Dayle McKay has always cared about young people having a say in the decisions that shape their lives. That drive has her thinking about a future in education, although she’s still exploring what form it might take.
What she knows is that the system needs more voices like hers.
“I’m Indigenous. I’m a woman. I’m a youth-in-care, and I feel like there’s not enough representation from any of those groups in making decisions that impact all of us,” said McKay, who is one of 50 students that make up the first cohort of McMaster’s new Wilson College of Leadership and Civic Engagement. “We need more people with lived experience in these roles so that decisions reflect everyone.”
Her vision aligns with what Kristina Llewellyn sees as an urgent need: leaders who understand and act on our shared humanity. Llewellyn teaches with Wilson College, which is home to Canada’s only combined honours arts degree in leadership and civic studies paired with another subject from either Humanities or Social Sciences.
“We’re facing greater global conflicts and uncertainty. This kind of leadership is needed now more than ever,” said Llewellyn, also a professor in McMaster’s Department of History and the Global Peace and Social Justice Program. “We need leaders who understand the importance of remaining human-centered in a world pulled toward technology.”
Wilson College’s interdisciplinary approach arrives at a challenging time for the humanities. Statistics Canada reports that enrolment in the humanities has fallen over the past three decades.
For Llewellyn, that makes the program’s purpose even more important. She has taught university students for more than 15 years and said she’s never met a group as eager to learn as the inaugural Wilson cohort.
“They’re activists, athletes and artists. We have published authors and students who are already actively involved in volunteering or working with government agencies,” she said.
“They’re all ambitiously driven to make a positive change in their communities.”
McKay is already doing just that. Since arriving at McMaster in September, she has taken part in the Canadian Council of Young Feminists, contributed to national discussions on AI governance in education and joined a project examining whether voting age in Canada should be lowered to 16.
“If we can empower youth to have a voice and participate in their community, that will make our society stronger,” said McKay. “Young people need to be able to have a say on issues like climate change that they’re going to be dealing with for the rest of their lives.”
Experiential learning is woven into the Wilson program. During their first semester, Wilson students participated in a model city hall at the HamOntYouth Summit and joined Voting Starts Here, where they discussed local issues and explored ways to make voting more accessible. In their final year, they complete a capstone that includes a work placement.
Wilson College student Owen Gill, who hopes to build a career in law and justice, said those experiences matter.
“It gives me opportunities to network and do work I’m passionate about while gaining experience I can take into a professional setting,” he said.
Gill came to McMaster from North Vancouver and worried about feeling isolated, but the Living Learning Community (LLC) for Wilson students quickly changed that. The group lives together in residence, and he said that closeness has shaped the way they learn.
“It’s nothing like I expected,” he said “Instead of a massive lecture hall and 200 people just sitting there writing frantically for 50 minutes, we have a lot of opportunity to actually engage in conversations with one another. I get to share my perspective while learning about what other people are drawing from the course material, which leads to a better understanding of myself, and everybody else involved in the discussion.”
Llewellyn said the relationships they’ve fostered outside of the classroom have created an environment of trust that allows the students to be vulnerable in their learning and take intellectual risks.
“They have a desire to challenge themselves,” said Llewellyn. “They have a desire to learn from each other. They care for one another’s learning. You see it in the classroom all the time – how they support one another and how they have a willingness to really be open-minded, to perhaps change their mind or to explore new directions”
Research echoes what she sees. A global Deloitte survey found that younger generations place a high value on leadership and empathy in their careers. Llewellyn said this aligns closely with what attracts students to Wilson College.
“They want a rewarding career that has a sense of ownership and community,” she said. “Our graduates will be the people shaping public life. They will be the politicians, teachers, activists, lawyers, artists and entrepreneurs who want to build a better world.”
Grace Reid, another Wilson College student, said the diversity of backgrounds and interests in the program fuels her own desire to make an impact on society.
“No matter the field, we’re always going to need leaders who can think critically and respond to the world in a thoughtful way,” she said. “Wilson College pairs well with any discipline and gives us skills we can carry anywhere.”
Reid admits she hesitated at first because of stigma associated with a degree in the arts.
“A lot of us did well in high school and thought the next step should be STEM,” she said. “But I think the reality is, with a program like this, you’re still doing the things that you’re really passionate about while getting hands-on experience and building real connections.
Llewellyn said the program reflects McMaster’s evolving approach to teaching and learning and its commitment to the public good. “McMaster is striving to be a true civic university and shattering stereotypes of the ivory tower.”
She said programs like Wilson College, which open doors for students from a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives, demonstrate what can happen when we combine interdisciplinary thinking with experiential learning around questions of ethics, truth and justice.
“We’re welcoming change makers who want to contribute at a municipal, national and even international level,” she said. “That makes me very grateful to be part of the McMaster community.”