By: Joshua Weresch
It has been a long time since I’ve spent any measure of time on McMaster’s campus. I used to visit the art museum and Mills Library when I was there during my undergraduate days.
Those were almost ten years ago now and I hear, through the local media, only occasionally what’s happening on campus.
I’m a Hamiltonian, born and living here, a settler on Anishnaabe land and it’s been in that intervening decade that I’ve been coming to learn about history, about the stories that have been told and re-told, all of this in service of my vocation as a writer of songs, as a husband and father of three children, as a supply-teacher for this city’s public-school board, as a chaplain at a local long-term care home.
Things have, certainly, changed in those intervening years, though it’s hard to say whether it’s me or the place or, perhaps, both. There is little wistfulness in those changes, though because change must come.
What, we should ask, should abide? What is the place of a university in these times? What I have learned in those early years has been refined by life in the present days; fatherhood, solidarity, brotherhood, the ways that families age and change: all these things bear noticing.
What should abide is a commitment to gentleness and to peace, to a mutual understanding of others and their lives. If there are things that continue in the present, they are not things at all, but the relationships that formed around people and friends, formed, failing and flourishing.
In the spirit of these friendships, in the obligation of citizenship, I write this letter now to present students at McMaster and to those who read the Silhouette. I would ask that the university continue to be a place where peace can be made and found, where healthy, human relationships can continue to present themselves to one another.
A concrete way that such things can be done is by the complete refusal of the university to acquiesce and cooperate with institutions that deal in death in its many forms. If any research is being done on ways to destroy and degrade the human person and body, it must cease. If any co-operation is occurring between the military-industrial complex and the university, it, too, must cease. If any destruction of the natural environment is happening, because of the university’s action or inaction, it must, finally, cease.
I have acted on these principles as best I can by refusing to support the McMaster Alumni Association until the university acts on these principles, divesting from fossil-fuel companies, publicly standing with those who are being marginalized and oppressed in our present society and elsewhere. It is only as this university acts as a vision of a possible future that support for its various actions and arts can be gained.
I write this letter in hope.
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When Chris Black first started at McMaster University in 2002, he was chasing a career in engineering. By the time he graduated in 2006 he had a full time job, but not in engineering management like he originally thought. Black found himself as a story editor for TSN.
After barely making it out of his first year, Black soon realized that the engineering field was not for him so he made the switch to economics. With a lighter workload, Black began to find himself with a lot more time on his hands.
“I began writing for the Silhouette and eventually became the Sports Editor for two years,” said Black. “That led to doing some work for the McMaster athletic department, including game previews and recaps for football, basketball and volleyball programs and creating video highlights to send to sports networks.”
The years quickly passed and graduation arrived, leaving Black with a big decision to make. He could take a job waiting for him at the Bank of Montreal or he could pursue his dream to work in sports.
With sports analytics on the rise, more and more economics and finance graduates were beginning sports-related careers. Black decided to take a chance. Thanks to a contact at TSN, he was able to secure his full time editor role with no directly-related intern or freelancing experience.
“I was one of the lucky ones to get a full time job right away,” said Black. “If I could find a way to leverage my love for sports and passion for numbers and economics, I knew that would be a great job.”
Whether it was playing point guard for his high school basketball team or left field for his junior baseball team in Oshawa, sports has always been a huge part of his life. For Black, it was not that he wanted to completely depart from his degree in economics and minor in finance, but when he was working as a summer student for BMO, he found he was always aware of the clock.
“When I was working on sports for Mac or at the Sil, I could go in on publishing day and put in 12 hours and never even be aware of the clock,” said Black.
That is when he realized the value of working on something that you are truly passionate about.
Black currently is a Live Events Producer at Sportsnet. Thanks to sports, over the years he has found himself all over the world, from San Pedro Sula, Honduras for a World Cup qualifying match to the snowy mountains of Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Witnessing Canadian skeleton racer John Montgomery celebrate his gold medal by walking down the Whistler village with a beer in his hand and working on the last two Blue Jays playoff seasons are just some of the memories that he will never forget.
Meeting his heroes and working as colleagues with people whom he still watches and loves what they do athletically is just some of the perks of the job.
“Being witness to huge sporting events never gets old to me,” said Black.
For Black, the only drawback would be that sports happens on weekends and nights so he does not get to spend as much time with his family as he would like to. For him, that is the only drawback, but it is a big one.
As for giving advice to students who aspire to be in his position one day, to Black, being passionate is just the beginning of what it takes. He believes that one thing that truly sets you apart is hard work.
“Connections are great and they help, and I know everyone loves networking, that’s also great,” said Black. “But the only real way you can get ahead is by finding a way to work a little harder than everyone else.”
He also knows from first-hand experience how important it is to look at whatever job one may want and see what is not being down that they could do. When Black first started out, he would come out half an hour earlier to his shift than others to research everything he could about that game. That way, when anything would happen in the game that was mildly interesting, he was the one who knew all the angles around it.
Finally, Black advises students to be good writers and good communicators. Even though he works in television, what allowed him to move ahead quickly was good writing.
“TV isn't about flowery language,” said Black, “It’s about learning how to tell a story in as few words as possible.”
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Graduation is always on the mind, whether you're dreading the inevitable future, or looking forward to it. Either way, sometime soon we will be out in the world without the comfort of our undergrad to keep us busy. Let's take a step into the life of a McMaster Alumni, and we at the Silhouette will guess what coffee shop you frequent!
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https://www.facebook.com/TheMcMasterSilhouette/videos/10155615814515987/
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Two McMaster medical professors have been named to the Order of Canada, the second highest civilian honour in Canada.
The two recipients, Dr. John Kelton, Dean of the DeGroote School of Medicine, and Alba DiCenso, PhD, a retired professor of nursing, have been recognized for their research, work and contributions to the growth in their respective fields at a national level.
“I was most delighted and very surprised. This is an honour that for me is important because people who I know who have received this honour are many people I look up to quite a bit,” said Kelton, who began attending McMaster after reading their publications and learning about the evidence-based approach while he was training in hematology at Duke University in North Carolina. Kelton has a strong love for the McMaster and Hamilton communities and is very optimistic and excited about McMaster’s Health Science and Medicine faculties’ continued advancements in research and growing national influence.
“I would like to recognize the role of McMaster University and Hamilton as a magnet for innovation,” said Kelton.
Kelton has previously been recognized at the international level, through the American Association of Blood Banks’ Emily Cooley award, and the Karl Landsteiner Award, Germany’s highest honour for transfusion medicine. Unlike many other medical school deans, he is still a practicing hematologist, which he believes keeps him grounded and in touch with the needs of patients today.
DiCenso began her studies with McMaster as an undergraduate student in 1970, and she recalls witnessing firsthand the growth of McMaster’s Faculty of Nursing, a period which she recalls as a “time of tremendous development and tremendous energy.” DiCenso would play a pivotal role in one of the faculty’s most important contributions to the field of nursing – evidence-based nursing, which emphasizes high-quality evidence to guide nursing practices, and trains nurses to identify the most credible research to utilize in patient care. DiCenso developed several groundbreaking research papers on the subject, and is the lead editor of evidence-based nursing textbooks that have contributed greatly to the integration of the method in Canada and the world.
DiCenso, along with her hometown of Welland, Ontario, was ecstatic about the news.
“I share this honour with my parents who came from Italy for a better life for their children; my internationally renowned mentors; my talented research colleagues; my fellow nurses committed to applying best evidence to their practice, and to my unfailingly supportive family,” DiCenso said.
Kelton and DiCenso will formerly receive their awards during a special ceremony that will be held in Rideau Hall in Ottawa sometime later this year.
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Ken Hall stepped onto this campus in 1951. After graduating from the Honours Geography program in 1955 and following a dedicated teaching career, he became the only two-term president of the McMaster Alumni Association in twenty years. During that time, he led a program which links female graduates to first year female students-in-residence.
Hall is also a founding member of the Student Recruiting Committee, has created an annual leadership conference on campus for high school students and is a co-founder and first president of the Geography Alumni Branch. Being a wearer of many hats, he will soon be adding a graduate’s cap to the collection during the upcoming Social Science convocation ceremony where Hall will be receiving an Honorary Doctorate of Law.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What was McMaster like back then?
Having four major buildings that were here on campus at that time was a little bit confusing, getting to classes and things of that nature. You didn't quite know where to go when you first came in. No one instructs you and tells you “hey, this is where you're going”. So, you're hunting around the first couple of days to figure out where you are and what to do and so on.
It was basically all boys. Not saying that there weren't girls here. There were some some girls here in nursing program things that sort it but it was basically boys. That's the way the university was at that particular time. It's not the way it's not the way it should be, but that's the way it was then.
What is the biggest change on campus today?
The thing the thing that really amazes me about McMaster is how it has changed with the school’s population. Right now, you get people here from all over the world who come in and go to the university. There are a lot more women at the university now, too. I really think that's going in the right direction. It's just my feeling of what a university should be. I mean, you're taking your courses but a lot of the things that you do [at university] are exchanging information with other students.
When you have all these people coming in from all over the world, it’s just a wonderful opportunity to mix with them and get their feelings on things. It enriches your experience being here when that's done. It's not easy to do. I guess on campus people tend to stay in their little groups, but there are ways of breaking through on that.
Tell me about your time here at Mac.
My parents had moved to Montreal and I said I wanted to go to Mac, and this is a depression year. It wasn't the time where your parents are working to provide money for you to go to university. If you got here, you got here on your own. My dad got me a job at the Canadian National Railway at that time, [working the] five to one shift. So, I was at the university until four o'clock and then went right down to the to the CNR to work. It was tiring, and it wasn't exactly the way I expected it to be because it was a tiring experience.
There were times when I could get time off to do certain events that were were going on around campus, but I was going to work all the time and at one o'clock at night when I'd be coming home, I'd be trying to do my homework. So, I can't say "well, I had lots of fun playing cards”. It wasn't part of my life at all coming in here. I got through it, but it was it was a struggle. It really was a struggle for me.
What is one piece of advice you would give to students today?
The one thing I want to point out to them, that I think one of the key things at university, besides all the learning you put in, is making friendships. That's the key thing. In my experience, you can't do very much in this world unless you have a lot of friends to help you. So, I would say that's the thing to get the most out of in university.
