Concordia Journal Home > Archives > September 27, 2007 issue >

ECA endowment over the top 

By Barbara Black

Extraordinary efforts by the Engineering and Computer Science Students Association (ECA) to support a key staff position in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science have really paid off.

Jeremiah Woolsey, Manager of Instructional Technology in ENCS, says the outgoing and incoming executive committees of the ECA teamed up to make a donation that puts the Instructional Technology Endowment over what is needed to endow the fund in perpetuity. To date, $14,710 has been raised.

The endowment provides an annual award to a student with an interest and ability in computer graphics, game development or multimedia programming to develop courseware to provide supplemental instruction for ENCS courses and labs. The recent contributions will likely enable the award to be endowed a year sooner than expected.

Outgoing ECA president Ayaz Kassam said, “The establishment of the Instructional Technology Award highlights the commitment of the ENCS community. We hope this award will serve as a model for future endowments to help students meet their educational and professional goals.”

Contributions have come principally from ENCS staff and one particularly generous alumna, Christine Smith, PEng.

Woolsey, speaking for the committee, wants to thank her for her support. He also thanks ENCS staff members for their contributions, particularly budget assistant Carolyn Clayton, who championed several productive fundraising initiatives.

The 2006-07 ECA executives who contributed to this project so generously are Ayaz Kassam, Sean Durand, Carina Groombridge, Catherine Reimer, Nik Brovkin, Alain Chung, Walter Chan and Steve Chausse. From the 2007-08, they are Sean Durand, Gergo Szeles, Jean-Philippe Castonguay, Catherine Reimer, Nik Brovkin, Kurt Cabral, Eitan Levi and James Goggans.

The selection committee for the first recipient will comprise ECA VP Academic Eitan Levi, representatives from CIISE Game Development and Computational Arts, plus Clara Paradisis, ENCS Director of Staff, and Woolsey. In addition to the selection committee, an advisory board of eLearning professionals in the Concordia community will participate in the endowment.