Grad profile: Volunteer work sparks passion in Ag grad

Vicki Mackintosh grew up on a hobby farm in Amherst, Nova Scotia and chose Dal's Faculty of Agriculture for its hands-on learning and small community feel.

She quickly became involved as a resident assistant in Chapman House.

“I have so many amazing memories from living in residence, and I worked as a residence assistant during my undergraduate degree. When I moved out of residence in my fourth year, I moved on to working in conference services during the summer,” she added.

Vicki graduated first from Nova Scotia Agricultural College in 2013, and now —exactly 10 years later — is graduating with her master’s in animal science from Dal while also being Residence Life don of Trueman House.

The don is a live-in position responsible for creating and maintaining a safe and positive living environment within residence. “I always kept an eye open for any further opportunities to work in Residence Life and was ecstatic when this opportunity arose,” she says.

Unlocking new opportunities
 

When Vicki returned to campus to begin her master’s program, she had a more flexible schedule.  

“When I first started my master’s, I finally had a schedule flexible enough for some volunteer work and began my role as president of Dalout Truro,” she explained. “This made me realize how much work still needed to be done for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) on campus and in the community and got the ball rolling!”

Vicki volunteered to do Sexualized Violence Prevention work with Human Rights & Equity Services on the Agricultural Campus.  She also began a position with the accessibility office working with students with academic accommodations. All of which led her to a position of EDIA employer outreach and development assistant for the Bissett Student Success Centre on the Halifax campus.

This position allowed her to further explore her passion for EDIA and made her realize this was something she wanted to continue to do as a career. 

“My biggest passion is equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility so I am hoping to find something that allows me to further explore that passion, and further EDIA work at Dalhousie,” she added.