This text is part of the special section Relève en recherche
With its brand new McCall MacBain Leadership Fellowship program, McGill University wants to create a circle of innovators who will work for the betterment of society. This fall, it welcomes its very first cohort.
The McCall MacBain scholarships are the result of a historic donation of $ 200 million by husbands John and Marcy McCall MacBain to McGill University. At the time of its disbursement in February 2019, it was the largest one-time donation to a Canadian university. In September 2020, the University of Toronto broke this record by receiving $ 250 million from James and Louise Temerty.
The McCall MacBain Scholarships allow students to complete a master’s or professional program at McGill University, while participating in fully funded mentoring and leadership development sessions.
The rigorous selection process relied on the support of 130 Canadian leaders, who voluntarily assessed 735 candidates, before interviewing 132 of them. In March, a group of fifty finalists were invited to the final interviews.
Foster diversity
This obstacle course led to the choice of 20 people, who began their project in September at five McGill faculties. One of them, Nicole Osayande, received her bachelor’s degree in biomedical informatics from Queen’s University in Toronto. She is now enrolled in a Masters in Biomedical Engineering at McGill University.
Born in Toronto, she spent her youth in a neighborhood made up mostly of black and South Asian families. She was one of the first from CW Jefferys High School to begin studies at Queen’s University. This information appealed to her so much that she launched a project to increase diversity on campus.
She thus brought together more than 30 students within this club, which she chaired for three years and which has continued its action since her departure. Its activities aim to encourage students of diversity to join the ranks of this institution, to create places of meeting and sharing for Queen’s students of diversity and to generate debates on this issue.
“In particular, we spoke with a lot of young people during the Ontario University Fairs,” says the scholar. We talked to them about the value of studying at Queen’s and the resources available to them, but also the effort it takes. “
Nicole Osayande also organized an outdoor cooking event (cookout) on the Queen’s campus on the theme of African, South American and Caribbean cultures, after noticing a deficit in the teaching of black history at the university.
Scholarships for those in need
While at Queen’s, she worked with a professor to develop software modules for a tool used in hip replacement surgeries. “At McGill, I will be working on the links between the circadian rhythm, the genes responsible for the circadian clock and bone formation,” explains the student. It is a very new field. “
A very interesting adventure therefore opens for the one who admits not having sent her application file until four minutes before the deadline. She hesitated for a long time, convinced that her general average would not allow her to rank ahead of the hundreds of other candidates. She is delighted to see that her leadership qualities and commitments have been taken into account.
However, it sends a message to the managers of merit scholarship programs. “We have to go beyond the notion of merit, because all students do not start from the same point,” she emphasizes. Some students find themselves in difficult conditions and have to work at the same time as they go to school. It is not easy for them to build an exemplary case. The scholarships should go to those students who want to enter university and who need it the most. “
Solidarity in the soul
The McCall MacBain Scholarships offer more than just financial support. “It’s really a very well-supervised leadership journey, and we have the opportunity to work and reflect with other scholarship holders who study in different fields and who come from different backgrounds,” says Kasem Alhaeik. Holder of a bachelor’s degree in international studies from the University of Montreal (UdeM), he is pursuing a master’s degree in political science at McGill, with an international development option.
Born in Syria, Kasem Alhaeik moved to Quebec in 2012, after a few stays with us in previous years. “My family left Syria for good in 2012, a year after the start of the popular uprisings,” he says. Back then, there was a lot of political debate going on in Syria. Lots of opinions were expressed, and it made me aware of these topics. “
At UdeM, he contributed for three years to the student group of Amnesty International, which he chaired for one year. He was also vice-president responsible for finance of the UdeM International Affairs Committee. “Amnesty International is very active in Syria, so I already knew them, and their fight for human rights was very much with me,” says the student. During these three years, we have worked to raise awareness and also to engage students, for example through petitions. “
In his studies, Kasem Alhaeik is particularly interested in the evolution of international development and the allocation of international aid. He wishes to engage in practice after his studies and has already taken his first steps in this direction. In particular, he devoted a summer to an ecotourism project in Togo, supported by Québec Without Borders and by the Lanaudière Regional Education Committee for International Development.
“I saw in Syria the work of development aid agencies and also those who defend human rights, so it gives me an interesting perspective on these activities,” he says. The route offered by the McCall MacBain scholarships is a great opportunity to reflect with others on the meaning I want to give to my studies and my commitment. “