College of the Rockies is launching its first Giving Tuesday campaign on Dec. 3. The campaign is aimed at encouraging local businesses, organizations, and individuals to contribute to the student bursary program at the college.
Giving Tuesday is a global movement, occurring on the first Tuesday after Black Friday, intended to create an international day of charitable giving at the start of the holiday season.
“All contributions received for our Giving Tuesday campaign will go directly to removing financial barriers for College of the Rockies students,” said Graham Knipfel, director, donor and alumni engagement. “Supporting local students who we expect will gain meaningful employment or establish businesses in our region is a way to demonstrate a commitment to the long-term economic development of the area.”
Russ Kinghorn, a past- president of Engineers Canada, has established the Engineers Canada Indigenous Access to Engineering bursary at the college in conjunction with the Giving Tuesday campaign.
“I established the bursary in an effort to support the participation of Indigenous people in engineering, where they are currently terribly under-represented,” said Kinghorn. “If we’re looking at tackling infrastructure issues in Indigenous communities, it makes sense to have Indigenous engineers dealing with these issues. College of the Rockies is a small college, in a small region, with a significant Indigenous community and is ideally set up to act as a stepping stone for Indigenous people to get into engineering at other institutions, in particular, UVIC.”
Giving Tuesday donors may contribute to an existing bursary at the college, including the Engineers Canada Indigenous Access to Engineering Bursary, by donating online at cotr.ca/giving.
Contributors may also create a new bursary as a way to honour or memorialize a loved one, support a specific program or subject area, show support for an industry, or to raise awareness of a local business.
To create a new bursary, or to contribute by cheque, contact Graham Knipfel at gknipfel@cotr.bc.ca or call 250-489-8263.
Learn more about becoming a College of the Rockies donor at cotr.ca/giving
