Name: Makenzie McCallum
Program: MSc
Supervisor: Naznin Virji-Babul, PhD
Tell us a little bit about your lab and research interests!
I’m in Dr. Virji-Babul’s Perception Action Lab and it’s been great. She does EEG work, and I’m on the qualitative side. I’m doing concussion awareness in indigenous ice hockey players, and I’ve collected all my data and have a first draft of my thesis. Naz is really supportive in the work I’ve done. It’s such a niche topic, but Naz makes sure I’m balanced and supported by my supervisory committee, for example, with Dr. Liisa Holsti who does awesome qualitative work.
What project are you currently working on?
I’m doing concussion awareness in indigenous ice hockey players. I work with my supervisory committee, such as Dr. Shelina Babul, who does the CAT, the Concussion Awareness Training tool, to develop an educational resource for Indigenous ice hockey players. Concussions are such a prevalent thing with hockey because you’re getting hit all the time. More and more people are reporting concussion and more people are understanding how severe it is. That’s a huge part of why I wanted to do the education side of it and make a resource for these Indigenous players to have a different option. I’m doing a two-eyed seeing approach, so it’s a Western way of viewing it and an Indigenous perspective. I think ensuring that Indigenous athletes have that Indigenous perspective in the healthcare field is important. I wanted to make sure that indigenous ice hockey players had the same resources and the same education that everyone is getting. My research found that they do have the same level of education. This result is really positive and will add to the field of research, because currently there are only two papers published on my work.
What do you like to do outside of academia?
Outside of academics, playing hockey and being on the UBC Thunderbirds team takes all my free time. It’s awesome to be on the team because I have 27 family members every day that we get to hang out with. And there’s three Indigenous players on my team and one of them is helping me with my research.
How do you balance academics and University sports?
I’ve been doing it my whole life, so I had to learn how to do time management since I was young. Our coach gives us enough time to be able to balance the team and our academics, and then I’m in the thesis phase of the master’s work which I really like because every hour of the day that I’m not at the rink I can just focus on writing.
How did you get into playing hockey?
I was really fortunate to have older brothers who were role models to me. My dad played hockey and then my two older brothers played hockey so I just kind of followed in their footsteps. I’ve been playing since I was four years old and skating since I was two. I just always played. At the start I was more of a goalie, blocking shots, and then I just loved it, so I kept working at it. I played on my undergrad team at McGill and then transferred here. This is my second year on the UBC Thunderbirds and I play Centre Forward (offense).
What do you love about being on the UBC team?
The family aspect of it, we’re all so close and you can see it on the ice, how excited we all get for each other. Being a Master’s student is so siloed, you’re doing your own project, and you have your committee and your lab, which is great, but the ability to be on a team, the atmosphere is always so good, and coaches and teammates are supportive of what we do. And then just the fun of it.
It’s a stress reliever. You leave everything at the door and just focus on nothing but hockey and I think that kind of frees up my mind more to do my work and to do my research. and we’re doing really well. We’re in first and have only lost three games. Hopefully we’ll be in the finals!
Check out UBC Thunderbirds Women’s team at their next game and get ready to cheer them on when Quarter Finals start on February 21!
Women’s Hockey Upcoming Events – University of British Columbia Athletics
