Andrew Dunn was 12 years into a career as an infantry paratrooper in the Canadian Armed Forces when a career-ending injury during a routine parachute drop changed everything.

“When I was honourably released for medical reasons, the anxiety and panic started to set in,” says the 2024 Emerging Leader Award recipient. What would a career change look like? How would he fill the void when he was no longer part of something bigger than himself?

The answers quickly revealed themselves, says Dunn (Bachelor of Commerce ’22, Accounting and Strategic Measurement ’20, Accounting Technology ’19). A member of his rehabilitation team was a physiotherapist and prof at MacEwan. “She used me as a case study in one of her classes, and when I came to campus, she encouraged me to speak to an academic advisor.” 

That conversation set him on a path toward accounting – he began working as a junior accountant while studying at MacEwan, did a stint at an accounting firm, and then started his own small tax and bookkeeping business. 

At the same time, Dunn found himself looking for ways to direct that drive to be a part of something bigger – the very thing that initially led him to join the Canadian Forces. When one of his accounting instructors presented the opportunity to work with the World Snowshoe Federation, it began a fulfilling run of volunteer opportunities helping organizations and mentoring a young teen, culminating in a connection to the other side of the world.

Dunn visits a classroom in Tanzania to help schools teach entrepreneurship.

Last year, Dunn made his way to Tanzania on a two-month volunteer trip to help schools teach staff about entrepreneurship. “I thought I would be helping with financial statements and structures, but in the cash-based structure I found, I ended up starting with the basics of budgeting and banking.” 

While Dunn had envisioned spending most of his time in Tanzanian classrooms on a laptop, that changed when he arrived and got more directly involved with a second charity serving children with disabilities, many of whom weren’t attending school.

Andrew Dunn with Bahati, a young boy in Usagara, Tanzania, who earned a special place in Dunn’s heart. For years, Bahati’s grandfather had carried him on his back for multiple kilometres to catch a bus to school, but eventually, he couldn’t do it anymore. Dunn led fundraising efforts to purchase a wheelchair for Bahati. Today, Bahati is back in school.

“We were helping schools build stands for children who couldn’t sit and wheelchairs for children who couldn’t stand,” he says. The serendipitous humanitarian focus volunteer experience is one that Dunn says brought with it an incredible sense of purpose. 

“I don't have children myself, so I have more time than someone who does, and I am fortunate to have something in my life to fill that sense of drive to contribute and be connected to others,” he says.

He’s maintaining those connections to Tanzania now that he’s back in Edmonton, supporting the schools he worked with overseas through fundraising, managing budgets and even making a business proposal to build an additional classroom in one of the schools.

When Dunn connected with Neetu Sharma, one of his past accounting instructors at MacEwan, it sparked a nomination for what would eventually become an Emerging Leader Award. 

“Gratitude is the strongest emotion I can tie to this experience,” he says. “I don’t see what I’m doing as particularly honourable; it’s just something I can do, so I should. I am incredibly grateful and appreciative to everyone who made all this happen.”