Hilary Lee
Support comes in many forms. Desautels Faculty of Management student Hilary Lee has seen the difference it makes when alumni and friends tap into what might be their scarcest resource: their time.
As program coordinator for the Dobson Centre’s McGill X-1 Accelerator summer program for start-ups, she was in charge of matching student teams with mentors from McGill’s network.
“We connect teams with mentors who have expertise in their area,” Lee explains. “Many of these relationships continue even when the program is done, because these mentors are usually people that really want to help.”
Her own involvement with Dobson resulted in the chance to grow her network, even gaining a summer internship experience through a new connection with a Dobson Cup judge. While rolling out X-1 Accelerator in summer 2019, she worked remotely for dim3branding, a New York agency, on an app to be pitched for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Rachel Korman
Thanks to funding that enabled her to gain early research experience, Dentistry student Rachel Korman has spent three summers helping reduce the over-prescription of antibiotics in oral and maxillofacial surgery.
“There’s a global antimicrobial crisis: people are being prescribed antibiotics too often, and bacteria are becoming resistant,” she explains. After reviewing a year of medical charts, Dr. Nicholas Makhoul, DMD’05, and his Dentistry team made a recommendation for preventative care over conventional post-operative prescriptions – and this approach has gained traction.
It was a great learning opportunity, and one that left Korman able to answer her classmates’ questions. Now in her third year, Korman gains hands-on experience through work in the Faculty’s community-facing clinics, which provide dental care to underserved populations. The program is almost entirely donor-funded, including through The McGill Fund.
“I definitely think it impacts the kind of clinician that you’re going to be in the future,” she says. “Because as you become that professional, you’re constantly reminded of the importance of giving back to your community, and how research can improve treatment.”
Charles Lowe
Ask Jazz Performance student Charles Lowe about McGill’s Work-Study program, and he’s clear about the impact: “It’s life-saving, actually.”
Funded in part by gifts through The McGill Fund, as well as by students themselves through student fees, the Work-Study program lets students earn a paycheque – and key work skills – close to class.
“A lot of the time, I need to be on campus, in a practice room,” Lowe explains. “So having reliable work flow and income, directly at McGill, is amazing.”
Now in his third year of a degree in Jazz Performance, and his third year of Work-Study, Lowe has gone from working reception at the Schulich School of Music, to spending a summer in data management, to getting firsthand experience with event coordination.
“I was also beginning a Music Entrepreneurship minor,” he adds. “So I was taking courses on management theory, then immediately after class, putting it into use in my Work-Study job. It’s invaluable, especially as I look towards a career in arts or music management.”
Balarama Holness
As a former teacher, Balarama Holness believes in experiential learning – and his start at McGill’s Faculty of Law is an object lesson on getting the most from your student years. In year one, he ran for mayor of Montréal-Nord, and in year two, he pushed the City of Montreal to hold public consultations on systemic discrimination.
It’s all about bringing reality closer to the principles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: “I’m asking, ‘How constitutional are our policies and practices at the municipal level?’”
In February 2019, supported by the Black Law Students’ Association of McGill (BLSAM), he organized a one-day conference. Students heard from legal minds in research, policy and social entrepreneurship working to dismantle discrimination in Canada.
Gifts of all amounts through The McGill Fund provide vital support to the Faculty’s greatest needs, including funding student associations like BLSAM. And with that support, “I’m using the knowledge that I’m acquiring in the classroom and translating it into real-world change for my community,” says Holness.