Headlines/J une 28, 1996 Gov-gen. medal winner finds islands of tolerance for studies Chance and circumstance landed her in Chilliwack, and she chose the University College of the Fraser Valley because it was the nearest post-secondary institution, but history graduate Lori MacIntosh is happy with how things have turned out since her arrival four years ago. While she still fears “waking up stupid”, she has emerged as UCFV’s top academic graduate and winner of the Governor General’s award. Her high grade point average and her involvement in UCFV and community issues helped earn her the award. The Fraser Valley was a big change from Kitsilano, where MacIntosh had lived for several years, working as a purchasing agent. “I came to Chilliwack when my Dad relocated here from New Brunswick after my mother’s death. I started taking courses and had every intention of transferring to UBC after two years, but the History department turned out to be pretty amazing here, so I stayed for my whole degree.” She found the support she received at UCFV worth staying around for. “I received a great deal of support from a lot of people, especially professors Sylvie Murray, Eric Davis, and Moira Gutteridge. As a mature student, I had made a life choice to to be very focused on school — I wasn’t messing around. I was here to be serious, and I got the support I needed.” As she advanced through her program of history studies, MacIntosh began to focus on gay and lesbian history, an area that has not received much attention from traditional historians. She presented an oral history of lesbians in the Fraser Valley at the 1995 Women’s History Network/BC conference, and did her graduating project on gay and lesbian identity formation. Her professors have commended her for her “pathbreaking” work on recovering the voices and experiences of the Fraser Valley lesbian community. MacIntosh says she hasn’t found it overly difficult to pursue such research in the Fraser Valley, which has a reputation for being overwhelmingly right-wing and fundamentalist Christian. “I’m pretty persistent, and I think we create our own ‘islands _ of tolerance’,” she says. “I had lots of support from the History department and my project advisor, and although the Valley is small and traditional and generally right wing, I haven’t found it to be the intolerant place of racism and homophobia that it is often reported to be. This isn’t to argue that the Valley doesn’t have its faults, but racism and homophobia are hardly exclusively local problems.” Some of her other extracurricular activities include sitting on the executive of the Women’s History Network/BC, being the east campus representative on the Student Union, sitting on the - Arts Curriculum committee and the University College Council, being a non-arts member of the Fine Arts Student Association and lobbying for students’ rights to exhibit their work freely, and organizing a local animal rights group. She says that being in a relatively small community and college has allowed her to have more of an impact than she would in the city. Lori Macintosh “If you’re a voice of dissent in the city, you’re one of many, but in a small town or institution you really do have an opportunity to effect change. Also, during the time of transition from college to university college, the student voice is that much more important.” MacIntosh will be one of the first students to graduate with a major in history. Until this year, only extended minors were available. She was one of many students who lobbied to get Arts majors in place. This fall, she will start a one-year interdisciplinary master’s program in social sciences at the University of Chicago. After that, she hopes to stay on for her PhD and then pursue a teaching career or work in a museum or archive. She will continue to focus on the emerging field of gay and lesbian history, and would love to return to teach at UCFV if a Women’s Studies program is ever launched. Her professors point to her as a model of what arts education is about. “When I look at Lori now, I see exactly the kind of person that UCFV should point to with pride: a student who has grown through her own effort and ours into a person with the clear direction, ability, maturity, and stamina to be a creative and constructive leader in society,” says philosophy professor Moira Gutteridge. “Lori is an ideal example of what a traditional arts education was meant to produce: a responsible citizen of the world,” says History department head Eric Davis.