New president of McMaster Alumni Association never thought university was for him

Troy Hill, ’07, grew up in Hamilton’s Parkdale neighbourhood – a part of the city known to be more than just rough around the edges. The son of a country girl from Binbrook and a Mohawk man, Troy grew up being called a half-breed and raged against the system as often as he could. His father was largely absent from his life and his mother did everything she could to provide her two children with a good life while working day and night to make ends meet. Troy was angry a lot of the time and made choices based on surviving life in a tough neighbourhood than getting good marks in school.

“I never thought university was something I was going to do. I didn’t think it was in my future,” Troy says. “It was something I thought all the rich kids got to do.”

Now, at 52, Troy has more two undergraduate degrees and is working on his master’s — a success story he says wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for the example his mother set, his Indigenous heritage and the doors that McMaster opened for him.

“My mother worked at the Health Sciences building and would take the bus across the city every day – almost two hours to get there – with my sister and I in tow,” he says. “She’d carry us across campus to day care and then head off to work. I learned what determination means from her”

When he was 16, she helped him get a job as a porter at the hospital. From there he would take on new jobs and new roles and eventually became a medical transcriptionist. McMaster, it seems, would be a constant in his otherwise turbulent life.

“I made friends with some of the doctors there and would go jogging with them every day. They were the ones who really started pushing for me to go to university,” says Troy. “They pointed out that I would likely have access to funding opportunities because I am Indigenous.”

He looked into it. Turns out, they were right.

“I remember walking into a massive sociology lecture and didn’t know what I was doing there. I definitely didn’t feel like I belonged,” he says.

As a student, he approached learning in unconventional ways and relied on what he calls his street smarts to navigate his classes. He talked to his profs regularly, he asked questions when he needed to and never took notes. It just wasn’t how he learned.

“I looked at everything the way I looked at that first sociology class. I told myself to just look at it more simplistically and don’t try to reinvent the wheel while I’m there,” he says.

“I met every prof I had and formed a relationship with them, and they knew who I was and we were able to work together. I networked.”

From student to teacher to MAA President

At Mac, Troy found that school wasn’t so bad after all. He took that sense of determination, and perhaps a little bit of grit, and worked hard to cultivate success. Since starting, he’s received another degree from Brock University.

“When I started at Mac, I would have never seen myself in this position,” he says. “I had never even written an essay in my life before Mac. When I was a kid, I would have never thought I would be [MAA] president, let alone graduate from Mac – I never saw it as an option.”

Now an educator on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, Troy says that becoming the MAA president is a true honour.

“Through the alumni, I get to represent amazing thinkers,” he says “I mean, wow – how amazing is that? Following some of the people who have had this position and to see the impacts they’ve made – it’s definitely an honour. The alumni board is like family to me.”

When it comes to being the first Indigenous president of the McMaster Alumni Association, Troy says he sees his job as supporting new graduates and future students by helping them realize that success can be achieved, despite how far away it may feel.

“I did most of my degree part-time and I started at 30 and I want people to know that you can do that and become this,” says Troy. “I want people to know that Mac is a good place to go and it provides you with opportunities.”

As president, Troy says he is going to bring in more elements of storytelling to the alumni association.

“I know I am in a room full of people that have their own stories and each of them have their own journey too,” he says. “I think that’s what the McMaster Alumni Association is about: Sharing our stories in a way that everyone can feel their own stories at the same time.”