On November 29th, after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the University of Waterloo and the Faculty of Environment, are celebrating GivingTuesday─ a global day of philanthropy unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.
The world’s largest generosity movement, each year, thousands of Waterloo community members choose to support students across campus and share the power of their generosity with other organizations they care about.
This year for GivingTuesday, the Faculty of Environment is launching a fundraising challenge to support undergraduate student entrance scholarships for each of the schools and departments. “This really is an opportunity to engage more of our community members in giving back and supporting future environment students,” says Maryam Latifpoor-Keparoutis, Director, Advancement at the Faculty of Environment.
In the spirit of Environment’s community of care and working together towards positive impact; several incredible faculty and alumni champions from each department and school have stepped up to provide exciting incentives to support students.
Learn about our Giving Tuesday champions and their challenges in support of entrance scholarships.
Each of our “Challenge Champions” has risen to the challenge for different reasons. Like many of us, Professor and Director of SEED, Neil Craik, “[has] a great sense of pride in the tight-knit community of care that we have”. For others, like Steve Krysak, BES, SERS ‘2014, “Entrance scholarships supported me when I came to Waterloo”, and this has become an opportunity to pay it forward to the next generation of undergraduates.
In a world facing great challenges and changes, Derek Armitage, Professor and Associate Director, Graduate Studies, SERS, PhD ’02 believes that “our students are the future” and that a little extra support at the beginning of their undergraduate journey can go a long way in terms of encouraging them as they become “committed to a more just and equitable world, take a global perspective, and will advance the creative ideas needed to address the sustainability issues facing society”.
For Susan Elliott, Professor and University Research Chair and Chair, Dept. of Geography and Environmental Management, being a university professor is about committing to creating global citizens, “supporting undergraduate entrance scholarships is an important way I can help celebrate students entering the department”.
The Faculty of Environment is an excellent place for building global citizens that are well-equipped to tackle wicked problems. As Mark Seasons, Professor and Associate Director, School of Planning, PhD ’89 notes, “We’ll need people with the right combination of attitude, knowledge and skills to deal with these challenges. I’m so pleased to offer this support for students who share our commitment to making a difference – to making things better.”
Interested in supporting Environment’s future talent? Visit the Faculty of Environment GivingTuesday page to make a gift in support of undergraduate students and learn about the schools and departmental challenges.