Congratulations to Mack Irwin, one of our two Madeline Korfman Memorial Scholarship recipients!
As noted by his nominator: “His passion and joy for teaching was evident in our co-planning and co-teaching in-situ experiences. Mack is extraordinarily kind, hard-working, and humble. He is open to new ideas and always keen to learn more. He worked collaboratively with his teaching team, bringing a positive energy that was described by his team as contagious.”
For Mack, the recognition is really about the cohort.
“I feel really honoured to be recognized,” he says. “There’s so much love for teaching in that room, I think there are 130 people who could get the award and be completely deserving. I’m constantly learning things from my peers.”
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Mack Irwin, BEd ’27, has spent much of the last decade chasing a variety of pursuits while living in Scotland, Whistler, and New Zealand — including ski instructor, restaurant work, and careers as both a brewer and a distiller, before settling in Kelowna and beginning his journey toward teaching.
“All of those opportunities have really left me with different things,” Mack says, “I think they do make a part of who I am, and there are things from all of those experiences that I can really connect to as an educator.”
Reflecting on his own childhood school experiences, Mack says that some of his strongest memories come from sports and outdoor education programs.
“That’s where I learned to love being in the outdoors and appreciate the place we live, the ground under our feet, the plants and animals around us.”
It’s a passion that he hopes to continue to share with his future classes — and one that he has already begun to share during his practicum experience. During his field experience at KLO Middle School, Mack picked up mountain bike coaching, and spent time working with the school’s student-run hydroponic growing facility — a custom-built shipping container that students manage from planting through harvest and distribution.
“I tried to spend an hour a day in the farm, as they call it,” he says. “It was a real eye-opener for me in terms of educational structures and curriculum where you can make some really big experiences.”
One of the most meaningful parts of the program, Mack notes, has been its deliberate, sustained focus on Indigenous pedagogies and Syilx ways of knowing and being, including opportunities to learn directly from Elders.
“The exposure we have to Syilx ways of knowing and being has been really rich. I think there’s just been such a focus from every single step of this journey on helping us become teachers who can teach in a way that honours truth and reconciliation,” he says. “Over the course of the program, my comfort, my familiarity, and my confidence as an educator who wants to teach in ways that empower Indigenous peoples and ways of being here has grown. I think that’s a real strength of this program.”
For incoming teacher candidates, Mack’s advice is simple: stay open-minded.
“You’re going to do lots of art activities, you’re going to be asked to be part of things that might make you feel a little shy,” he says. “But by being open to these, you deepen your experience so much.”
Mack points to one assignment in particular where he allowed himself to be more open. Rather than writing a traditional research essay for a course, he mapped out his learning journey as a drawing instead, and came away with insights a written essay wouldn’t have offered.
“This program is a really fun launch pad for all sorts of personal interests and things you might want to learn more about,” he says. “It’s a great opportunity to try something you’re interested in or are wondering about in a safe environment.”
About the Madeline Betty Korfman Scholarship
This scholarship has been endowed through a bequest by Madeline Betty Korfman to honour her love for teaching. Madeline Korfman taught school in southwestern Saskatchewan before relocating to the Okanagan in the mid-1900s. This scholarship is awarded to two teacher candidates who significantly demonstrate a “love for teaching” based on the recommendation of Okanagan School of Education faculty.