Hanah Howlett McFarlane

Warsaw, Ontario
Anthropology

“Although academics are emphasized, I think they actually make up a fairly insignificant part of an education when you factor in extra-curricular activities (both on campus and in your community), friendships and the amazing learning opportunities that exist outside the classroom,” Hanah Howlett McFarlane, an Anthropology graduate, says about her Trent experience.

Citing invaluable opportunities like working with the Seasoned Spoon, an on-campus organic café and on projects with the Trent Centre for Community-Based Education (TCCBE), Hanah says hands-on and real experience made her time at Trent even more impactful.

“I feel fortunate to have been able to learn such different things,” she says. “I enjoyed approaching university with a critical eye, trying to get the most out of my time here and taking the parts that have really worked for me, tucking them away in my brain for later use.”

Hanah transferred to Trent from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music in 2007 to begin a Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology degree. She was looking for a more intimate learning environment and found it here at Trent. “My passions are music, food, family and friends,” she says.

“My ultimate dream is actually quite simple,” she says. “I would like to be able to find a place for my partner and me to raise a family while also growing the majority of our own food.” She plans to eventually take over part of her family’s farm in Warsaw, Ontario, just north of Trent. “Part of this plan hopefully includes opening a public alternative school where agriculture and healthy food are a key component of curriculum.”

To help her achieve these goals, Hanah will apply some of the knowledge she gained at Trent, both in her courses and through her two TCCBE projects – researching ways to make the Seasoned Spoon more accessible to a wider Trent community and eventually realizing the Spoon’s move to the Senior Common Room at Champlain College, and working with the City of Peterborough, researching community gardens.

“These research opportunities have shown me how rewarding something as simple as growing your own food can be,” she says.