform specialising in Blockchain, Fintech, AI, Healthtech and Smart Cities. By creating a global O2O (online to offline) community, the company creates, markets, accelerates and provides access to these innovative products. As a Social Entrepreneurship student, it was very inspiring for me to see how companies like NexChange are using modern innovations to create fast, efficient solutions to many issues worldwide.
During my internship, I was involved in various aspects of the host organization. I worked on creating customized and standardized activity reports on customer relationship management software, ZOHO CRM. I also worked with big data and contributed to a unified database platform for the company. I was also a part of many communications projects, including drafting press releases and contacting companies to make speaker applications on behalf of the CEO. I wrote corporate bios and full articles published on the NexChange news site in addition to editing the work of others. I administered digitisation of content agreements lending to the preservation of institutional knowledge. I worked on the development of corporate marketing material for the company’s television venture with OneTV. Furthermore, I gained experience in event management, from promotions to registration procedures to crowd control. Finally, I created a social media campaign that very soon will be used to launch the company's new website, NexChangeNow.
In Hong Kong, I had a chance to meet many inspiring professionals and have interesting conversations with them about the future of finance and the role of new emerging technologies. One of the memorable discussions that I had was with Lucy Gazmararian, the Co-Chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong’s Blockchain Committee. During our meeting, she explained to me the ways FinTech is used to reduce the income inequality gap worldwide as well as how blockchain can help with the refugee crisis by storing personal identities.
For my experience, I am going to receive academic credits for SENT 499 (Social Entrepreneurship in Practice) with Professor Jason Carmichael. As part of my post-internship research essay, I am planning to learn even more about blockchain technologies and discover more real-life implications of it in the field of development studies. This research is going to combine both my passion for innovative technologies as well as my huge interest in development studies.
This internship helped me not only to grow professionally but also gave me a chance to see the world through different lenses by experiencing life in a hyper-globalized, economically significant, culturally diverse and chaotic city. I am from a small city in Caucasia and moving to Hong Kong was a big transition for me. Yet, after a while, it did not feel foreign at all. As Peter Jon Lindberg said, “[l]ife in Hong Kong transcends cultural and culinary borders, such that nothing is truly foreign, and nothing doesn’t belong”.
I want to express my gratitude to the Andre King Wi Tan Externship Award, as this experience would have never been possible without the support that I received from the Arts Internship Office. These funds helped me to book my flights to Hong Kong as well as to pay for my accommodation.
I was in Hong Kong during a historical period when millions of people were organizing demonstrations against the extradition bill and fighting for their human rights and democratic freedom. The events I have witnessed helped me to learn about Hong Kong history and I was extremely impressed by the unity and bravery of Hong Kong people. After finishing my internship, I left Hong Kong knowing a little bit more about myself and the mysterious world that surrounds us.
