The MacCast Unconventional — Troy Hill
Troy Hill (’07) works, and volunteers, to help improve communities for everyone
Troy grew up in one of Hamilton’s roughest neighbourhoods and spent more time trying to survive the day-to-day rather than focusing on getting good grades in school. The idea of going to university wasn’t even on his radar until much later, when he was working as a medical transcriptionist and some colleagues encouraged him to seek out more education.
“I kind of thought I was limited in what I could do, in the position I was in,” he says. “I started the journey of finding the means to do it…and started as an Indigenous part-time student.”
His journey started in 2002 and was far from straight forward. Depending on the availability of funding support he found himself shifting from part-time to full-time as needed. He was also in his late 30s and found that the journey is quite different as a mature student.
“It was definitely interesting,” he says. “You meet people that are the same — other mature students along the way…There’s different relationships when the profs are the same age as you.”
Being in university taught Troy several lessons, including the value of constant learning. While working on his sociology degree at Mac, Troy worked on and completed a
B.Ed from Brock University — also graduating from that program in 2007. Since then, he has gone on to earn his Master’s in Education from Brock and various certifications to grow his career. He volunteers with several organizations and, most recently, has worked with academics and professionals to publish papers that explore where education and Indigenous issues intersect.
“There are 24-hours in a day, and that’s how I want to look at it,” he says. “It was brought so many opportunities, and those opportunities have flourished into so many responsibilities too.”
Tune in for the final episode of season 3 to learn more about Troy’s inspiring story dedication, humility, and the lessons he’s learned along the way.
McMaster has more than 210,000 alumni living in 140 countries around the world, and they are some of the most amazing people you would ever want to meet. The Unconventional podcast will introduce some of our alumni who are working — in the arts, as cutting-edge entrepreneurs, leading the way in health, education, technology and more — to make our world a brighter place in their own unique way. Download the latest episode, or catch up if you’ve missed one, on Apple, Spotify, or Soundcloud.
