Free apple cider certainly didn’t hurt, but there wasn’t much arm-twisting required today when Waterloo Engineering invited students to thank all the people who donate money to enhance their educations.
A steady stream of students took a few minutes out in the foyer of Carl Pollock Hall to write personal thank-you cards or pose with messages on white boards for photographs to be shared on social media.
Laurier Mantel, a second-year systems design engineering student, said he genuinely appreciates the encouragement and “incredible opportunities” he has received since picking Waterloo over another university.
'Cheesy
but
true'
“I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I didn’t have that,” he said. “It sounds cheesy, but it’s true.”
Organizers of the inaugural Thank You Day hoped to collect about 300 handwritten cards, enough to send one to each of the first-time donors the faculty typically has every year.
The second goal of the low-key, two-hour event was creating awareness among students that donations, mostly from alumni, cover about one-third of the cost of an education at Waterloo Engineering. Since its founding almost 60 years ago, private contributions have topped $197 million.
“I think that’s the most important part of this,” said Adelle Vickery, president of the student-led Engineering Society. “It’s great to thank donors, but first we have to realize what they’re actually doing for us.”
'We've been managing'
Maria Rojas and Victoria Bodnitski, friends in their first year of the chemical engineering program, said they’ve already taken advantage of counselling and extra tutorial programs as they adjust to the challenging workload.
“It’s been very stressful, but we’ve been managing thanks to all the resources that are available to us,” said Bodnitski.
Chris Hajduk, who is in his fourth year of nanotechnology engineering, said he has seen the difference donations make as an active member of a student design team that builds and flies drones.
'Goes beyond classes'
“It goes beyond classes,” he said. “It’s the extracurriculars, the ability to go into a classroom and have all this equipment available to you.”
Nenone Donaldson, associate director of development and alumni affairs for Waterloo Engineering, said the plan is to gain momentum by holding the event every year.
“The whole point is to start to build a culture of philanthropy,” she said. “If we tell students about the importance of donors, hopefully they’ll already know when they’re alumni.”