I got to sit down with Lori MacLeod and talk about her year coming up and got to learn more about her. There was even a special guest who showed up halfway through our interview.

(Spencer in bold, Lori in regular text.)

Lori, where are you from?
I am from Salisbury, New Brunswick, Canada.

What brought you to Briercrest the first time?
In Junior High I was working at camp for many, many summers and I was trying to make decisions about my life. There was this certain group of people at camp that were doing things with their lives, and going places, and building 40 foot climbing walls for Costa Rica that could dismount into two canoes and they would take them down the river. Those were the people that I wanted to be like. They were very different; they had a different work ethic and they were all great people and they all went to Briercrest!
When making decisions about life after high school, I really wanted to go to this place called Briercrest in the middle of Saskatchewan. At this point, I hadn't left the Maritimes, I had never been on a plane or been to the States. I ended up not doing anything and kind of leaving Briercrest on the back of my mind. I nannied in Moncton and then worked overseas for a missions organization, and at that point I thought I would stay overseas because I loved what I was doing, but the organization that I was with told me that I had to have a BA in order to pursue this as a career, so I put in my application to Briercrest. I figured if I could go all the way to Portugal and serve there, I could go all the way to Briercrest.

That's so awesome, when did you get to Briercrest?
I got here the in the fall of 2007.

You graduated from here too! When was that?
I graduated in 2012, so I took an "extended BA".

Nothing wrong with that. Trust me.
I had a couple of minors too, and was working and serving in Hillson as well. Kind of stretched things out in order to get that experience.

That's great. What did you graduate with?
Humanities with an emphasis on history (so don't get me started on Canadian history or I won't be able to stop) and minors in Biblical studies and Psychology.

What are you most excited for in this new role?
I served as an RA in Hillson for two years and I loved the team approach to serving the community of Hillson. It is a high school girls dorm, but we have college students living in there and serving, sharing their lives with these girls. We also have four RAs and a chaplain and a Residence Coordinator that oversees the livers... Being able to work in that type of context where everybody is exercising their leadership abilities no matter what stage of life they're at...Being able to take people from where they start and being able to stretch them into leadership and take them some place different is really fun.

What is your vision for your Hillson this year?
I think that we are going to have the privilege of being able to get to know each other really well. For girls that are entering the high school dorm, its definitely a new experience so I want them to get to know each other really, really well. With that, I hope that we're able to encourage one another to live lives of service in the daily things. To not think about life as being something that we're striving towards, the life that we're looking for as being "out there" but that we can live that life right here in our own context; that we can practice it in our Hillson house and love one another really well.

No relation to the last question, what's your favourite movie?
Oh man... Well, there's this little movie called Flipped that, if people haven't seen it, I make them watch it because its really, really good.

Cute. What's the best part about dorm life at Briercrest?
I think the best part of dorm life is that you can't get away from it. That sounds like the worst part, but its actually the best! There is always somebody there. You're not really ever alone, and that's a good thing. You can pick your nose, and you can pick your...something....but you can't pick who you're in the dorm with. You get to know people really well.

That may be the best way I've ever heard that saying said.
Well, what's the second part?

You can pick your nose, you can pick your friend's nose, but you can't pick your friends? Is that it?
Something like that.

If you had 10,000$ to spend on yourself, what would you do with it?
What would I do with it? Why is that question so hard? What did Josh say?

Josh said he'd go to Switzerland.
*Josh walks in*
Josh Richert: I'm changing my answer. Switzerland, or Ireland, or Scotland. Or maybe all three.

Hahaha great to hear from you, Josh. Back to Lori.
I'd fill my freezer full of Häagen-Dazs and have all my friends over.

That's a wonderful answer. Are you a dog or a cat person?
Pssh! Neither.

You don't like animals?!
I like baby animals! I like kitties and puppies.

Wow, great answer. What's the craziest thing you did as a student?
One semester, I almost completely lived off of Arizona Green Tea, Spitz and cucumbers. It was a well balanced diet, I had protein, vegetables and liquid. Many, many, many meals.

That is seriously amazing. Well done. What's the best part about your job?
Well, I've been doing it for about a week... I think the best part will be enabling people to do things that they didn't think they could do.

What's the sport you're worst at?
It really depends on who you ask... I was really bad at Ultimate Frisbee, but my friends were very kind and let me play anyways. I'm really bad.