Campus Notes
At Saint Mary’s, we are grateful for our community of generous donors – alumni, faculty and staff, friends, and organizations. Every donor’s reason for giving is different, but all are united by a passion for giving back to the community.
Letter from the President of the Alumni Association
By SMU Alumni |
During the last six months Saint Mary’s has celebrated many academic and athletic achievements. Our Burke-Gaffney Observatory has received accolades for taking space image requests from Twitter users and tweeting back pictures. Dr. Luigi Gallo, an Astronomy and Physics professor, has had a part in the Japanese launch of ASTRO-H, checking out black holes. And our Enactus Team continues to represent…
Triple Bronze Wins
By Suzanne Robicheau |
In athletics news, Saint Mary’s snagged three bronze medals at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Championships in March. The Saint Mary's Women's Hockey Huskies made history for their program by claiming their first ever bronze medal after defeating the No. 1 Guelph Gryphons 3-1 in the bronze medal game of the CIS Women's Hockey Championships on Sunday, March 20th.
The Saint Mary’s…
Forging Intercultural Connections
By Suzanne Robicheau |
As Syrian refugees continue to arrive in Nova Scotia, our Language Centre has stepped up to smooth their transition by offering beginners’ courses in Arabic for members of the campus community as well as the general public.
“Even being able to say hello in someone else’s language can help put them at ease in a difficult situation,” says Zak McLaren, Director of the Language Centre.…
Levelling the Learning Field
By Suzanne Robicheau |
A $2 million gift from the Joyce Foundation in December 2015 will create a legacy of support for students with disabilities and keep Saint Mary’s affordable for all deserving students. A significant portion of this transformative gift is designated for students registered with the Fred Smithers Centre of Support for Students with Disabilities. The remainder goes to support economically disadvantaged…
Connecting Rural Communities
By Suzanne Robicheau |
Rural communities seeking help solving complex social problems like outmigration and unemployment need to look no further than the Change Lab Action Research Institute (CLARI), soon to be up and running in Saint Mary’s University’s Atrium. The CLARI hub was conceived as a way to drive economic development by connecting rural communities and small business with a network of experts and researchers…
Sharing the Wealth
By Suzanne Robicheau |
The non-profit landscape shifted at Saint Mary’s University’s One World Alumni Awards Gala during Homecoming 2015 with a remarkable display of giving by Brigadoon, a non-profit camp facility for children, youth, and families living with a chronic illness, chronic conditions, or special needs. When called upon to receive the top award of $10,000, Brigadoon’s founder David McKeage BComm’91…
Scoring a New Football Coach
By Suzanne Robicheau |
As a collegiate football player and coach, James Colzie III accrued a wealth of experience by taking part in two national championships, six conference titles, and 12 bowl games. As the new head coach of the Saint Mary’s Huskies football program, he’ll put that experience to good use bringing Huskies football back to prominence in the CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport).
Colzie…
Sharing an Evening with Parliament’s Poet Laureate
By Suzanne Robicheau |
Those who attended Saint Mary’s 2016 Cyril Byrne Lecture in March had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear Canada’s newly installed Parliamentary Poet Laureate, Dr. George Elliott Clarke, read from his earliest works.
A talented poet, playwright, and literary critic, Dr. Clarke is an officer of the Order of Nova Scotia and the Order of Canada. He has also received the National…
A Clean Sweep for Saint Mary’s Enactus Team
By Suzanne Robicheau |
“There’s a first time for everything!” That was the reaction of Enactus Saint Mary’s co-president Ali Algermozi on Friday, February 26, when the Enactus Saint Mary’s team made history, going up against 13 Enactus groups from universities in Atlantic Canada to bring home five big wins: first place trophies in all four categories at the Enactus Regional Competition, plus the Woman Leader…
Taking the Stress from the Test
By Suzanne Robicheau |
A collaboration between Saint Mary’s University and Halifax Public Libraries will make the Candian citizenship test far less intimidating for a small group of immigrants.
“The test is tough even for those born in Canada,” says Saint Mary’s alumnus Jonathan Shaw. “Imagine how difficult it is for someone who speaks English as a new and second language.”
As part…
A Gift That Will Grow the Economy
By Suzanne Robicheau |
The Master of Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation (MTEI) program at the Sobey School of Business received some exciting news in October 2015. Alumnus Mike Durland (BComm ’87) announced two gifts totalling $1.5 million. One from Scotiabank – where at the time, Durland was CEO, Global Banking and Markets – and one from Mike and his wife Catherine, also a Saint Mary’s graduate (BComm…
A Stellar Event
By Suzanne Robicheau |
Thanks to an endowed gift from the family of the late Dan Alexander MacLennan, more than 300 astronomers and stargazers crowded into the McNally Theatre Auditorium on October 17th. They were there to hear award-winning astronomer Alex Filippenko share his insights on exploding stars and the expanding universe.
“We were very excited to host the inaugural Dan MacLennan Lecture,”…
Another Star on the Horizon
By Suzanne Robicheau |
Saint Mary's University’s Department of Astronomy and Physics is excited to announce that Nobel Laureate Arthur B. McDonald will be the guest speaker for the second annual Dan MacLennan Lecture on Friday October 21, 2016.
Arthur McDonald, a professor emeritus at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics with Takaaki Kajita of the University…
A Home Away from Home for Indigenous Students
By Suzanne Robicheau |
At a dedication ceremony in early February, Mi’kmaw elder, author, and Saint Mary’s alumnus Dr. Isabelle Knockwood (BA’92; DCL’13) helped the University celebrate the opening of our new Indigenous Student Space. According to Elora Gehue, President of Saint Mary’s Aboriginal Society, this dedicated on-campus location for indigenous students to meet, work, share, and collaborate is “a…
Protecting Wildlife with Fuzzy Forensics
By Suzanne Robicheau |
Dr. Lindsay Carmichael was too excited to write even 140 characters after an awards dinner in the fall of 2015 to announce the winners of last year’s Lane Anderson Award. Her author friends, on the other hand, lost no time tweeting that Carmichael’s book Fuzzy Forensics: DNA Fingerprinting Gets Wild had been named the best science book in Canada in the young readers’ category.
In…