By: Esther Liu, Contributor
Photo C/O Tiffany Tse
The Silhouette: When did you get into piano?
Tiffany Tse: I started when I was five years old. It wasn't an amazing story, it was just my mom. One day she asked me if I'm interested in playing the piano. I said “yeah” and I didn't really know what I was doing, I just wanted to say yes to things. It's actually a pretty interesting story because I stuck with the same teacher the whole time. Even now, once in a while I go to visit the teacher that I've known since I was five years old.
I was just incredibly lucky to be able to be with this teacher. They're a couple — husband and wife. They've just been very, very good teachers . . . Then, I think they threw me in to compete when I was six. That's when I started performing. As a kid, I didn't really know what I was doing, but I did like it and that's how I grew up loving the stage and loving the idea of sharing this music that I'm making with other people.
What inspired you to create your Instagram account?
I think my first post was in 2014. I just decided one day, why not upload something? But then, when I got to university (I started my first year in 2016), because I was in engineering I actually didn't have time to play anymore. I was accepted to [the University of Toronto]'s piano performance program and they gave me a full ride but I was like "Oh, what am I gonna do with a music degree?" so I ended up choosing engineering.
I had a huge regret, almost, because I didn't get to do what I love to do and when you don't practice, your skills fully go away. So that's what I found during my university years: I was so focused on school and engineering that I kind of forgot about this thing that was really important to me. It got to a point where I would have so much regret that if I saw a piano in public I would almost want to run away from it because I was so scared of hearing myself play or if someone told me to play something and I sound terrible because I haven't been practicing. Eventually, I forgot about how much I loved it so I deactivated my account . . . around 2017 because I didn't want to look at it anymore, I just wanna move on with life.
And then quarantine happened and one of my friends has an account similar to this where she posts her practice and her music and she posted consistently. I saw how much she was improving and it was really inspiring. I was like: "Wow, she's gotten really good over the past few years since I last heard her play." And so it's quarantine, I'm really bored, maybe this is something I should pick up. So I reactivated my account and that's how I started.
I started again around late June of 2020 and I just became obsessed again. I basically worked through all the skills I lost and I just sat and listened to myself sound really bad in the beginning and then picked up new pieces to learn and then just went at it. I started practicing five hours a day because I just loved it so much. It was almost like rediscovering a lost part of myself. Now, I've kind of fixed the whole regret thing. I don't hold those regrets in my heart anymore because I got to do this while doing school. Right now I'm in my final year and I am balancing these two things and I plan on continuing to balance this side of me along with my career moving forward.
I basically worked through all the skills I lost and I just sat and listened to myself sound really bad in the beginning and then picked up new pieces to learn and then just went at it. I started practicing five hours a day because I just loved it so much. It was almost like rediscovering a lost part of myself. Now, I've kind of fixed the whole regret thing.
What encourages you to keep running your account?
Definitely the community of people there. I've met a lot of friends, they're pianists as well, and because I play classical music, I find that it's really hard to find people who love it nowadays. It's rare, but it's something I'm really passionate about. So being able to have this platform and meet other classical pianists and being able to talk about this was so good for me. I haven't been able to just fan-girl about classical music in a long time.
Also, when I was competing in person as a kid, there was always a lot of competition between people. That's also one reason why I didn't go into music — I just didn't like the way people were fighting. Because not everyone "makes it" in music, right? It's very hard to truly "make it" as a performer, so there's a lot of competition between people, there's a lot of rumours and gossip. With this Instagram community, I can freely talk about myself and the pieces I want to play and the music without having to worry about someone spreading rumours or something. So it's a community where you can be yourself and be open.
With a growing following, I just didn't know so many people were still into classical music. I want to go back into performing in person but, because I haven't done it in about five years, I would need to build up that confidence again, so having this platform is really good. I'm not only posting videos, but I've done Instagram lives before where I just played through my piece and it's really good practice for me to be able to eventually make it back into the stage.
Are you still taking lessons then?
Not formally . . . I just learn the piece myself and polish it to the best of my ability and bring it to him. I find that because I've grown so much since I was a kid and last taking lessons seriously, I really like coming up with my own interpretation and knowing the music by myself first and then going to him and then he can pick out some details and what I should fix. That to me is better because I don't really need him to sit me down and read with me anymore so it's more time-effective that way. Honestly, he's the sweetest thing ever. He doesn't charge me, he won't tell me how much he charges. Last time, I wanted to pay for the lesson because he spends two hours with me every time. He just opened his arms and told me to come here, gave me a hug and told me that I paid. I guess that's one of the things about sticking with the same teacher for so long — they're like my second parents. They watched me grow up since I was five and now I'm 22.
Do you have any songs that you really enjoy playing?
I think anything by [Frédéric] Chopin is so near and dear to me. The interesting thing about classical is that there are no lyrics. So people will listen to a song and will really relate to the song because of the lyrics. For some reason, Chopin's pieces, even without lyrics, I resonate so much with it. There's just something about it. I think it's because Chopin really missed his homeland. So in his music, there's sometimes a nostalgic feeling and it kind of reminds me of some great old memories. Even when you're completely heartbroken, there's going to be something for it.
It's also cool because I haven't played in five years. I came back to it and, because so many things have happened in these five years that I've grown as a person throughout my university career, the music that I play would come out differently because of the experiences I've had. The technical stuff is trainable but then I feel that all the emotions and maturity come with time.
What is your favourite part of competitions and being on the stage?
When I can communicate with the audience without saying anything. When you're playing a note and you take a pause and everyone is silent. It's almost like everyone is anticipating the next part with you. I think that's really cool. And there's obviously nerves when you're performing. Being in front of people, there are always worries about “what if I mess up?” or “what if I forget?” I think that these are fears that every musician and every performer has. So my heart's always racing before but then once I sit down at the piano and start playing, I find that the racing heartbeat goes away. It just becomes me and the instrument.
By: Esther Liu, Contributor
Please introduce yourself!
My name is Michael Abraham. I am 27 years old. I graduated from McMaster University with a BSW, so [an] honours bachelor of social work in 2017. In general, right now, most of my work is involved in two spheres: running a youth center in downtown Hamilton and working as a graduation coach in the [Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board].
How has COVID-19 affected the SPACE?
Running a youth center is the business of social interaction and engagement. Before COVID, we would have anywhere from 50 to 80 participants a night or even more depending on if there was an event or dinner. Once the lockdown had hit back in March [2020], we had to shut down for a brief hiatus, for around six months.
When we returned in September, we had to really think through how we were going to reopen the SPACE and in what capacity we could possibly do that. What we had chosen at that time was to do closed pre-registered drop-in programming. So there'd be one program for three days during which we were open — Wednesday, Thursday, Friday — and there'd be a maximum of 10 youth that could attend said program.
One day could be Aux Cord Shuffle, another day could be our queer and trans youth programming, another day could be another program. So when that set cohort did their program for that day, once that program was done, they essentially had the entire space themselves, which we were hoping would be an added benefit to those individuals to still also exist in the SPACE because it may not be cool to be chilling at home, things may be not as safe or there are lots of situations with housing and stuff that youth have complexities around. We were able to do that from September until November.
Unfortunately, December was when things were intensifying so we had to really adjust and pivot towards online programming. I purchased a Zoom account and then we're now just doing two online programs a week, one being digital drop-in which there are various different activities or different concepts from other programs we've done . . . Right now, it's been going really well, we were kind of nervous, we didn't really know how it would go.
But, youth are really engaged and oftentimes, the programs go over the one hour that we schedule them as. We also want to make sure that we're not having youth stuck on their computer for an exuberant amount of time.
What are your favourite elements of the SPACE outside of the programming?
One of my favourite aspects of the SPACE is creating a sense of belonging for marginalized and racialized youth . . . A beautiful facet of the youth center is that we want to make it a space in which people can be their full selves, people can unpack things, can unlearn, can navigate some of their pain and trauma. We can all collectively carry the weight of that together.
That's really led into beautiful moments of sharing space with one another, being there for one another and building healthy relationships, even building chosen families outside of people's individual families. In a general way, being a dope spot where people can safely just grow up and have fun, kick it and do dumb safe stuff, and also have opportunities to really grow and develop and be the best version of yourself that you can be.
Could you elaborate on your work for the HWDSB?
The graduation program is a new pilot project initiative started in my partnership with the ministry on a provincial level and the HWDSB on a specific regional space for Hamilton. The title of the role is graduation coach for Black students because the work is specific and focused on Black youth. I am located at Westdale Secondary School, whereas my partner in crime, Chad McPherson, is at Bernie Custis Secondary School.
In general terms, what we do is support and provide opportunities for growth and mentorship for Black students, meeting their academic things and supporting them in overcoming their academic barriers, but also and maybe even more importantly, is having a stake or value in their personal development and growth. We definitely find that when a student is doing well or is set up for success with their personal development, the school follows as well.
What's your favourite part about this role?
A lot of the way in which I do my work and exist in the youth center definitely overlaps [with this role]. My absolute favourite parts are directly engaging and connecting with Black students. I think so much of my own educational experience had such a lack of seeing myself reflected in the administration or reflected in mentors or people I can trust.
I'm really trying my best to fit that in some way for students. So, my best hope is to build trust and rapport with the students I'm linked up with. It's super dope connecting with students and hearing where they're at, hearing some of their own thoughts and knowledge.
The stuff that young people are talking about now is way ahead of what I was thinking about at that age. A lot of the things that students who are 15, 16, are talking about now, I didn't learn that stuff until I was in first, second year of university. So it's super hype seeing the growth and level up of the next generation.
What are you envisioning for the future of this program?
Big visions of having graduation coaches at each high school, at elementary schools. I think a continual buy-in and accountability to the process of creating more spaces of healing, more spaces of racialized youth feeling that they have places to belong and be able to be a part of the system's processes. So being able to provide feedback, being able to say that "Hey, this happened and it was wrong and it needs to change" and seeing those things be done in real-time.
Could you talk a little bit more about your involvement in the general Hamilton community?
In the general Hamilton community, lots of like small and larger pieces of being involved with justice endeavours. I think that's always going to be a facet in some way that I'm always going to care about. I think the foundation of all these pieces comes from hip hop, from that dance culture in that breaking sprang forth from a direct response to the oppression that Black and Latino youth were feeling in the Bronx at that time.
So, it's definitely a continual speaking back to systems and speaking back to "Yo, this isn't okay." I think a lot of that also ties to the work at the youth center. Beyond those small pieces of activism when I have the capacity and time to be able to be involved, I also teach breaking at a dance studio on the mountain called DMD, which is Defining Movement Dance. That's also a really dope opportunity for me to share my love of movement and dancing and making sure that the young'uns are getting the proper knowledge and tips around breaking and the history.
By: Esther Liu, Contributor
Morghen Jael is a third-year arts and science student who has been in a relationship with her boyfriend, Zooey, for two years.
The Silhouette: Are you living together or in a long-distance relationship?
Morghen Jael: We do not share a lease but he is living full-time at my house. So he has a student house in Westdale that he has a lease with. But because of the pandemic and because he actually has an immuno-compromised housemate at that student house, he decided to just move in full-time with me here because we didn't want to worry about him switching back and forth and exposing all of us to double the amount of people.
So yeah, we technically live together even though that wasn't what I was planning for at this stage of the relationship. It feels kind of soon for full-time living together, but that's what it is and it's been working.
What are the pros and cons of living together?
The pros were that we would get to see each other. Otherwise, we kind of felt like, at the beginning of the pandemic, it was one extreme or the other, so he's either going to stay or we're going to be apart.
So it felt like we had to make that choice and it was almost a no-brainer: we're going to choose to be together. We love each other's company, we're part of each other's daily lives in so many ways, so let's just get together physically—we can do it.
It was great to have support 24/7 [because] it was stressful with the pandemic [and] it's also just a stressful life period of my life. I just started medication for my anxiety actually, right at the onset of the pandemic . . . That was a really big paradigm shift in my life, so it was actually great to have Zooey there for those first few months of adjusting to my medication and also just adjusting to the pandemic.
So I think for both of us it helps to have the other one around. People talk about loneliness during the pandemic and I think we never had that problem because we had each other. We're really great friends in addition to being boyfriend and girlfriend, so we get along really well, we're good at coming up with things to do.
One of the cons of moving in together full-time was the lack of privacy. I think I felt this more than him, just different people that we are. I like to have a little more time alone in my own space, having solo dance parties in my room to let off steam to kind of retreat into my own world. So lack of privacy was something that we both dealt with.
Even just physical privacy — we have been sleeping in the same bed now for all these months. He'd come over to sleep before, but not night after night. That took some adjusting. I'm not gonna have my physical space all to myself anymore: how can I maintain my bodily integrity, how can I stand up for myself? I'm like: "Okay, this is too much snuggling, I need to go for a walk."
Could you elaborate on how you've been maintaining your relationship?
We have been making sure to take the little bit of personal space that we can. I think that's been really helpful in making sure that we can still tolerate each other when we're together. So we've been going for solo walks. At least once a day, each of us goes for a walk alone . . . Also, on the opposite end of the spectrum, we've been doing dates and stuff.
Every time a monthly anniversary comes up, we'll either order in some food or cook some food and then we'll make it as special as it can be inside my bedroom. So we'll have some music, have a glass of wine and try to replicate a date scenario so it feels like we're still dating [and] not just roommates.
How has your relationship grown because of COVID-19?
I think the pandemic may have helped me to become more honest about my physical needs, like a little more literate, even. I remember using euphemisms to talk about sex or body parts or body functions. In the first year or so, I was kind of like "Oh, I can't tell him about this health problem" because I was a little embarrassed or I didn't know what words to use.
But now we've been thinking about our physical health a bit more. We've been in a closer space so we see each other's bodies more and I'm getting more comfortable being like "Okay, I have a yeast infection." But I'm at the point now where I could tell him that I have this physical problem, here's how you can support me, but you don't need to know everything and I got it. So yeah, I think that's been kind of an added dimension and I think that's also just both of us maturing as people.
Do you have any additional comments?
I just think there are lots of different love stories during the pandemic. Love and sex because sex is definitely an important dimension of this that isn't necessarily coupled with love . . . It's important to remember that romantic love is not the end-all and be-all. People are exploring friendships, deep and new friendships, or their sex lives, their own personal sexuality.
Oh, here's something else: I bought a vibrator for the first time during the pandemic. So I was experimenting with a vibrator. It's been kind of fun to let Zooey try it too, not for himself but on me, and that also goes with becoming more comfortable with my body, with talking about my body and his body. So anyway, I'm just saying that there are all different types of sex and love stories going on in people's lives.
By: Esther Liu, Contributor
The Silhouette: What inspired you to start @hamontsalsa?
Salsa Sarhan: I used to have a One Direction fan page and I used to make edits. That's what inspired me. I realized I could take my own photos and incorporate my own stuff. I had a little iPod [5th generation] that I used to take photos and then I realized that I'm actually getting good at this. So then I made my own little photography account.
People started liking my photos, reposting them online and I realized that I kind of have a knack for this! So I focused solely on that. Last year, I started actually selling my prints. People kept on asking if I have a website—I don't have a website just yet, I'm still working on it—but people are buying my prints, which is really exciting. So if you need a print, let me know!
What are your goals for @hamontsalsa, both short term and long term?
My short-term goal is to sell 100 prints. So far I've sold 40, so I'm doing pretty good for the beginning of this year. Long term, I definitely want to open up my own studio and then show people photography tips and show them how to get started, even with an iPod 5. Having a studio would be huge for me, but that's definitely a long-term goal, after university, after all those student loans are paid off.
How are you finding running the project during the pandemic?
Honestly, it's very hard cause I'm not as active as I used to be in the summer, where you could be going on walks and everything looked sun-kissed and beautiful. During the pandemic, everything does feel a little bit more gloomy, especially with the semester being so heavy. So having it as a side-project right now is kind of inspiring since I can relax, know that it's still there and I can always go to it and be happy.
During the pandemic, everything does feel a little bit more gloomy, especially with the semester being so heavy. So having it as a side-project right now is kind of inspiring since I can relax, know that it's still there and I can always go to it and be happy.
Do you see yourself continuing @hamontsalsa when you graduate?
Oh yes, definitely. But I feel like it's gonna be less architecture and buildings that I see when I'm going on walks. When I graduate, I want to focus solely on people and people’s stories. I've always wanted to do portrait photography, but I never got a chance to practice. After graduation, I could focus on different realms of photography since I'll have more free time considering that I'm not stressing and doing school work.
Could you elaborate on why you're so interested in photography?
I know it's a little bit cliché, but I think it's a fact that I can capture things in my own perspective. That is huge for me because I like being very vocal about who I am and what I stand for. So definitely being able to capture a perspective that's mine and knowing that no one else can change it but me.
I know it's a little bit cliché, but I think it's a fact that I can capture things in my own perspective. That is huge for me because I like being very vocal about who I am and what I stand for. So definitely being able to capture a perspective that's mine and knowing that no one else can change it but me.
You can see from the beginning of my feed to now, there was a huge improvement and change in the type of photographer I was and the places I was going to, how I see different angles.
Could you elaborate a little bit more on how you think your project has evolved?
It's definitely evolved with the way that I'm actually perceiving things in Hamilton. It's not just me going on a walk and seeing a nice random building, it's me looking at different angles of that building, now appreciating the texture, the textiles of it.
So it's definitely me growing as an artist and then that definitely shows in the improvement of my photography. Like I said before, like, long-term goal, I do want to focus more on portrait photography and the people within those photos. Being able to grow as a photographer is just a huge thing.
What camera do you use?
Here's my biggest trade secret: I don't use a camera. That's my biggest trade secret. I just use my [iPhone] 8 Plus.
Do you have any hot spots in Hamilton that you really like to take photos of?
Bayfront is such an easy place to get inspired 'cause it's always changing, there's always something new. Number two, I would say Locke Street. There's so many different colours and paintings [and] everything looks like it's from a different era.
And number three . . . this one's basic, but I really like Mulberry [Café]. I'm there almost every single day to say hi to my barista friends, but that place is so photogenic. They have these huge windows so lots of good natural light comes in and the actual structure inside is so cute. They have these brick walls and even the lights are adorable.
And then, let me think of a fourth one. Oh! Aberdeen [Street]! Aberdeen has some gorgeous houses, some look like mansions. So, you could pop in an address, look cute and pose."
By: Esther Liu, Contributor
The Silhouette: Could you please give a brief introduction of yourself?
Matthew Thiessen: I'm Matthew Thiessen, an associate professor of religious studies in the faculty of social sciences here at McMaster. I primarily focus on ancient texts, what Christians call the New Testament and text out of ancient Judaism, whether that's the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testamentor early Judaism text that didn't make it into the canon of either Jews or Christians.
When did you first become interested in the topic of the apocalypse and why?
The first time that I can remember something apocalyptic coming across my radar was in 1988. I know this for a fact because I grew up just outside of Detroit on the Canadian border, just outside of Windsor, and my dad took me to my first baseball game and I had been begging to go for years. It was at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. I have no recollection of the game whatsoever, but I do remember a small plane circling around the stadium during the ball game and it had one of those banners. It said: "8 reasons why the world will end in 1988" and I had never heard of such a thing.
It said: "8 reasons why the world will end in 1988" and I had never heard of such a thing. . . I remember thinking that I have no idea what this is talking about, but I sure as heck don't want the world to end.
1988 seems like a lifetime ago, but I guess I was 11 years old at the time. I remember thinking that I have no idea what this is talking about, but I sure as heck don't want the world to end. I'm 11, all I've done is go to school. I haven't reaped any benefits. I haven't got a job or made money or travelled or everything else. So I remember thinking that this is awful: I don't want the world to end because my life hasn't really even begun yet.
And so, that's sort of where I first came across this idea of apocalyptic thinking, the end of the world sort of thinking and [it] just has popped up over and over again. Anybody can, especially thinking in a North American context, come across this kind of stuff. In 2012, there was this claim about the Mayan calendar that predicted the world was going to end. In 2013, there was a Christian pastor in the States who put out billboards all over the world talking about the world ending. And, of course, this stuff keeps happening even today.
Could you elaborate on why you're still interested in this topic?
Especially in the North American context . . . you can see especially the dominance and influence of Christian apocalyptic thinking that still occurs to this day. You'll see, over and over again, predictions about the end of the world or some sort of major apocalyptic event. This includes what happened . . . when numerous Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as some of that was influenced by apocalyptic thinking. There was the thought that there was going to be this major movement by God to keep Trump in power. But this is what some people believed: that God would intervene in American history to bring about what these people thought would be some sort of just and righteous conclusion. Other historical events in the world were also influenced by apocalyptic thinking. It's out there, it pops its head out over and over again, so I think studying this is really important.
Do you believe that there is a key lesson that we can learn from the apocalypses you study?
When you study ancient apocalyptic texts, I think they're motivated by a few key ideological or theological beliefs. One is that what happens here on Earth is ultimately under the control of some higher being. So at least in a North American context, one of the most famous apocalypses of all is the Book of Revelation in the New Testament, in the Christian Bible. It's motivated by the belief that what happens here on earth is controlled by God and that this is a reason to believe — just because life on earth is maybe crappy, things are going bad, people are dying, people are being persecuted, unrighteous people seem to be winning, bad people seem to be ruling — that ultimately, this is not the final word. So this hope that all this will change is what motivates this literature.
I think you see, whether that's been religious or secular apocalyptic thinking today, there's this idea that now is not the final word. Just talking about maybe at the secular level, it's not this belief that there's a God who is going to make things turn out right, but you can see the sort of apocalyptic thinking around climate change. Most climate change activists say that we're very close to midnight, but there's something we can do. So the idea is we're at a very dangerous point but it can change and we can have an effect in changing it for the good. There are many people thinking that we are in an apocalyptic time and that we can change this, we just have to muster the courage to do it. There's the thought about "What can the world be? This is it now, here's what's bad about it, but here's what we can hope for and aspire to and work towards."
There are many people thinking that we are in an apocalyptic time and that we can change this, we just have to muster the courage to do it. There's the thought about "What can the world be? This is it now, here's what's bad about it, but here's what we can hope for and aspire to and work towards."
By: Esther Liu, Contributor
The Silhouette: What is the IMPACT study?
Marla Beauchamp: With the start of COVID-19 and the public health recommendations on social distancing and staying home as much as possible, one of the things that concerned us was: "How could this be affecting older peoples' mobility and their social participation?"
We know that mobility is a really really critical aspect of health for older people and when you lose mobility, you're at risk of falling, of negative health outcomes, of hospitalization. So our team wanted to understand the impact of these social distancing recommendations on peoples' mobility and participation over time.
[/media-credit] Marla Beaucamp
Brenda Vrkljan: Our sample is focused on people in Hamilton and one of the things that we wanted to do with this study was to be very thoughtful about who is gonna be included in the study. We aim to have a random sample, but that's a very loose term because when you say “I want a random sample,” it's not really that random because you still need to obtain informed consent and those kinds of things [and] you still need to recruit people. But what we did was we sampled people in different areas of the city, different economic statuses, different social determinants of health.
How did this study come into existence?
Beauchamp: I do a lot of work with people with chronic Lyme disease. Some of the guidelines for people include that you should remain at home completely, you should not go out at all. And so I was really concerned that we were telling people not to move, right? And I wanted to understand the impact of staying at home and not going about doing their usual activities, what that could do to their health.
So that was part of the reason for doing it. Also, Brenda and I are always talking about ways that we can support older people to live in their homes and to live independently. So if we were going to think more long term about this pandemic, we really needed to understand what has been the impact: what are people doing, what are people noticing?
Vrkljan: Like any good idea, there tends to be what I called the idea stack. So, Marla goes: "I have an idea," and I go: "Oh what if we did this too?". This might draw some other people in too and then what hopefully happens is that it's picked up in a better place. One thing we have is that we involve older adults in our initiatives. Of course, we might talk to our families, but that's not quite the same as talking to somebody who's not so close to us.
Marla and I have parents who are aging. . . and we also had an older adult partner who said that we're asking her lots of questions, but one thing that we're missing out on was the impact of the quarantine. We were missing out on the experience of living through a quarantine. So we've added interviews to our study with questions about their lives before the pandemic, during the pandemic and how they foresee their lives after the pandemic.
We're calling it the trilogy approach — it's not quite Star Wars — but this idea of thinking about your life in segments and trying to understand how people manage is our next step. We want to see what strategies people are using that are helping them do really well and see if those strategies could be implemented to help more people.
We're calling it the trilogy approach — it's not quite Star Wars — but this idea of thinking about your life in segments and trying to understand how people manage is our next step. We want to see what strategies people are using that are helping them do really well and see if those strategies could be implemented to help more people.
What are some highlights from the study so far?
Vrkljan: As an occupational therapist, I'm very interested in things that occupy peoples' time — their ability to do things that are important to them. For example, being able to get out to Tim Horton's could be really important to some people, that could be where you get your socialization. When you can't do those things, it could mean that you're not getting rest, that you're not moving around as much. So together, we're very interested in how people manage their mobility and manage their social participation because we want to leverage that.
Resilience is something . . . interesting as well. It's interesting to see that some of our participants actually reported that they're having such a hard time that they would actually have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. It's not a diagnosis, but it's a real struggle. Now, we don't know how they were doing before, but we just had their snapshot in time.
[/media-credit] Brenda Vrkljan
Beauchamp: I just want to emphasize that it is a small proportion of people, but obviously concerning still and not nontrivial. Another big concern with our study is that almost half of respondents said that they were very worried about falling and of the people that had a fall in previous years, almost 40% said they had a fall in the last 30 days. That is a high number of calls during a pandemic where you're supposed to be with your family at home and less in the community.
So it just speaks to the fact that if you're less active and you do have problems with mobility, it can really have an impact on your health. These are all routes highlighted by the survey that are going to be important concerns going forward as we come out of the pandemic.
By: Esther Liu, Contributor
Yahia Hassan is a first-year student in life sciences. He co-founded the nonprofit, The Altruist.
The Silhouette: What are you passionate about?
Hassan: I'm really interested in how people interact with each other and what makes people choose one thing over something else. I'm also really into biology and other sciences so I like to look at that in terms of the psychological side of it. In terms of humanitarianism, it's really important to get that perspective and over the years I've sort of trained myself to try and get empathy and get open-mindedness and perspective from other people.
When did you start getting involved in your community?
My first volunteer opportunity was back in Egypt in Grade 9. [W]e went to one of the villages that were damaged over the years and we re-decorated and refurbished that village. We built a whole community centre for them with a group of 50 people. I think it's the experience of helping others without really getting anything in return, right? I'm not getting paid or anything but I'm still doing good for others. Knowing that they now live in a place that I helped improve.
Later in high school, I took more leadership roles where it's more of helping a bigger organization. So, I'm volunteering for something: I'm helping ship medicine boxes for example and I don't know anything about it later on, right? But I don't like the idea of that because I don't know where it's going. I'm not sure if it's actually going to go to the place where it's intended.
Between Grade 11 and Grade 12, I was volunteering with Trillium Health Partners. There, I had to really think on the spot about how to help people directly. As an intern, I had to step up right because nurses and doctors are not going to be free to help you. That was a good experience of helping other people no matter what the situation is. So a lot of empathy came with it. [I thought] “right this is hard, but I have to help this person because they can't really help themselves or they don't they can't fathom helping themselves.”
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What is The Altruist?
The Altruist is a youth journalism organization. We were starting out with five people. Now we're over 20 people and we have people in nine countries contributing. The purpose of The Altruist is, through youth journalism, giving other youth a voice and giving them a platform. What we're really focusing on is humanitarian issues. It's a lot about goodwill without anything in return.
How did The Altruist start?
Originally, it was two people: me and a friend of mine. We were first based in White Oak Secondary School. Over time, we contacted people that we knew from our school and a few people from Egypt. We now have people from Canada, the UK, Egypt, Indonesia, China, Pakistan and India. We started back in March – not coincidental with the pandemic.
But when the pandemic hit, there was a lot of news that was misinformed and contained a lot of implied and explicit hatred [with] each headline. So we wanted to create a safer source of journalism and information. The goals for the organization are to create honest news and news that doesn't spark fear. [We want] to influence and inspire other people to go out of their way to do good for other people. Since this is a non-profit and we're really focused on the goodwill of our actions, we want others to do the same.
What are you working on now with The Altruist?
For the audience, we want workshops in different schools or venues to inspire change and inspire people to be good. Right now, we have webinars every month where we would talk about different issues. So, for example, if we're talking about oppression against racialized communities, we might talk about oppression in the medical community, in the film industry and more. We want people to be aware and, through that awareness, to say: "Oh, this is not a good thing and this is something that I can change within myself.”
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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.
