Mandy Lam- Bridging the Gap between Music and Mind

Mandy has been in the HKSN exec team for the past four years, starting from a first year representative to a co-president in her third year, followed by becoming a senior advisor this year.

Tell us about what you’ve been studying at McGill.

I entered McGill as a U0 student in Schulich School of Music, majoring in bassoon performance. In second year, I switched to faculty of arts to do a double major in psychology and music (quite an unusual combination, I know), because I wanted to branch out from solely music performance. I ended up choosing these two majors because I am also quite interested in psychology and am hoping to combine the two to pursue a career in music therapy!

What are the pros and cons about your program?

In terms of music, I really like how the program for arts student is structured since we take most of the same courses as students in faculty of music. In terms of cons for this major, I would say that the lack of music playing is slightly disappointing — if we had an orchestra just for non-music students, it would definitely spark a lot of interest not just within the music students in arts, but students at McGill in general.

With regards to psychology, I like how in some classes, professors don’t use textbooks, instead they assign novels or research articles to read. I find that reading novel is more interesting and enjoyable, and it almost feels like I am back to reading for leisure again! With research articles, they can be more challenging and more time consuming to read, but I think that it’s something important to get accustomed to.

In terms of cons, I personally find that the classes here are too big, this probably applies to other faculties too, but I think that there’s quite a bit of disconnection between professors and students in such a large class setting. With smaller classes, more interactions between students and professors, and among students themselves are bound to happen, which I find very valuable in terms of learning.

What were some valuable involvements at school that taught about yourself and oriented your goals?

In all honesty, I would say HKSN (and I promise I’m not saying this because I’m part of the exec team).

On the surface, it looks just like a typical social club on campus but personally I think the way we plan, organize and structure our events has taught me a lot when it comes to organizational and event planning skills. These have definitely come in handy not just at school, but also for internships and such. Third year was certainly a big test of time management skills for me because I was co-managing a club while taking on a full core course load and doing some volunteering on the side. I would be lying if it wasn’t a stressful year, but I also think

it was a very valuable experience as I learned how to juggle everything while still having a social life (aside from hanging out at McLennan…if that even counts) as well as how far I could stretch myself to do something I never thought I would be able to.

Please describe about your exchange semester at London.

When I received my nomination to University College London (UCL) in April, I wasn’t quite convinced that it was what I wanted to do in my final year. Going on exchange meant that I would likely be taking a gap year before applying to graduate school. In the end, I am so thankful that I did make the choice to go for it (props to supportive parents and friends). I would say that it was my YOLO moment there because that was my last chance to go on exchange!

I loved London, the city itself is absolutely breathtaking and so rich in culture that there are always so many activities to do, markets to visit and festivals to attend.

In terms of academics, I enjoyed the smaller class size at UCL compared to McGill and felt much more connected to professors and classmates because of the school environment. Being able to study abroad also allowed me to experience a completely different education system — I was very used to memorizing textbooks, lecture notes etc., but once I got to UCL, I was assigned 10+ essays to write within a month or so, which I’ve never done before! I wouldn’t say it was the most enjoyable part of exchange, but I definitely learned a lot from that experience and no longer have essay-writing phobia.

Of course, a semester abroad will not be complete without the travel component, being situated in London, traveling to Europe was very convenient and most importantly, cost-friendly (many thanks to budget airlines!). In short, I look back to this experience with a huge smile, as

I felt that it gave me a chance to not only learn more about myself, but also to broaden my vision and truly “explore, dream and discover” the world beyond my comfort zone.

If you were to go back in time and offer any advice to your U0 self, what would it be?

If I could go back to first year,

I would tell myself to be more open to new experiences and put myself out of the comfort zone a little more.

Personally, it took me a bit of time to adjust to university life and I definitely had to make extra efforts to meet people because I lived off campus in my first year. Aside from focusing on academics (in my case, spending lots of time in practice rooms), I wished I took the initiative to be more involved in activities on campus and more adventurous, because hey, it’s first year!