By Maroon & White |
When you receive this issue of the magazine, Saint Mary’s will have welcomed another 1000 graduates into the Saint Mary’s alumni family. As your president, I have the honour of presenting pins and shaking the hands of our newest grads as they walk across the stage of the McNally Theatre Auditorium at convocation. In addition, many of our alumni volunteer to walk in the Honour Guard, donning special robes to lead the graduating Class of 2019 into the auditorium. These are important traditions that we hold dear at Saint Mary’s.
There is much to celebrate in this issue. Many of you will have heard about the largest philanthropic gift in the history of Saint Mary’s from the Sobey family. You can find out all the details of this $18 million re-investment and read about the longstanding involvement of the Sobey family with the university that started over 40 years ago.
On the international front, we are celebrating 20 years of what many at Saint Mary’s say was our first foray into the international education space. In February 1999, a delegation traveled to The Gambia to graduate the first class to study outside of the university as part of the SMU Extension Program. At the time, there was no university in The Gambia. Many of these alumni have gone on to work in government and have become important influencers in the advancement of the country.
We are also excited to profile alumni doing interesting and innovative work, from former hockey player Josh Domingues BComm’13 and Toronto fashion executive Carolyn Quinn BComm’01.
On the research front, there’s more good news. In this issue, learn about alumnus Kyle Awalt BSc’18 who went from software developer to medicinal chemistry PhD candidate, and who’s now on a mission to develop a new heart attack drug.
So many great stories that we want to share with you! It makes me proud to lead our alumni and I hope you feel the same way. Keep up to date with SMU happenings on our social media and on our website, and make sure to make plans to come back for our biggest celebration of the year, Homecoming 2019 (from October 2–6). We’ll be celebrating our Sport Hall of Fame inductees, football player Chris Flynn’s jersey retirement, and the opening of the new arena on campus, the Dauphinee Centre, and much more.
Go Huskies!
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.
