A day in the life of a proud graduate student supervisor

Thursday, January 24, 2019. This was not going to be just another day at the office. One of my MSc students, James Telford, was defending that afternoon. The day was long coming. Let’s just say that James didn’t exactly speed through his program from ‘A’ to ‘B’. To his credit, however, he took full advantage of many opportunities along the way to have many excellent experiences, some of them life-changing, especially in his field location – the Marian River Watershed in the Northwest Territories.

The day started off normal enough for me. I had a couple of meetings before the defence was to start at 2:00 pm, and I spent some time reviewing key sections in the thesis and my comments. At about 12:30 pm, I checked in on James in the lab, just to see how he was doing (and to provide a bit of a pep talk as I often do before the big event). Shortly before 2:00 pm, I arrived at the seminar room in our department where the defence was being held. A crowd had gathered – mostly from Roland Hall’s and my research group – and I was puzzled why they had remained in the hallway. I walked into the room, and there was James, working away at editing his Conclusions slide moments before the defence was to begin. I thought to myself, our students are all different aren’t they? But isn’t that, in part, what makes our jobs so interesting and rewarding?

The defence did not disappoint. James, from day one, ‘owned’ his project. He gave a terrific presentation. I was so glad that his first question received from committee member Mike English focused on how his relationships with First Nation elders and members of the Marian Watershed Stewardship Program had shaped his project. James placed considerable effort on developing these important relationships, but his written thesis strictly reported his scientific research. This question gave James opportunity to reflect on this important aspect of his research and so at least this became part of the oral record of the defence. In many ways, James’ project is an excellent model for how scientific research should be undertaken in Canada’s North. James adeptly answered many of the remaining questions around the science that he had conducted and some of his decision-making. I smiled often during the question period – proud of his accomplishments and his ability to go toe-to-toe with his committee members. All of those years of mentoring had clearly paid off.

Following the defence, several of us retreated to Veritas to toast James’ success. I could not stay long. We were hosting a celebration potluck dinner at our place that evening. My entire family was involved in the preparations. Everyone soon arrived. This included our research group from undergrads doing their Honours thesis to senior postdocs, committee members, as well as some friends of James (and partners, kids). Even our neighbours came, as they had also played a special role in James’ time as a graduate student. Our house was packed – at least 30 people and the food was diverse and tasty. Everyone was having a good time.

A tradition we have long had in our research group is that the last rite of passage is for the defending student to provide commentary to a cake decorated in their honour. In James’ case, this presented quite the challenge on the part of the cake decorators (my wife Sheryl and I). James had begun his time with our research group as an Honours thesis student and the cake was designed to reflect the meandering journey (a.k.a. the ‘Marian River’) James had embarked on, along with many milestones, events, and experiences (and some distractions) along the way. After James successfully completed the impromptu narrative, he exclaimed, ‘This is my life!’ Sheryl and I knew just then, that we had hit the mark.

These are the moments that are meant to be celebrated. Some might say that our approach may run the risk of blurring traditional roles of student and professor, but I believe we do this in a very positive way. Roland and I work very hard to create a positive, supportive and collaborative research training environment, and this is all part of the grand design. The next day, at our weekly Friday afternoon gathering at University of Waterloo’s Grad House (where I have been going for 25 years), there was much banter about what the next thesis defence cake might look like. I could only smile and say, ‘You do your part, Sheryl and I will do ours’.

Brent Wolfe, PhD

Professor, Associate Dean, and Assistant Cake Decorator