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The Faculty of Science celebrates its generous donors
In November this year, around 400 people gathered at the McGill Faculty Club for the Faculty of Science’s annual scholarship reception. The evening’s celebration was an opportunity for donors to the Faculty to meet the students who have benefitted from their generous support.
Confidence-building opportunities
Addressing the guests, Joëlle Begin Miolan, recipient of a McGill Alumni & Friends Undergraduate Research Award, described the opportunity to do research as a defining moment for her self-belief as an undergraduate physics student.
“Looking back three years ago, I didn’t know where I was going to go with physics because I didn’t think I was smart enough, or I wasn’t going to be good at doing research,” Ms. Begin Miolan said.
“So it was really lovely to have this funded opportunity to participate in a research group and talk to postdocs and graduate students, and do some research, and actually find that I did pretty well.”
Bruce Lennox, Dean of the Faculty of Science, emphasized that this kind of transformation was one of the indirect consequences of philanthropic support for McGill.
“One of the great aspects of being in a university is it gives you an environment of trying things with no risk. Some things don't work out; some things work out incredibly well. But that's what you call experience,” Dean Lennox said.
“It’s one of the safest places in our whole society, to try things, test yourself, develop that confidence that you can learn anything – not just learn physics or math – but you can structurally learn anything.”
Helping the best and brightest
Opening the way to university for the best and brightest students is a philosophy that drives Bob Wares’s (BSc’79, DSc’12) philanthropic support for McGill. A leading light of the Canadian mining industry, Dr. Wares’s 30-year record of donating to McGill last year culminated in a $5-million gift to support a range of activities in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, as well as innovative research projects across the Faculty of Science.
Speaking at the scholarship reception, Dr. Wares said: “With respect to encouraging students through scholarships and bursaries, McGill is the most generous university in the country – and that's a tremendous asset.
“I think it reflects the philosophy that the best and the brightest deserve the best education and that should not be constrained or negated by financial needs.”
Reflecting fondly on his days as an undergraduate, during which he composed his thesis on an IBM Selectric typewriter, Dr. Wares spoke of the enduring value of a McGill education in a world of rapid technological change.
Recipients inspired to give
Wares was joined on the night by fellow alumnus Gary McKeever (PhD’79), who shared his first, bittersweet experience of the generosity of McGill donors. In 1969, just six months after Dr. McKeever had arrived at McGill to begin his doctoral studies in economics, the University drew on donated funds to cover his fare home to Dublin to attend his mother’s funeral.
Dr. McKeever also spoke of his friend, the late Vernon Alcock (BSc’67), who grew up in Central Butte, Saskatchewan. After studying science at McGill on a McConnell Scholarship, Mr. Alcock went on to a successful 40-year career with IBM.
In 2011, the Alcock family, with assistance from the McConnell Foundation and IBM, established the Vernon Alcock Memorial Best-In-The-West Scholarships and Bursaries to support outstanding undergraduate students in the Faculty of Science from the western provinces, especially those from Mr. Alcock’s native Saskatchewan.
As Dr. McKeever put it: “Vern never lost touch with his prairie roots.”