MAC Magazine 2015

20 years
of
S.I.C.
The idea for Students in the Community came from Mike
Allison, former MAC Principal, on his return from a Woolf
Fisher Scholarship tour of the USA, Canada and Britain.
He wanted to integrate a programme that demanded not
just academic, sporting and cultural excellence, but a more
holistic sense of altruism.
Diana Schikker remembers setting up the programme
in 1995, using existing community contacts and quickly
forging more. “It was actually straightforward. People were
so receptive when I approached them. It was a wonderful
job! Diana particularly enjoyed using the community
specialisation of her Parks and Rec. degree in a wider-thansporting
context.
Diana stayed in the role for two years before Lo Scurr took
over. Lo still enthuses about the role, saying “through the
years I was involved, many students and members of the
community will have had some amazing experiences and
will have stories that should be remembered. I remember
one student who went to visit an older lady and still kept on
visiting her over the years that he went away to university.
They had a real link.” Lo was Students in the Community
Coordinator from 1997 to 2002, when Mary Chaffey took
over. Mary stayed in the role until 2013 and was great
at running the stats – counting up the amount of actual
student hours every year that went into the community.
By the time of the big MAC 25th reunion in 2012, it was
46,888 hours and counting. In 2014 that figure topped
50,000 and still counting! Mary left the role in 2013 and
fondly remembers the students. “They were so great.
Always busy with everything and still taking the time to
give back to their community. The ethos of the programme
is still going strong.”
Students volunteer in a wide variety of placements
(regular visits) and projects (one-off events) in the wider
Upper Clutha community, depending on their skills and
availability. They’re encouraged to work with age groups
they wouldn’t usually have contact with – the elderly or
the very young, for example – to coach teams, to help out
behind the scenes, to mentor other students – anything to
give of their time freely to grow their sense of pride and
sense of community.
One of current co-ordinator Liz Breslin’s favourite things is
going out to visit students on placement, “because they’re
always doing good, out there, making a difference. And
we have so many negative stereotypes of teenagers and I
don’t see them here, and neither do all the people that the
Students in the Community visit. They see generous young
people doing good stuff.”