A humanitarian's heart

To Jack Bennet, the most surprising part of being presented with the 2014 Young Humanitarian Award from the Canadian Red Cross last November is that he was considered at all.

Thankful for the honour, the second-year Dalhousie student can’t help but feel humble about the selection. “The stuff that I do, I don’t do it to get recognition of any sort. Anybody could be doing this. Anybody could be up at [that] podium.”

The Young Humanitarian Award is presented each year to a young Nova Scotian who contributed to and demonstrated positive action towards humanitarianism, often through volunteering, fundraising or by displaying leadership qualities.

The ceremony recognized Jack’s efforts in environmental sustainability dating all the way back to elementary school, when he decided to do something about a persistent neighbourhood rumour regarding contamination in nearby Chocolate Lake. Armed with a canoe, Jack gathered water samples and measured specific variations in the lake, working to prove the water was perfectly safe.

Opening his eyes to the world

But it’s his recent experiences that he holds close, and which put him on the path he is currently taking.

Burnt out from a rigorous IB program at Citadel High, Jack chose to take a so-called “gap year” off from school and travel after graduation. In Mozambique he worked at the Nkwichi eco-lodge and volunteered with the Manda Wilderness Community Trust where he engrossed himself with a network of communities engaging in sustainable development in the region.

His extensive musical background, particularly his time with the Nova Scotia Choral Federation, was put to use as he helped organize a choir festival for 14 villages in the area.

“Nobody spoke English,” he says, “I didn’t speak their native language, so I went around with a translator… and I ran all these choir workshops in each of the villages. It was just so much fun to connect with them through music without having to worry about barriers like language, or colours of our skin, or anything like that. We just got each other by singing to each other.”

Combining interests

These experiences of sustainable volunteerism and his passion for choir are mirrored in his academic work, having subsequently chosen to pursue combined honours in Music and Environment, Sustainability, and Society [ESS] at Dalhousie.

Jack admits to receiving some raised eyebrows over his double major choices, often getting the same question: how do they fit together?

“It’s on two different ends of the spectrum to a lot of people. To me, they’re one and the same.”

The Environmental, Sustainability and Society program at Dal offers students a chance to explore a range of sustainability issues, appealing to students with a variety of interests. Jack strongly identifies with the social aspect of sustainability, so although his majors are under separate departments, it was natural to find the link.

“The value in music is that it connects people,” he says. “Through music you get community-building, and through communities we can reach sustainable models that benefit everyone. And on the other side, music is a reflection of society. With a lot of dying art forms and an understanding of the music from different cultures, it [helps] us to build up our resilience in understanding best practices [for sustainability].”

Together in song

Jack witnessed first hand how the choir festival in Mozambique brought reconciliation through music, aligning the communities for its annual celebration.

“The festival is held on the footsteps of this church, which is bombed out and still has bullet holes from civil war,” he says.

“Now we have 300 singers walking… or taking a boat for a couple of days, just to get to this central location. That’s [a] huge pilgrimage for this area, and people look forward to it every year. People meet people from other villages there; it’s got such a social importance to it.”

Jack is currently conducting two choirs in the city. One is a young-adult choir that began last year, and rehearses at Dal once a week. The other one is through the ‘Don’t be Afraid’ campaign with Scott Jones, with 25-30 participants, with the hope of fostering stronger communities through music.