Vancouver—Dentons Canada LLP (Dentons) and Polygon Homes Ltd (Polygon) are pleased to announce a second successful year for their joint Aboriginal Business Student Initiative. The Initiative is designed to provide a unique paid internship opportunity for Aboriginal undergraduate business students to gain hands-on practical experience in the Vancouver business environment. The goal is to allow interns to further advance their careers in future years. The internship’s focus is flexible and can change from year to year, based on the candidate’s interests and Polygon’s project opportunities at the time.

This year’s intern, Kelsey Spence, was able to pursue her interest in construction and development throughout her three-month paid internship, with regular mentoring by senior members of Polygon and Dentons. “As a Ch’nook scholar, I was fortunate to learn about this amazing opportunity that turned into an invaluable experience for my professional development,” said Ms. Spence. “The internship exceeded my expectations, and I am so grateful not only for the skills that I gained from the diversity of projects on which I worked, but also for the respect, trust and dedication that people from both Polygon and Dentons gave me. I would highly recommend this internship to anyone and am so happy that I did it.”

Ch’nook, an organization that promotes business, management and entrepreneurship as viable career opportunities for Aboriginal students, distributed application information about the internship to promising Aboriginal undergraduate business students across British Columbia.

“We are pleased to hear of the ongoing success with Polygon and Dentons’ Aboriginal Business Student Initiative,” said Miranda Huron, Program Manager at Ch’nook. “Ch’nook Scholars are chosen based on their commitment to community and excellence, and we are proud of the success that Ms. Spence had with the internship. We value Polygon and Dentons’ commitment to innovative and meaningful internships for Aboriginal students with their emphasis on full company integration.”

With established relationships with Aboriginal communities, Polygon was an ideal partner for Dentons in this endeavor. “We were pleased to be approached by Dentons to partner on this community initiative,” said Neil Chrystal, President of Polygon, a longstanding client of Dentons. “The Initiative builds on Polygon’s ongoing work with First Nations communities in the Lower Mainland. We are glad to support and advance the careers of promising Aboriginal students.”

As the first law firm in British Columbia to spearhead this type of Initiative, Dentons sought Ch’nook’s advice in developing the opportunity. ”As Dentons was exploring how we could support greater Aboriginal representation in British Columbia’s legal and business communities, we learned from Ch’nook that there was a gap that we had the capability to fill, ” said Dana Hooker, Senior Associate at Dentons in Vancouver and a member of the Firm’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Committee. “This Initiative is a natural extension of Dentons’ commitment to diversity and inclusion and our desire to be leaders in our profession on this front.”

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