Disclaimer: Natalie no longer takes calls for Nightline. The service is dedicated to confidentiality and therefore, as an external member, Natalie is no longer involved in this aspect of the service.
I meet Natalie on the 5th floor of Schulich, a place her friends can count on her being during the mid-week study grind. I’ve been friends with Natalie for a couple of years now, and every time I see her, a huge smile appears on her face; she’s always in a good mood and is ready to ask about your day and share stories of her own. I sit down across from her and we spend some time catching up with each other before I dive into questions I’ve prepared for her profile.
Some background information to start: Natalie is from Syracuse, New York and decided to come to McGill because she visited Canada a lot growing up and thought it would be a really great experience to come here for her university career. She is a U2 student, majoring in Industrial Relations and minoring in Women’s Studies.
Natalie reached out to me for a profile article so she could talk about McGill Nightline, a confidential, anonymous and nonjudgemental listening service, run entirely by McGill students. Natalie joined Nightline in her first year and has been volunteering with them for her entire undergraduate career. She explains that, “the goal of Nightline is to provide the community with a variety of resources for support, anything from information and referrals to crisis management.” Her current voluntary role is as the Public Relations Director, a position to which she has dedicated a lot of her time.“ As PR Director, I am a formal volunteer who no longer takes calls, but rather focuses on promoting the service at McGill and encouraging people to sign up to volunteer and really just talking to people about what we do and making sure everyone knows we are available and here for them”. “Part of the promotion aspect involves reaching out on social media, events, and other platforms. Confidentiality is taken very seriously by the service as Natalie explains, “Since I am an external executive member, I no longer take calls. We keep all of our volunteers identities private so that people won’t be discouraged to contact us because of the possibility of talking to someone they know.”
Being a part of Nightline has been very important to Natalie throughout her time with the service. Although she has become increasingly busy each semester, taking on more roles and harder classes, she has made sure to allocate time to her volunteering. “I joined Nightline out of interest in getting involved with a McGill community whose sole purpose was to help others. I’ve grown to become a much more empathetic person while volunteering with this service and have come to know a lot of genuinely amazing people who take time out of their day to do nothing but help others.”
One thing that Natalie is very excited about is a new addition to the Nightline service coming up this March which is a chat function that will be available online. “This will provide similar services that we usually provide over the phone but will increase our accessibility to people who aren’t comfortable using the phone; who have English as a second language; or who have difficulty hearing or speaking.” As Natalie explains to me, she is smiling and using a lot of hand gestures which lets me know that this really is something she is passionate about.
For those who want to get involved in Nightline, Natalie says there are plenty of opportunities available. “Every semester we have recruitment to add new volunteers to our team. Potential volunteers can reach out at our Facebook page or contact us by email if they are interested in joining us next fall.”
You can contact Nightline by email at: nightlineexternal@gmail.com or on their Facebook page.
If you want to use the service, you can talk to a trained volunteer at: 5143986246
Natalie (left) pictured with one of her sorority sisters.
It’s evident that Natalie gets involved in causes she really cares about, allowing her to have an impact on people and in turn gain a lot of new personal skills. As for career goals, Natalie says she wants to work in economic inclusion and urban development. When asked about what the three top adjectives her friends would use to describe her she says, “empathetic, because I care a lot about my friends and their wellbeing; goofy, because I very rarely take myself seriously, and passionate, because I care a lot about social justice issues.” Her favorite activities (besides studying at Schulich 5) she informs me are: “participating in activities with my sorority Gamma Phi Beta, volunteering at ACCM (Aids Community Care Center of Montreal), doing yoga, baking – I have perfected my apple pie recipe(!) – and also going to Grateful Dead concerts with my dad.”
Images provided by interviewee.