Jim: When people ask me why I chose to study at McGill, I reply that I wanted to attend a school in an urban environment and live in a city that was very different from Boston, where I grew up. And, although I didn’t expect to follow in her footsteps, my sister had graduated from McGill, so I was familiar with the school.
Joanne: I attended the first public school in the US with the International Baccalaureate program. With this cohort came the encouragement to attend an international school. My maternal grandmother (Blanche Boisvert) was French Canadian and grew up in Montreal, so there was a connection to the city.
Jim: What I love about McGill is that it stretched your mind, it allowed you to study different things and take courses outside of your major. It taught you how to think logically and synthesize data quickly to come to conclusions. You can enter McGill being one person and exit as a different person. When Joanne and I talk about our experiences, I feel like I went to a North American jock school (because that was kind of who I was back then) and Joanne went to this cerebral school. We had the same education, both did very well, yet our experiences were really different.
Joanne: [smiling] One of the single defining things about my McGill experience was meeting Jim! Crossing the courtyard of H House at Douglas Hall – on the first day of school – to get to the dining room, we literally bumped into each other! What stood out on the academic/extracurricular front was founding the McGill Film Society with a friend (and serving as Vice President). This coincided with enrolling in a Bergman seminar with Paisley Livingston while he was writing his book Ingmar Bergman and the Rituals of Art. There we were in Montreal during these cold, dark, depressing winters, watching films about cold, dark, depressing subjects. It was one of those totally immersive experiences that I was looking for in college. I still reference that book with my History of Film students.
Jim: McGill provided a rigorous education and you had to do well, or you would receive a probation warning right away and if you didn’t improve, you would be kicked out. This fit my personality and provided an important life lesson. I remember not doing well on my first midterm as I had gone to Toronto for Canadian Thanksgiving. I did poorly enough to be put on academic probation. I am very competitive by nature and I resolved that there was no way I was going to fail. This provided a good wake-up call! I did really well from then on (culminating in an Honours degree) and I think this was an important life lesson – to take ownership of my behavior.
Joanne: They would post our grades on a piece of paper tacked to a door. You went and looked for your grades with your ID number. I live by the adage “if you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.” I think McGill reinforced this because there were always people smarter than you. Education was the priority and everything else – especially the city of Montreal – was the reward.
Jim: When I was at McGill, there was no career counselling. Toward the end of my studies, I hadn’t really thought about what I wanted to explore in terms of my career. The summer prior to my final year, I worked in a store and really enjoyed the experience. This led me to apply to retail training programs. Joanne had already graduated and was living in New York, so I would go to New York for interviews. Career-wise, I wanted to do something where I could be intellectually curious while being able to assume risk, and retail provided this. In retail, you're dealing with multiple constituencies: multiple consumers, differing formats and multiple channels of distribution.
Joanne: My career has evolved out of necessity. We’ve moved many times, requiring my being flexible. I switched my McGill major early on as a result of having a wide range of interests. I began as a science student and then changed my academic focus to art history. McGill validated that you could change your path and still feel like you belonged there. The Art History Department had its own community within this massive school. Needing to climb an extra magical set of stairs made the Art History Department a sort of hideaway in the Arts Building where you could be transported. I felt this same feeling about the Blackader-Lauterman Library. You would enter the main Library, go up one flight of stairs and then another – I have such amazing memories.
Jim: My advice to today’s students when looking for ideas of professions to pursue is be open and listen. Find people in the McGill network who are working in your desired profession. People are eager to help so don't be shy to reach out and ask questions. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. It’s okay if you choose a path and then realize there are other things you're interested in. In looking at Joanne’s career path, she hasn’t been afraid to take risks and neither have I. We have moved around a lot and have always been of the mindset that we still have each other, our sons will be happy, and life is an adventure.
Joanne: My advice for students is to truly immerse themselves in their discipline, almost like a sponge. Be honest with yourself. When you find something that ignites your interest, passion, inquisitiveness, be open-minded and don't be afraid to deep dive and work incredibly hard because it will be unbelievably rewarding. At my core, I am a teacher and a researcher. Having lived in different cities, I have reinvented myself within my own profession and it has taken many forms. I loved being a student and that was cemented at McGill. My career has come full circle since my studies in the Department of Art History. I now get to work professionally with Gwendolyn (Wendy) Owens, the Director of McGill’s Visual Arts Collection. Who would have thought our paths would cross as an art historian and a researcher? There is such a wonderful synergy going on at McGill which I love.