Snippets

Find out what other alumni from our year are up to. If you would like your snippet included in the next issue email us.

Find out what other alumni from our year are up to.

Letter from the President of the Alumni Association

Graduation Year: fall2019

Welcome to the Fall issue of your alumni magazine. It’s been a busy time since our last issue with lots of planning for summer activities like our annual Golf Tournament and Homecoming weekend in the fall.

We also had our Annual General Meeting in September and I am once again your President for the upcoming year. I am honoured to serve our more than 51,000 alumni around the world. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our outgoing Council volunteers for their service and welcome our newest members.

In this issue of our magazine, you’ll hear more about our newly opened arena, the Dauphinee Centre. Our Homecoming this year was an opportunity to welcome back over 250 hockey Huskies from both the men’s and women’s teams. We also celebrated our very first women’s hockey coach Lisa Haley and the men’s AUS Championship team from 2001–02, along with football player Noah Cantor BA’94 with their induction into Sport Hall of Fame. I encourage everyone to get themselves to a hockey game back on campus in the new rink. It’s a beautiful space for our varsity and club teams to enjoy along with members of the community.

You’ll also learn about faculty members winning awards in writing, you’ll find out what’s happening at the university’s Entrepreneurship Centre, and discover great programs from all over campus for our students and alumni. We were fortunate to have MasterChef Canada winner and Atlantic Canada Studies alum Jennifer Crawford back on campus for a visit after their big win. You can read about their experience in this issue as well.

I hope you enjoy reading up on the activities and stories of our alumni. If you have a story to tell, please let us know and don’t forget to follow us on social media.

Letter from the President of Saint Mary’s University

Graduation Year: fall2019

One of the best parts of my role as President is welcoming alumni to Homecoming each year and seeing how Santamarian values have shaped lives and careers.  Homecoming 2019 was very successful: over 1,200 alumni attended 25 events over five days on campus, from BBQs to game-day openers and skating parties. In this issue of Maroon & White you will meet some of the individuals and classes who came back to campus and shared their stories with us. 

One highlight was watching members of former men’s and women’s hockey teams tour the new Dauphinee Centre where the ice is freshly set and the paint barely dry. It is very fitting that some of the first people to walk through the dressing rooms in the new Centre were the athletes who played such noteworthy roles in varsity sports years and decades ago. I invite you to read their stories, and also to learn about the Dauphinee Centre and the people behind it, people whose personal commitment to this university is changing lives and helping shape future generations. 

While Homecoming is about looking back and remembering, there is also a strong sense of forward momentum at Saint Mary’s. Indeed, the future is here! The university is creating the next generation of leaders and innovators and nowhere is that more evident than in the Saint Mary’s Entrepreneurship Centre. At Saint Mary’s, entrepreneurship is for everyone, and we are making sure our rich internship and experiential learning opportunities are attracting students from all disciplines. See how our Entrepreneur in Residence, Gregg Curwin BComm’90, inspires and coaches our students.  

Along with faculty and staff, I will be visiting alumni at forthcoming events in Toronto, Ottawa and beyond so please watch the Alumni e-newsletter and website to track where we will be next. It's so interesting to meet alumni from across the country who are doing amazing things. I learn so much from meeting you and hearing how Saint Mary’s shaped your careers and inspired you to contribute to the community, the region, and the world.

Saint Mary’s University is in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the original Mi’kmaq People. We are all treaty people

Allan Reid, BA’14

Graduation Year: fall2019

After receiving his BA, Allan went on to complete a Bachelor of Education at Memorial University in 2015. In 2016, he moved to Natuashish, Newfoundland and Labrador, where he taught high school Physical Education for three years. Three of Allan’s Natuashish students were members of the winning Team Newfoundland and Labrador volleyball squad at the Atlantic Indigenous Games held in July 2019 at Saint Mary’s University. For their former teacher, being back at Saint Mary’s for this proud moment was like life coming full circle.

Steve Foran, DipENG’84 MBA’07

Graduation Year: fall2019

Congratulations to Steve Foran, SMU alumnus and former faculty member of the Sobey School of Business, for receiving one of Canada's Trusted Advisor Awards from MacKay CEO Forums. This award recognizes the significant contribution that CEO Trusted Advisors make, in the leadership field, to the success of the Canadian business community. Steve is also the creator and CEO of Gratitude at Work and StatusGRO, programs that help business leaders and their teams bring more gratitude to work each day.

Alana Green, BComm’07

Graduation Year: fall2019

Alana joins McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management in the position of Masters Recruitment Officer. In this position Alana will be travelling within Canada and across the globe to find top talent for McGill’s MBA and Master of Management programs. Alana began her career in higher education as a Global Recruitment Officer at the University for the Creative Arts in the UK. Since returning to Canada three years ago, she has served in the role of International Recruitment and Admissions Officer at Mount Allison University. Alana is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration and Leadership at Royal Roads University.

Kelly Thompson, CertHRM’99 BA’07

Graduation Year: fall2019

With over ten years of experience working in real estate property management and administration, Amherst, NS-based Kelly Thompson has chosen to take her career in a new direction by creating her own startup business. That business, GoHire Consulting, assists companies with human resource requirements such as staffing and recruitment, candidate reference checks, and more. GoHire Consulting is a member of CPHR Nova Scotia and can be found on LinkedIn.

Matthew Moore, BComm’05

Graduation Year: fall2019

Halifax native Matthew Moore currently works in the field of marketing, strategy and business development with several Atlantic Canada-based real estate businesses, including Oceanstone Seaside Resort, Premiere Self Storage, Moore Executive Suites and Student Living, and two vacation villas in Barbados.

Matthew recently travelled to Freetown, Sierra Leone where he joined forces with Ben John, executive director of Help2Overcome, an organization that provides clean water and toilet facilities to schools in Africa. For this project, Matthew’s team worked for eight days at FAWE (Forum for African Women Educationalist) school for girls, building a toilet facility using sustainable toilets imported from the Swedish manufacturer EcoLoo. Matthew’s experience at FAWE was an eye-opening experience and made him grateful for the basic living necessities, like running water and flush toilets, that Canadians take for granted. The 700 students at FAWE were similarly grateful for the gift of safe sanitation.

David Grant, BComm’97

Nasuni, a leading provider of cloud file services, recently  announced the appointment of David Grant as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. Grant has extensive senior leadership experience in marketing roles at industry-leading technology companies. In his new position, he will oversee Nasuni’s next stage of growth in the face of unprecedented demand for Nasuni Cloud File Services.   

Alice Walsh, BA’97

Graduation Year: fall2019

Now a resident of Gander, NL, Alice has written fourteen books for children and adults. One of her earlier books, Uncle Farley’s False Teeth, has just been reissued by Nimbus Publishing. Children who read the book when it was first published in 1998 are now reading the same story to their children.

Margaret Ludlow, MA’85

Graduation Year: fall2019

Margaret (Peggy) Rupcich-Ludlow BA’62 (USask), BEd’69 (USask), MEd’84 (Dal), MA’85 (SMU) of Dartmouth, NS, was the 2019 recipient of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation’s International Program Volunteer Recognition Award.  This award is presented to an outstanding individual for significant voluntary contributions to the development cooperative work of CTF-FCE and one or more of its partner organizations.  Some of Margaret’s volunteer teaching assignments have been in Tanzania, St. Kitts, Nepal, Malawi, Liberia, Jordan, and Ghana.