Magill receives educators award

Justin Seward
Times Reporter

 

Strathmore High School teacher Christine Magill was recognized for her volunteerism work in East Africa with the Me To We Educators Award at We Day in Toronto last week.
In 2009 when she travelled to Rwanda for the first time, her perspective on the world was changed by genocide survivors, which left her feeling obligated to share their story with her students.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “It’s so nice to be able to speak from first hand and not teaching information from a text book. I get to tell stories about real people I’ve met and real experiences versus just turn to this page and read this clip.”
However in 2012, Magill was going on her second trip with students but she had a life-changing pedestrian accident which left her with chronic pain. She said it had made her look at life differently and made the award that much more special.
“My life has changed since that accident because my health has been so different,” recalled Magill. “That’s what is so special about the award is that for me the last three years I had so much adversity in my own life. I’m always worried I’m not living up to the person I’d liked to be because of my limitations and to realize that I’m still making an impact on students and still able to make a difference … is really exciting.”
Magill, who has spearheaded the Me to We program at the high school, had most recently fundraised to send a girl in Kenya to high school while taking her students to the country to get her initiative recognized.
“I think it was a lot about the stuff I’ve done as an educator and the stuff I do outside of school as well with other charitable organizations,” said Magill. “The recognition was pretty much for all of the stuff I’ve done related to East Africa and lots of fundraisers. We’ve fundraised for a student and send her (Vivian) to high school in Kenya last year, one of classroom building projects, (and) we’ve done a bunch of student leadership volunteer trips to Kenya.”
She is involved with the Rwanda Community Association in Calgary and has travelled to Rwanda to speak about genocide education.
Magill always had an interest in volunteer work and after a trip to Ghana, she shared her experience with her Social Studies class in Strathmore. As a result, one of her senior students was inspired to visit Africa during the summer and also volunteer her time.
“It was a result of my course,” said Magill. “It was pretty cool to see her inspired and that kind of inspired me to want to do more. I decided to try to organize a trip for students to Kenya. While I was in the process of organizing that trip, I had the opportunity to sign up to go to Rwanda to learn about genocide. We started teaching it in our curriculum and I really didn’t know very much.”