By her own admission, Marjolaine Lagacé is a student with “extremely varied interests.” While McGill prides itself on the far-reaching interests of its students, she may just be the first violin-playing, axe-wielding environmentalist juggler we’ve ever seen.
A first-year student, Lagacé came to McGill fresh off an international cooperation conference in Senegal and eager to learn. She says that of the universities that caught her interest, “McGill was the only one with an interfaculty program as unique and complete as the School of Environment, with a lot of latitude in choosing courses.
“I’ve always had a huge interest in the sciences, but that’s not enough for me – science needs to have a more human, social approach. So I found a program that merged the scientific approach with economic, social, political and ethical perspectives.”
That’s exactly the attitude that earned her the prestigious Greville Smith Scholarship, awarded to incoming undergrads for outstanding academic achievement and a strong sense of social responsibility. Now in its 30th year, it’s one of the highest honours McGill has to offer.
“Without the scholarship,” she says, “university would have meant a huge burden of debt for me. It lets me focus on my studies without worrying about money, and I can spend the rest of my time getting involved in things that I’m passionate about.”
Passion doesn’t seem to be a problem for Lagacé. She plays three instruments, juggles in her spare time, and is already an elected councillor of the Macdonald Campus Students’ Society. To stay in shape, she trains from 6:00 to 8:00 a.m., four days a week, with McGill’s woodsmen – chopping and hewing her way into one of Canada’s premier university timbersports teams in preparation for a New Brunswick competition this fall. “It’s a lot of fun,” she says, “and a real challenge for me – it forces me to improve myself and work on my self-discipline.”