Have you met Matt, the Intramural Sports Program Coordinator with Campus & Community Recreation? Spend the next 2 minutes getting to know him a little better.
Where is your favorite place on campus?
I really love the main quad, especially in winter when it's all done up, and you get to walk through it at night (so like, 4:30 p.m.). It's a really beautiful space.
Tablet or paper?
I try to go paper free, but I can't write on a tablet to save my life.
Name one thing you've brought to work from home.
My running shoes. You never know when you're going to need to run around.
What is the one thing you can't live without?
A bike ride to work - at least, in the summer. It's the best way to start and end the day.
If you won airfare to anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Australia. I really would love to see the coral reefs, as long as they exist - and that won't be forever. But also, getting the most bang for your buck: Australia is an expensive flight.
You can invite anyone - alive or dead, real or fictional - to dinner. Who would it be?
This is a pretty nerdy answer, but I would invite Alex Anthopoulos, who's the former GM of the Blue Jays. I'm a huge Blue Jays fan, and I would want to pick his brain.
If you could switch jobs with someone else on campus for a week, what would you do?
I used to be a camp councillor, and it was the most fun I ever had for money. If I couldn't do my current job, I'd want to do that again. Playing games for money is a really good way to live.
What does "uplifting the whole people" mean to you?
To me, it means making sure that the people who get marginalized in society experience the same quality of programs and services as the people who get centered in society. In sport and recreation, it's really easy to provide service to people who are centered - but the people who are outside that center deserve at least as much of our service as those inside the center. Uplifting the whole people means paying attention outside that center.
If you could solve any problem in the world, what would it be?
Wide-spread, emissions-free energy. There are a lot of problems that need solving, but until we figure that out, the future is kind of dark (pun moderately intended).
What 3 words best describe your U of A experience?
Exciting, empowering, and…. humbling. There's a lot of good work that goes on around campus. You need to work hard to keep up.
Matt has worked in Campus & Community Recreation as the Intramural Sports Program Coordinator since 2014. He leads a team of student staff to deliver recreational sport leagues for more than 5,000 participants per year. Before holding what he calls the "most fun job on campus," Matt worked in public health research, summer camp programming, and music education.