Helping engineering's brightest minds achieve their goals and change the world
Giving Tuesday – this year on November 30 – is one of Waterloo Engineering’s favourite days of the year because it provides a great opportunity to give back to our students, the campus and causes we care about.
Each year, we challenge ourselves and each other to “put our money where our hearts are” by pledging financial support.
Last year, the new Engineering Equity Fund topped our donors’ list of preferred causes with 130 contributing to it.
One of those contributors, alumnus Rakesh Malhotra, significantly boosted the fund designed to increase representation, participation, and inclusion of underrepresented groups in Waterloo Engineering with a generous gift that helped inspire others to give as well.
Here’s why he gave. What will your reason be to donate on Giving Tuesday?
Gratitude comes in many forms and for Rakesh Malhotra (BASc ’99, computer engineering) giving $25k to the Engineering Equity Fund is one of them.
As a co-founder of three-year-old digital platform company Nuvalence, Malhotra believes that the success he and other Waterloo Engineering alumni have experienced is inextricably tied to time spent at Waterloo Engineering.
“Many Waterloo alumni have had success and we owe a lot of that to Waterloo Engineering,” he says. “We want to provide opportunities to the next
batch of students and keep reinvesting in the school.”
As a Canadian, Malhotra says he was proud to receive “a great education at one of the preeminent universities on the planet” without it requiring that he or his parents ended up with “a ridiculous amount of debt.”
Rakesh Malhotra, co-founder of Nuvalence
He recalls that while his co-op work terms in the late 1990s paid enough to cover costs including tuition, which was then about $2,400, current tuition and living expenses have outpaced most co-op earnings.
“Today, things are much more expensive and the pandemic has affected many families financially,” he says. “We want to make sure that a Waterloo Engineering education remains affordable to people who want to work hard and are motivated but do not have the financial means.”
For Malhotra, donating to the Engineering Equity Fund will ensure that more students from historically underrepresented communities, including women, Indigenous and Black students, access new scholarships and bursaries to help with the current $17,000 annual tuition fee.
He keeps in touch with many of his former classmates who feel it is meaningful to them as well to give back to Waterloo Engineering.
“Supporting the Engineering Equity Fund is about the students, says Malhotra. “Money should not be a barrier to entry or success.”
