My McGill story begins 48 years ago, in the fall of 1972, as a first-year undergraduate student in the Faculty of Management. It was an inauspicious start. Like so many of my generation I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life, and after the first year I dropped out.
I travelled extensively and worked at several jobs in the health care field. Eventually I went back to school and graduated from Concordia University in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology. Subsequently, I joined Merck Frosst Canada – the Canadian subsidiary of the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. – where I built my professional career for the better part of three decades.
I retired at the age of 55. I had a tremendous desire to go back to school, and chose McGill’s School of Continuing Studies (SCS). I would graduate with a Diploma in Management and win the coveted American Express Prize for being the top student in my class. (Not bad for a first-year dropout). I so thoroughly enjoyed the experience that by 2010, I was the proud possessor of three certificate degrees from SCS.
My work and life experience was certainly a factor in my success. However, the School of Continuing Studies added a new dimension to my skill set: entrepreneurship, which I used to build a successful business following graduation.
Like a homing pigeon, I would return years later to MCLL (McGill Community for Lifelong Learning). It is funny how you never forget your first study group, which in my case was entitled “Israel/Palestine”. What impressed me the most was not just the subject matter. Rather, we were fortunate to have Peter Berry, a phenomenal moderator who got the best out of all of us during discussion period.
Oddly, Peter was vaguely familiar to me, though at the time I could not place him. It would be a year and a half later at a chance meeting where Peter would ask me, “Jeff, do you recall your Grade 9 history teacher?” I looked at him and said, “OMG, you’re the Peter Berry – you were my history teacher!” To this day I credit Peter, along with my late father, for inspiring my passion for history. I have been applying Peter’s methods to successfully engage participants in my own study group on the Trump presidency, which I have developed and moderated for the past two years.
As the newly minted Vice-President of MCLL, I cannot help but wonder at what a ride this has been! I started off as an undergraduate student 48 years ago, dropped out after the first year, and ended up back at McGill at the School of Continuing Studies, earning three degrees and the American Express prize. Then onwards to MCLL, only to find that my first moderator happened to be my grade nine history teacher.
All this to say, I finally found my way back home to McGill.