At its annual meeting on Monday, November 10, the Alumni Association of Conestoga College will make two major donations towards the advancement of the College, award 53 Welcome Home Scholarships to Conestoga students who are the children of alumni, name a new President of the Board of Directors and introduce three other new members of the Board.
The two donations will be presented to Conestoga President John Tibbits, in keeping with the Associations mandate of supporting both the efforts of current students and the institutions growth for the new economy.
The first donation of $25,000 will go towards the Early Childhood Education Redevelopment Project. The goal of this project is to establish at Conestoga a Centre for Child, Youth and Family Studies. This initiative involves not only redevelopment of the current ECE space, but also introduction of innovative new technologies and environmental features. The result will be growth in the number and diversity of academic offerings, as well as presentation of workshops and seminars for practitioners and parents in the area of early learning and care.
The second donation of $8,400 is part of a $25,000 commitment towards enhancement of the campus in Waterloo, which is becoming a centre for construction trades education as well as culinary/hospitality career education.
Each of the 53 Welcome Home Scholarships is worth $200. This novel program was started several years ago; the beneficiaries are first-year students who are in full-time programs and whose parents are Conestoga graduates.
Taking on responsibilities as President of the Board of Directors will be Ron Budreau (Business Administration, 1983; Computer Programmer/Analyst, 1984). A business coach for Microsoft Canada, he works directly with partner executive teams in Canada and Europe to facilitate strategic planning, leadership development, sales and marketing.
Three other alumni will join the Board of Directors. Machelle Denison (Business Administration - Marketing, 1982) is co-founder of commercial printing firm Denison Print. Jill Herne (Practical Nursing, 1970; Nursing, 1979; Registered Nurse - Psychiatric Nursing, 1988) is Director of Patient Care and Chief Nursing Officer at Guelphs Homewood Health Centre. Wally Vogel (Electronics Engineering Technology - Computer Systems, 1983) is President and CEO of Purepay Receivables Automation, a market leader in remittance processing.
The annual general meeting on November 10 begins at 7 p.m. in the Blue Room at the Doon campus of Conestoga, in Kitchener.
Contact: Mary Wright, 519-748-5220, ext. 2356, mwright@conestogac.on.ca