This week’s campus celebrity is passionate about the arts and literature, and very involved within the McGill community. Also an occasional food blogger, this Toronto native dishes to Her Campus on her university experience and her involvement with the Black Students’ Network (BSN) at McGill.
Maxine, an English Literature major and Classics minor, was first attracted to Montreal’s diverse cultural and artistic environment when she moved here four years ago from Toronto. Now with one semester to go before graduation, Maxine is more appreciative of her Toronto roots, but also aware of the things she is going to miss about Montreal and life at McGill.
“I feel like being at McGill opened my eyes to experiences that I wouldn’t have necessarily had.”
Indeed, Maxine has had a successful McGill experience. She has been involved with the McGill Black Students’ Network, a SSMU Service that caters to the needs and interests of Black students. The service is also available to the entire McGill community and encourages anyone who is interested in participating in their activities and events to join.
As a member of their Executive Committee, Maxine is the service’s Education Coordinator. Over the course of last fall’s semester Maxine was responsible for encouraging participants to join in the BSN’s peer tutoring program. She also became a tutor to two young students from Montreal elementary schools, a rewarding community experience Maxine feels lucky to have been part of.
This semester the BSN organized their yearly event, Children’s Day. As part of her duties as Education Coordinator, Maxine was responsible for gathering and contacting students from Montreal high schools, interested in participating in the day of learning and discussion. The event, which took place last week at McGill, welcomed a little over sixty students from three different high schools from the Montreal area. Taking into account that February is Black History Month, the event focused on the theme of social justice.
The goal of the event was to encourage these young students from different backgrounds to interact with one another and have open discussions. There were also workshops on social justice and dialogues about stereotypes to encourage them to pursue their goals of higher education and succeed in school. Guest speaker, Jonathan Emile, a Montreal-based Grammy nominated rapper and recent cancer survivor, spoke at the event. His inspirational story has led him to dedicate his life to music, most of which centers on issues of social justice.
Maxine was a key player in organizing and orchestrating the entire event, and she was very pleased with the results. Although it was a lot of work to take on, especially in the middle of the semester, Maxine definitely encourages students to become involved on campus and really experience what the McGill community has to offer.
When she isn’t tutoring for BSN or organizing large-scale events on campus, Maxine loves to take advantage of fun winter activities such as Igloofest, with friends! Like most of us, she does not have her exact post graduation plans figured out, but with a little more than a semester left she wants to focus on following what she is truly passionate about and hopefully work in something related to arts and culture. Whatever she chooses to do, Maxine has already done such great things with her time at McGill, and she has proven to be a mentor not only at McGill but for the Montreal youth community as well – way to go girl!
For more information on last week’s Children’s Day event, check out this video by TVMcGill:
http://ssmu.mcgill.ca/bsn/what_we_do/childrens-day/
and visit the Black Students Network site: