For over 60 years, with each Founders’ Day celebration, Renison staff, faculty, students, alumni, donors and other community members come together to honour our core values and the work that we do to promote them. This annual celebration includes formally recognizing individuals who live these values and help to advance them each and every day. To become a Renison Honouree is to be welcomed into a select company of founders of positive change.
We invite you to celebrate Founders’ Day with us, not only for what we have accomplished, but for what we have yet to imagine.
About Founders' Day
On January 14, 1959, Renison College received its official Charter, marking the birth of what we now know as Renison University College, affiliated with the University of Waterloo. The Charter equipped Renison, a brand-new liberal arts college, “with the power to offer courses and conduct research in any subject area, hold property and receive gifts, operate a residence, establish scholarships and endowments, and affiliate or federate with any school, college or university”.
Originally located in a small, two-story house at 193 Albert Street, Waterloo, it was not long before plans were made to build a more permanent and spacious structure on the edge of the Waterloo campus, the site of today’s Founders’ Building.
Ground-breaking took place in December 1961 and, by 1968, Renison was offering courses in social work and Chinese language and culture. Six years later, Social Development Studies and Community Education programming were firmly in place. Within two decades of Renison receiving its Charter to teach and conduct research, the courses and programs that are foundational to Renison were in place.
While the concrete foundation that was poured back in 1961, and the elemental courses and programs that grew into the comprehensive collection of degree and continuing education offerings that are available today, are both worth marking and celebrating each year, what we are really celebrating is the vision and dream for the future that was put into motion on that day.
Adopting the motto sed coelum solum, Latin for One Sky Over All, Renison’s founders signalled from the College’s very inception the values that would serve to shape all that we do: Respect, Compassion and Equity. We believe deeply in contributing to a world in which social justice, diversity and equity are not aspirations, but realities.
You're Invited!
Turning Hope into Action - Renison 2022 Founders' Day Celebrations
When: April 28, 2022 at 7:00 ET
Where: Online
What to expect when you register
When you register for the Founder's Day event, you will receive confirmation and a note that we will send out the Zoom event link the morning of April 28.
In your inbox, you receive 3 emails from Kambeo, the application being used to manage our event. These may get diverted to your spam or junk folder, please check there if you don't see them within 15 minutes after registering.
- Purchase receipt (pdf): This confirms the details of your registration.
- Ticket (pdf): This contains a QR code for entry, but as it is a virtual event, you can disregard this email.
- Finishing up email: In order to bid in the auction, you are required to set-up a free Kambeo account. This email will take you through the steps to finalize your account so you can participate. If you do not wish to participate in the auction, you do not need to complete this step.
If you have any questions about registration, please contact us at renison.alumni@uwaterloo.ca.
Keynote Speaker: Cornelia (Nel) Wieman, MSc, MD, FRCPC
Dr. Nel Wieman is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) in British Columbia. She is Anishinaabe (Little Grand Rapids First Nation, Manitoba) and lives, works and plays on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples – the səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. Dr. Wieman has served as the President of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada (IPAC) since 2016.
Dr. Wieman completed her medical degree and psychiatry specialty training at McMaster University. Canada's first female Indigenous psychiatrist, Dr. Wieman has more than 20 years' clinical experience, working with Indigenous people in both rural/reserve and urban settings. Her previous activities include co-directing an Indigenous health research program in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto and the National Network for Indigenous Mental Health Research, being Deputy Chair of Health Canada's Research Ethics Board, and serving on CIHR's Governing Council. She has also worked and taught in many academic settings, has chaired national advisory groups within First Nations Inuit Health Branch - Health Canada, and has served as a Director on many boards, including the Indspire Foundation and Pacific Blue Cross. She sits on the Executive Committee of the National Consortium on Indigenous Medical Education (NCIME). She has been appointed to the BC Provincial Task Team charged with ensuring implementation of the recommendations arising from the “In Plain Sight” report.
Dr. Wieman holds faculty appointments at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia and McMaster University.
Online Auction
As part of this year's celebrations, we have gathered a variety of auction items that will be available for bid online. The auction goes live on April 7, The details and a link for access will be sent out by email. If you want to update your email, or check if we have it, please send us a note at renison.alumni@uwaterloo.ca.
There is something for everyone, including:
- Family Pass to the Waterloo Region Museum
- Tickets and a backstage sneak peek at an upcoming KW Symphony performance
- Gift basket from Wellington Brewery
- Signed pointe shoes from the National Ballet
- ...and more!
All funds raised from this event will go to support the Students First campaign. For details, visit renison.ca/students-first.
