KAMLOOPS — The TRU Foundation campaign kicked off with high praise for the Faculty of Science.
At Thompson Rivers University’s annual campaign donor breakfast this morning, presenters spoke to the accomplishments of the Science programs.
The Foundation raises money for student assistance, giving scholarships and bursaries, which benefit a variety of students, including Lorelei Guidos.
Guidos, a second-year student in the university’s new Software Engineering Program, says having a chance to be one of the first students to complete a Bachelor of Engineering degree will be exciting.
“It’s going to be a great feeling just to know that I’m at the forefront of this, and I get to see the university grow through it,” Guidos says. “So it’s great to see the support from the community, because eventually we’re here to work and come back to this community.”
Now in her second year in the program, Guidos says she can already see the benefits.
“It’s going great I think, honestly. Our professors, they’re engineers,” she explains. “They’re ones that have worked in the field and they actually know what we’re going to be doing, so they can give us a lot of insight as to what we will be doing.”
Along with their software engineering program, TRU Dean of the Faculty of Science, Tom Dickinson says they’ll be growing other areas as well.
“We’re in the midst of getting approval for a computer engineering, and an electrical engineering (program). On top of that, we’re working with our trades groups for an instrumentation engineering (program),” Dickinson explains. “There’s those, and then also this area that’s called ‘Big Data’, and we’re proposing a master of data science, that will allow students to use the most current tools in programming and computing, to handle and make sense of all the data that gets streamed in.”
Dickinson says bringing in an engineering degree option for students has been in the works for a number of years.
“(Past President) Alan Shaver, (Former Vice President of Advancement) Christopher Seguin, and I had been working at it for about five years, by the time it got announced this spring in 2018.”
As for what their next endeavor will be, Dickinson says they will be focusing on managing all the student body increases with a building to try and house all the growth.
“We’ve got a proposal into government for a STEM building that’ll be somewhere in the neighbourhood of 45,000 square-feet, that may be in the $40 million price tag range,” he adds. “I wanted to bring it up (at the foundation breakfast) so that potential donors could have an idea about where they may be able to invest.”
Today also marks the start of the second annual Day of Giving for the Foundation, which will be running online Nov. 1 and Nov. 2.
TRU’s Vice President of Advancement, Guy Mallabone, says they’ll soon be releasing details into ‘Limitless’, their next big fundraising campaign.
“There’s going to be a lot more details on the Limitless campaign, but it’s really going to be a way to transform what’s happening here at Thompson Rivers to the next level.”
Mallabone says today’s event really showcased what community donations can do for the quality of student education.
“My key message today was really about how investing in this university, is investing in Kamloops,” Mallabone explains. “It’s not about building a building, it’s not about outfitting a lab, it’s not about putting your name on a space, it’s about investing in the students. And at the end of the day, it’s a return to the community.”
