13 minute read
Athletics
One thing that hasn’t changed at StFX during the pandemic is the theme of leadership. It remains a core value to the Athletic Department as it seeks to develop, inspire and nurture leadership in studentathletes, staff, coaches and administrators. StFX student-athletes have many opportunities to develop their leadership skills, be it through the multitude of societies and community service organizations at the university, through volunteering or coaching in the local community, or at home right in the Athletic Department. The StFX Leadership Academy was developed by Director of Athletics & Recreation Leo MacPherson ’89 in 2012 as the first of its kind in Canada and continues to provide comprehensive leadership training and development for StFX student-athletes. The participants progress through four levels during their time at StFX including the LAUNCH Leaders, RISING Leaders, VETERAN Leaders and ELITE Leaders programs. Mr. MacPherson delivers the content of each course along with StFX human kinetics professor and StFX Teaching & Learning Centre Coordinator Dr. Angie Kolen. The StFX Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is a committee made up of two student-athletes from every varsity team, and has been revamped for the 2020-21 season to provide for 12 leadership board positions in the areas of communications, sexual violence prevention, diversity, equity & inclusion, community service, student-athlete mental health, along with two co-chairs. SAAC provides insight on the student-athlete experience while offering input on the regulations and policies that affect studentathletes’ lives at StFX, and working to enhance the student-athlete experience.
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Second-year X-Women basketball student-athlete Aliyah Fraser took leadership to the next level when she was awarded an inaugural racial justice leadership grant with the StFX Frank McKenna Centre for Leadership. One of six to receive the grants, the New Glasgow, NS native will add her voice to wider discussions around systemic and institutional racism and enabling change.
Aliyah, an AUS all-rookie basketball player on the court, and a health science student off the court, works on the Black and Indigenous Athletes’ Association (BIAA) – an initiative aimed at collecting information from Black and Indigenous athletes, including their struggles. Her focus of research is capturing experiences of Black and Indigenous student-athletes in the AUS, while providing social support for these marginalized groups with monthly meetings.
A pair of X-Women Hockey student-athletes provided a championship performance both on and off the ice this year. Antigonish, NS native Patti-Anne Tracey and teammate Amy Graham, from Nepean, ON, skated to an AUS championship banner last March. In the off-season they created a sexual violence awareness training package that they hope will become a mainstay with sport programs across Canada, aiding in the prevention of sexual violence in sports. Both in their fourth year at StFX – Ms. Tracey in business and Ms. Graham in human kinetics – they applied for and received a prestigious Wallace Family Entrepreneurship Fund internship this past summer.
As part of their research initiative, they launched a comprehensive website TEAM in SVP (Together Everyone Achieves More in Sexual Violence Prevention), designed for coaches, athletic directors, educators, sport administrators, mentors and leaders. The website aims to educate coaches and their local sport associations on sexual education and prevention and they have received a great deal of positive and encouraging feedback to date.
Students and alumni of StFX responded enthusiastically to recruitment efforts during the First and Second World Wars. This studio portrait of the junior class taken in 1916 illustrates how much war took a toll on the university. More than 80 students and alumni lost their lives in the two conflicts.
DIG OUT YOUR OLD ALBUMS
For many of us, photographs are important sites of memory. They trigger recollections about people, places, and events. They sometimes also capture a moment in time that could otherwise be hard to put into words. This is precisely why family photo albums are often among our prized possessions. “They tell the stories of our family and friends,” says Dr. Barry MacKenzie ’07 of the StFX History Department, “and we return to them often as a way to reconnect with our loved ones and our cherished memories.”
This feeling of ‘taking a walk down memory lane’ is what inspired Dr. MacKenzie to take on a project dear to his heart: a pictorial history of his alma mater. “Each generation of students, faculty and staff experiences a different version of StFX,” Dr. MacKenzie says. “When I was an undergrad, I was often drawn to images of what the campus looked like in earlier days.”
This interest in StFX’s history led a young Dr. MacKenzie to Dr. James Cameron’s masterful history of the university, For The People. It also inspired him to start collecting antique and vintage postcards of the campus, and to visit the university archives. “When I returned to X as a part-time instructor a few years ago, my interest in the history of StFX was rekindled, particularly when I met a young student, Catherine Culhane, who has amassed an incredible collection of StFX ephemera, including dozens of postcards from the turn of the 20th century.”
However, a social media project served as inspiration for his present research. In fall 2018, Dr. MacKenzie began posting weekly on the history department’s social media accounts images that revealed snippets of StFX history. What he noticed was that these brief posts often proved more popular than anything else he shared
One of StFX’s most distinguished alumni was Angus L. Macdonald, who finished his studies just in time to enlist for service overseas during the Great War. A lawyer by training, he twice served as premier of Nova Scotia, and was Mackenzie King’s minister of national defense for naval services from 1940-1945. He is shown here meeting British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Few events at StFX were as dramatic as the firebombing of Morrison Hall in 1971. The climax of a long battle between students and administration over co-ed housing, the bombing necessitated that the term be curtailed and all examinations conducted by distance.
Residence life has always been a key part of the student experience at StFX. This charming photo, which probably dates from the 1920s, provides a glimpse into dorm life in Mockler Hall. Note the prominence of pennants and other decorations on the walls, which would have made the dorm feel like home; some things don’t change.
on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. “Clearly, I wasn’t the only person interested in learning more about the history of our campus and its people,” he quipped.
This experience lead Dr. MacKenzie to pitch his idea for a pictorial history of StFX to former StFX President Dr. Kent MacDonald ’86 ’93, who enthusiastically supported it. Soon after, Dr. MacKenzie was working out details with then Interim President Dr. Kevin Wamsley and Associate Vice President Research & Graduate Studies Dr. Richard Isnor. A group of talented StFX faculty and staff (including Senior Research Professor Dr. Laurie Stanley-Blackwell, University Archivist Kathleen MacKenzie, and Facilities Management Director Leon MacLellan), serve on an advisory committee for the project
“I want this pictorial history of StFX to be accessible and engaging,” Dr. MacKenzie says. “It will build on Dr. Cameron’s wonderful
Constructed in 1966 for Mount St. Bernard College, Lane Hall was the last building added to the Mount campus during a period of rapid expansion. In the 1960s, the Lane Hall Pit was the setting for a number of elegant events, including the formal dance depicted here.
history by offering a glimpse into the more anecdotal and the more personal side of the university’s history.”
That’s why Dr. MacKenzie is asking StFX alumni to flip through their albums in search of hidden gems. “The university archives and other repositories have a wonderful photographic record from the institutional side of things,” he notes, “but they don’t tell the entire story.” Sometimes missing are candid photos of student life on campus, and of people and events that may not have been captured by official photographers.
Alumni interested in contributing photos for consideration for this project are invited to send them to Dr. MacKenzie via email at bmackenz@stfx.ca. To make other arrangements, please call (902) 867-3418.
StFX’s Coady Institute launched the Circle of Abundance – Amplifying Indigenous Women’s Leadership campaign with much fanfare in June. The campaign, which aims to enhance Coady’s commitment to supporting Indigenous women leaders in Canada, received its first donation from Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.
“We’re so happy to support the incredible work of the Coady Institute’s program with Indigenous women. We’re blown away by the conversations we’ve had and the work they do and look forward to joining them on this journey,” Reynolds and Lively say.
Coady staff joined by a group of Indigenous women graduates, mentors, and Elders are examining ways to journey forward together with Coady and its partners.
“We have a shared vision for raising the profile of Indigenous women’s leadership and voices in Canada and globally. We know that magic happens when women lift each other up and share their Indigenous knowledge, perspectives, cultures, and traditions,” the group shared in a written statement.
The campaign reached its $1 million goal in October with added support from the Jeannine Deveau Education Equity Endowment Fund, the Donner Canadian Foundation, the Edwards Family Foundation, StFX Chancellor John Peacock ’63 and his wife Adrienne ’63, and many other funders.
“[This support shows that] there are Canadians that want change. There are Canadians who want to be inspired and want to acknowledge Indigenous knowledge. This is the real proof,” Coady graduate Wyanne (Kiya) Smallboy-Wesley of Stoney Nakoda First Nation says.
In October, Coady hosted a new series of workshops titled, Indigenous Approach to Asset-based, Community-driven Development (IABCD): Principles, Methods & Tools for Practice, which introduced community-building tools to more than 120 Indigenous participants across Turtle Island.
“I enrolled in the IABCD workshop to learn how I can help my community move forward. The most valuable tool I learned was that the ‘leaky basket’ could be used for more than just money. My mantra is to work smarter, not harder, and this will aid me in that,” Paula Paul, Lands Coordinator for Paq’tnkek Mi’kmaw Nation, says.
Circle of Abundance programs will include an online Indigenous women’s leadership course in spring 2021, as well as a second set of IABCD workshops. Longer term, the fund will revitalize the Indigenous Women in Community Leadership “flagship” program as well as regional programs and partnerships.
“[We must be] willing to learn history, willing to work together, willing to challenge perceptions, willing to address conflict in thought and behaviour, and willing to expand upon the norms,” Coady graduate Lynda Fox Trudeau of Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory on Manitoulin Island explains.
“We are collectively living here, amongst our ancestors and those yet to come. If we can allow our individual and collective gifts to shine, we will be a more harmonious society.”
WE’RE AT A MOMENT IN HISTORY
To many of us, 2020 may be a (if not the!) year to forget. It has been filled with hardship and disruption, the world over.
As the year comes to a close, I can’t help but think of others who have come before us whose lives have been disrupted, who have faced hardship. We often look back in awe and wonder on the resilience and success of past generations faced with strife. World events - war, famine, pandemic - all come to mind. I look fondly on my own family members whose lives were forever changed, and my grandparents in particular - forged by the strife of the Second World War. When we think of these generations, we give them reverence. We are amazed at their abilities to work together, to succeed, and to forge a new world from disaster. As we wrap up 2020 we have the chance to take stock of our own opportunity - to come together, to succeed, and to launch a new world from this pandemic. We’re reminded of a former U.S. president’s perspective of troubled times The name of our university song, Hail and Health, has never been more relevant. In the past nine months, this global pandemic has changed the way we work, study, and live. Our StFX students, unlike many in the world, are fortunate to have the opportunity to return to campus and enjoy the true Xaverian experience. This is thanks in great deal to our that “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.” We are at a moment in history that, if we get this right, can be a gamechanger that our own grandchildren will revere.
We won’t get everything right, but us lucky few who have been through StFX and have made our Xaverian commitment can take a lead role. Our commitments to community, to education and opportunity, to justice and progress, to the dignity of all human beings and to the stewardship of our world, are the gifts we can share. As we go through the holidays and begin 2021, we have the opportunity to give generously. Let’s continue to sail this course together.
From my family to yours, and from all our council and chapter leaders, happy holidays, and Hail and Health. We’ll see you all again in 2021!
Hail and Health! Marc Rodrigue ’08
Marc Rodrigue ’08
FROM ALUMNI AFFAIRS l SHANNA HOPKINS ’01, DIRECTOR
HAIL & HEALTH MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER
Janine Linthorne, Special Events Coordinator, Shanna Hopkins ’01, Karen Gardiner ’89 and Marybeth Fleming ’89 put the final touches on a StFX-themed Christmas Tree named, “Hail and Health” submitted by Fleming’s company, OT Health Inc. for the 2020 Festival of Trees in Halifax, which is a major fundraiser for the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia. This tree sold for $4025!
President, StFX Alumni Association X faculty, staff and students, who in a very short time span, expanded and changed the way we teach, work and learn. For our Alumni Affairs team, we too have had to think outside the box and find meaningful ways to engage with our alumni virtually. Our first event was a fantastic celebration of our Golden Grad class, followed up by the launch of our new student-led podcast, X-Connects. We’ve also hosted a virtual Feast of St. Francis church service live from the campus chapel, and gathered virtually to sing Christmas songs with alumna Breagh MacKinnon ’14. This fall, we also partnered with alumna Marybeth Fleming ’89 to submit a StFX-themed Christmas tree aptly named; “Hail & Health” in the Nova Scotia Festival of Trees, a major fundraiser for the Foundation of Mental Health in Nova Scotia. To help decorate the tree, we had over 50 students join us on campus to hand-paint ornaments, creatively showcasing their Xaverian spirit. Our tree was auctioned off for over $4,000. We all long for the day when we can return to in-person events, but until we get there, we wish you all good health.
Hail and Health! Shanna Hopkins ’01 Director, Alumni Affairs X
