Giving Day across campus, Part 3

In part three of this series (check out parts one and two, if you missed them), we continue to make our way across campus to share what the various faculties are bringing to UCalgary Giving Day 2023 — which is coming up this Thursday, April 27 — and talk to a few more of your colleagues who have already made their gifts.

But first . . . have you ever seen an electric car from the 1960s? It’s something you might be seeing more and more down the road (and on the road) thanks to engineers working toward accessible and affordable gas-to-electric conversion kits. Alum Dan Allard, BComm’09, visited the Schulich School of Engineering to check out one such project:

Connect the innovation dots

Haskayne School of Business

This Giving Day, Dr. Bob Schulz is celebrating his 50th anniversary with the Haskayne School of Business — and raising money for the Connecting the Innovation Dots Fund.

Gifts to the fund support hands-on learning that leads to early-stage development of innovation and solutions to local and global challenges. These projects may feature student consulting, competitions, prototypes, and more.

“Your investment will support startup funding, which can facilitate issue clarification and ‘connecting the innovation dots’ to develop proof-of-concept for solutions to known issues that can later be scaled for competitions — and, more importantly, scaled to solve global issues,” says Schulz, PhD, professor of strategy and global management, and business and environment.

“Increasingly, new competitions often involve social enterprises and grand challenges which have both local and global implications.”

The fund may be new, but Schulz himself certainly requires no introduction.

Over the years, Dr. Bob has coached Haskayne student teams to more intercollegiate triumphs than any other school in the world, a run of success that includes 104 national championships and a second-place finish — out of 50,000 global entries — at the UN Assembly contest focusing on helping migrants and refugees. With Schulz’s guidance, a UCalgary group, with students from Haskayne and the Faculty of Science’s Department of Computer Science, won the 2018 Vatican Hackathon in Rome.

“Haskayne MBAs have won the most gold and silver medals in the last 36 Innovation Olympics quarterly global case competitions,” says Schulz. “And the list goes on.”

Increasing queer and trans visibility

Faculty of Social Work

Established last year, the Queer Trans Action Group is working to promote queer and trans visibility and representation at the Faculty of Social Work, advance education on queer and trans issues, integrate more queer and trans content into the curriculum, and collaborate and align its work with the Equity Action Committee and other groups.

Giving Day donations help to support the group’s goals, plus advance its plans to provide faculty members — through workshops and open educational resources — with opportunities to increase their knowledge about queer and trans identities, reflect on their knowledge and assumptions about gender and sexuality, and learn how to ensure members of marginalized groups do not remain responsible for educating others.

Funding also creates a base for developing awards for action group student members and supporting travel to action group meetings.

Already, the group — which is made up of members from across the province — has partnered with the Centre for Sexuality to offer workshops for staff, instructors, and students. These workshops are tailored to each group to give a foundational understanding of sex, gender, pronouns and intersectionality, as well as opportunities to explore the application of this knowledge in practice.

Always free, always welcoming

Libraries and Cultural Resources

The Nickle Galleries Exhibitions and Program Fund supports UCalgary’s dynamic hub for art, culture and history at the heart of the campus. Always free, always welcoming, the space offers exciting exhibitions, fascinating programs, and unique opportunities for hands-on learning and career-building experiences.

Fundraising helps Nickle Galleries create initiatives with lasting impact, develop community partnerships, expand collections, support student interns, promote scholarly discussions, and showcase the work of UCalgary alumni.

“Giving Day donations allow Nickle Galleries to engage, connect and inspire,” says Dr. Michele Hardy, PhD, curator and acting director of Nickle Galleries. “Your Giving Day support has increased opportunities for experiential learning, allowed us to offer insightful new exhibitions, and expand our offerings of accessible and meaningful talks, tours, workshops and other programs.”

Giving Day gifts recently contributed to the purchase of a strong selection of paintings and drawings by nationally acclaimed alumna Marigold Santos, as well as paved the way for visits from internationally recognized speakers in conjunction with events at Nickle Galleries.

The Nickle Galleries opened its signature location on the main floor of the Taylor Family Digital Library in October 2012, providing the more than 13,000 daily users of Libraries and Cultural Resources the opportunity to explore the exhibitions and programs. Nickle Galleries features three spaces highlighting the best of contemporary art in Western Canada.

‘Why I give’

For many of our UCalgary colleagues, a personal connection to the university can inspire philanthropy. Like for Sam Paterson, senior manager of content and social media services with Communications Services:

I'm a staff member, Faculty of Arts alumna and I grew up on this campus (my dad is an emeritus professor) — of course I contribute annually to Giving Day! This year I chose the Faculty of Arts Impact Fund.

For others, they can find inspiration in their day-to-day work, writing about some of the exciting projects and initiatives at UCalgary.

“I gave to the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health after writing a story about its UCalgary Giving Day $30,000 anniversary challenge,” says Mia Sosiak, senior communications specialist with the Cumming School of Medicine. “Some McCaig Institute researchers are exploring whether stem cells can heal joint damage. I come from a long line of bad knees and joint replacements, so I know this research could make a big impact!”

Likewise, Emily Pratt was moved by a legacy gift announced last fall. “Learning about Joan Snyder’s dedication to and incredible impact in women’s athletics and sport science — and working with our amazing Dinos coach Carla MacLeod on one of our Giving Day videos — inspired me to support our women’s hockey team this Giving Day,” says Pratt, associate director of development communications with Principal Giving and Strategic Donor Engagement.