Campus to Community: Sharing stories from our ongoing connections
St. Francis Xavier University doesn't stop at the edge of campus. Campus to Community is an ongoing series highlighting the deep ties between StFX and the communities it serves. We’re shining a light on these relationships--from research labs and global outreach, to service and shared purpose--and how they help shape and strengthen both. To see the full series, please see HERE.
X-Project: Celebrating 60 years of changing lives, investing in generations of young people
Growing up in Upper Big Tracadie, N.S. in the 1980s and ’90s, Sherry Desmond remembers waiting for the little blue bus to arrive.
The bus, for years a distinctive symbol of X-Project—the StFX student society marking its 60th anniversary this year—meant adventure and learning. StFX students spilled from it and into African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaq communities in northeastern Nova Scotia, ready to spend the evening tutoring, mentoring, playing games and creating opportunities for young people to learn, lead, and have fun. There were community outings too, skating parties, Christmas celebrations and summer camps.
“Looking back, I realize that X-Project was about so much more than activities. It gave us a sense of belonging, exposed us to new opportunities, and reminded us that there were people who genuinely cared about our growth and future,” says Ms. Desmond, now the coordinator of the Travellers Hostel Toronto Shelter.
The founding tenet of X-Project was to ask what the community-identified needs are and then help.
This care and community have been at the heart of X-Project for 60 years.
The society started with a primary goal of responding to community-identified needs and of bringing education and opportunity to African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw communities neighbouring the university. Through the years—and generations—it has built relationships while creating opportunities for learning, recreation, mentorship, and leadership.
Instead of a blue bus, students today travel via Antigonish Community Transit, travelling weekly through the school year to Paq’tnkek First Nation, Pictou Landing First Nation, and the African Nova Scotian community in Antigonish. Broader programming through camps, community events and other activities reaches further afield into a wider geographic area, into communities such as Upper Big Tracadie, Lincolnville, and Sunnyville.
Funding from the Windsor Foundation and the Jeannine Deveau Fund has allowed for three paid employees and opportunities to offer more special events in the off-season. In partnership with local community organizations, X-Project has hosted cooking evenings to teach kids how to make healthy meals, and swimming and skating events to promote active healthy lifestyles.
SEEDS OF CONFIDENCE, HOPE, AND SERVICE
Jennifer Desmond, vice-principal at St. Andrew Junior School, says X-Project helped shape her childhood and instilled in her the importance of education, mentorship, and community.
“X-Project planted seeds of confidence, hope, and service that continue to guide me today,” says Ms. Desmond. “As a little girl, I looked forward to the Saturday programs and the evening night classes. The tutors became like family, encouraging us, believing in us, and making us feel like we mattered.”
One person who left a lasting impression was the late Joan Dillon. The longtime X-Project leader loved and cared for every child and made all feel seen and valued, Ms. Desmond says.
The society’s impact spans generations. Ms. Desmond’s daughter, Jada Desmond ’25, is the current X-Project Coordinator. Jada notes X-Project helped her discover strengths and showed her the importance of creating opportunities for others.
“X-Project gave me a space to learn, grow, build confidence, develop leadership skills, and connect with my community,” she says. “I understand firsthand how important it is for young people to have someone who believes in them, encourages them, and gives them opportunities to see what they are capable of.”
Her grandmother, Shirley Desmond, a community elder in Upper Big Tracadie, says X-Project was not only about education but also broadening perspectives, and meeting people from around the world.
WHOLE CAREER SHAPED BY STUDENT EXPERIENCE
Volunteers have felt the impact too. StFX education faculty Dr. Lisa Lunney Borden signed up as a student volunteer in 1989. “My whole career, my whole life was shaped by that night,” she says.
“I’m in the job I’m in because of X-Project,” says Dr. Lunney Borden, who holds the John Jerome Paul Chair for Equity in Mathematics Education at StFX and works to improve outcomes in mathematics for Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian youth. Prior to coming to StFX, she had a teaching career in We’koqma’q First Nation where she spent 10 years as a secondary mathematics teacher, a vice-principal and principal, as well as the provincial mathematics leader for all Mi’kmaw Kina’matnewey schools in Nova Scotia.
Fellow StFX graduate Ellis Pickersgill says X-Project taught her more about community, joy, and connection than any other experience she’s had. “More than a volunteer experience, more than a job, my time at X-Project shaped my values, my skills and my life path towards lifelong youth and community work,” says Ms. Pickersgill, who served as a student volunteer and later the program coordinator.
“ARE YOU INTERESTED IN HELPING TUTOR?”
X-Project all began with a note.
Joe Webb, a 1965 StFX BA graduate, was intending to pursue his education degree when he was recruited to become principal at the Lincolnville School, then a segregated school. He soon realized that many of the parents hadn’t had opportunity to study beyond Grade 6 and students needed homework help. He recruited a friend still at StFX to put a notice at the dining hall. It read, “Are you interested in helping tutor students from nearby communities?”
“Please understand that no one wanted to go there in those days and the community was looked upon as a problem area. There were at least 31 organizations travelling to Lincolnville, Upper Big Tracadie and Sunnyville all with a solution for the ‘Lincolnville problem.’ At that time, no Black people lived within the Antigonish town limits. You could not be Black and get supper at many restaurants,” Mr. Webb recalled in an interview in The Xaverian Weekly.
The founding tenet of X-Project was to ask what the community-identified needs are and then help.
When it came time to name the society, they picked X-Project “because no one would even know what it was other than those who joined and there would be nothing to gain except possibly a good feeling that accompanies a good deed,” Mr. Webb said in that interview.
At that same time, Joan Dillon and friends were also travelling to Lincolnville to teach pottery. The two groups needed transportation so started sharing rides. They quickly began sharing ideas and soon Ms. Dillon became an indispensable part of X-Project.
From the start, they discovered that the StFX students working with the young people in community were getting as much from the young people as they were giving.
“There’s lots of opportunities to build things together,” says Dr. Lunney Borden, the society’s long time faculty mentor. “That’s always been our mandate, to respond to what the community needs.”
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