Giving Report

Every moment spent volunteering, every act of friendship, and every gift, regardless of its size, contributes to the excellence that is Mount Allison University.

Each of you makes Mount Allison a unique and special place. Thank you. 

We received tremendous support this past year as donors made lead gifts to our campaign to renovate the R.P. Bell Library building, created thoughtful scholarships and bursaries, and offered the kinds of programming supports that ensure Mount Allison continues to deliver an unparalleled student experience.

I’m enthusiastic about the year ahead as we focus on building our Multi-Sport Complex — a building that will begin its life as our interim library and ultimately house new facilities for a variety of sports and recreation activities and support the wider community.

Our donors continue to be a committed and caring group. It is my great privilege to work with all of you, to hear your stories of Mount Allison, and help you realize the meaningful impact you desire to have on education and the success of future generations.

Thank you for all that you do for our University and its students.

Sincerely,

Courtney Pringle-Carver
Vice-President, University Advancement
 

Pam and Dick Joho are passionate about liberal arts education and the undergraduate experience. Their admiration began more than half a century ago as students, first at Michigan State University, where the couple met, and later at the University of Toronto.

“The undergraduate experience is extremely important to someone’s life and development. You become exposed to so much, to a diversity of ideas,” says Dick. “Your experience can go on to affect what you do as a career or even just affect how you will go through the rest of your life.”

Pam and Dick credit their liberal arts education not only with their successful careers in business, where they used communication, critical thinking, and other skills cultivated as undergraduate students, but also with their 57 years of marriage.

The couple eagerly reflects on the decades they have spent sharing their interests and explorations of literature, philosophy, history, music, and art. They always have new things to talk about and continue to find inspiration in the books and ideas they were first exposed to as students. Pam, for example, re-reads her collection of Jane Austen novels every few years.

“Returning to Jane Austen has always re-balanced me,” she says. “I think her work helps you look at your life as an individual and as someone with responsibilities to those around you and examine how you should interact with the world. Re-reading Jane Austen made a big difference to me whenever things got tough at work.”

The couple had no previous relationship with Mount Allison before choosing to support the University with their philanthropy. In fact, they can only readily think of one person they know who attended Mount Allison. After researching and learning more about the school, they decided to create the Pamela and Richard Joho Scholarship, a prestigious renewable award supporting students in a Bachelor of Arts, Fine Arts, or Music degree.

“We did our research, and the reputation and mission of Mount Allison was very encouraging,” says Dick. “We felt connected to everything we read about the University. The liberal arts seems to be part of Mount Allison’s DNA, and we are comfortable it is going to stay an important part of the University into the future.”

The renewable aspect of the scholarship is very important to Pam and Dick. As students, the couple worked many jobs to afford their education — in Pam’s case, earning her honours English degree took 10 years while working full time at a career job. The couple wants to remove financial anxiety for students, providing the chance to go away to school and get fully involved in the undergraduate experience of once-in-a-lifetime learning opportunities in and out of the classroom.

“Our interest in liberal arts and preserving this kind of education has only grown and expanded and become more important to us,” says Pam. “It’s encouraging to know we can make a difference through our scholarship.”

The Johos have arranged an estate gift to further support and grow their scholarship, ensuring their commitment and legacy to liberal arts education.

Youji Cheng loves the story of how he ended up at Mount Allison. Cheng was an international student in his first year at McGill University when he travelled to the Maritimes to visit a family friend during winter break. There was a huge snowstorm and Cheng’s travel plans back to Montreal were cancelled. He decided to take the opportunity to tour some schools.

“I did a campus tour on a very cold sunny day,” says Cheng. “I had never had that small town, small campus experience and was very interested in the idea that at Mount Allison you would get to connect with people so closely and build strong relationships.”

During the tour, Cheng met biochemistry professor Amanda Cockshutt. He says their discussion about the interdisciplinary culture of Mount Allison and how you could take a leadership role in designing your own degree appealed to him. Most importantly, he was influenced by their discussion about research commercialization.

“I thought I would become a doctor or pharmacist, but that conversation first got me thinking about how if you are a scientist or engineer you can also do business,” says Cheng. Today, Cheng works with medical device companies to commercialize life-saving technologies, and he credits an interdisciplinary education from Mount Allison and the mentorship of his professors in technology commercialization.

Cheng is one of the youngest members of Mount Allison’s Alumni Board of Directors, a volunteer group that promotes greater participation of alumni and friends of Mount Allison with the University.

“I think it’s important for younger alumni to be engaged,” says Cheng. “Meeting alumni from different generations and demographics raises horizons and views, it gives you new perspectives on things and can help you on your career journey.”

Cheng also thinks it’s vital for the University to engage with younger alumni and listen to their feedback.

“Today’s world, post-graduation, looks very different compared to 40, 50 years ago,” he says. “Career trajectories, experiences in grad school, in medical school, are vastly different. It’s important for the University and for current Mount A students to hear voices from alumni actively working in these fields.”

Cheng volunteers with the Mount Allison Alumni Mentorship program, is an advocate for the University’s experiential learning and entrepreneurship offerings, and he made one of the first gifts toward the R.P. Bell Library renovation project.

“The library needs to be updated and I think we can make a lot of positive changes with this project,” says Cheng. “I would really like to see students connecting with new technologies and real-world experiences in the library and meeting with alumni in different industries to learn about unique career paths.”

From Summerside, PE, Kilby Delaney (’95) recalls the first time she drove herself off the island. It was as a Grade 12 student on her way to visit the Mount Allison campus and she vividly remembers the anxiety of that first drive up the ferry ramp and parking her car for the Northumberland Strait crossing, driving from Cape Tormentine to the stop sign next to the Aulac Big Stop, and turning right for the then single-lane highway to Sackville.

“Every time I drive across the marsh, I reflect on that experience,” says Delaney. “It was my Mount Allison beginning, the start of such an important time. My memories of Mount Allison are some of the fondest of my life.”

Delaney studied Classics. She had a particular interest in the Roman world and would later earn a master’s degree in Roman archeology. She says what stands out most about the Mount Allison experience is the close-knit community, small class sizes where you can build strong personal relationships, and the access you have to professors. Delaney lived in Windsor Hall first year, where she made many friends, and has fond memories of living off campus for the remaining years and navigating with her roommates the responsibilities of groceries, household chores, and preparing and enjoying meals together.

Delaney says Mount Allison provided her learning opportunities she would never have had otherwise. She took part in a week-long trip to England, her first trip outside of the country, to visit historic sites and the British Museum, and she was awarded a travel scholarship funded by the J.E.A. Crake Foundation to spend six weeks studying in Greece.

“I’ve gone on to do other things in my life, but I always think of Mount Allison and the opportunities it gave me as where my adult life started,” says Delaney.

Delaney arranged a gift in her will to Mount Allison that will create a student scholarship.

“I’m at end of life,” says Delaney. “As a friend and I were talking through that, he asked me if I had ever thought about making a gift to Mount A. It had never occurred to me, but once we started talking, it was like a fully formed, perfect idea and something I definitely wanted to do. It’s quite pleasing to me, the thought that I can help students and ease the financial burden of getting a higher education. University can be so important for so many. Even if you don’t end up in a career directly related to your degree, going to university and having that experience gives you lifelong lessons and very transferable skills.”

The Kilby Delaney Memorial Scholarship will support students in financial need studying Classics, English, or Fine Arts.

“My scholarship has brought me the sense of peace because I know that as long as Mount A exists, a part of me will be there,” says Delaney. “People will know my name and that Mount Allison was important to me.”

Jeff Paikin was raised in Hamilton, ON and had plans to attend Western University when then Mounties Football coach Doug Mitchell introduced him to Mount Allison University.

“Doug did such a good job telling the story of Mount Allison,” says Paikin. “Then my parents and I went out to visit and it took 30 seconds before I knew this was the place for me.”

As a student, Paikin played, and later coached, Mounties Football, was involved in the student government, newspaper, radio, and was an announcer for Mounties basketball games. He says his experience was above and beyond all expectations, providing him a first-rate education in Commerce and the chance to explore many opportunities and participate fully in campus life.

Paikin was also a student representative on the Board of Regents. Forty years later he finds himself again on the board and says the volunteer position is very rewarding, particularly the chance to work alongside today’s students on the management of the University.

And it turns out membership on Mount Allison’s board runs in the Paikin family. As a graduating student, the University asked Paikin if he would recommend anyone else as a potential board member. Paikin recommended his mom, Marnie, who had experience serving as chair of the governing board of the University of Toronto.

“I told my mom I loved my school and that’s how she ended up on the board and becoming friends with Purdy Crawford, Margaret McCain, and other longtime Mount Allison supporters,” says Paikin. “Now, forty years later, I am sitting on the board with Purdy Crawford’s daughter Sarah Crawford — it speaks to how connected our community is.”

In Paikin’s family giving back through volunteerism and philanthropy was natural, and he made his first donation to the University immediately after graduation.

“I wanted to give back right away and frequently,” says Paikin. “Financial gifts don’t have to be large, they have to be meaningful and consistent.”

Through the decades, he has supported a diversity of Mount Allison projects — athletics, student experience funds, Commerce and entrepreneurship programming, and scholarships.

A few years ago, Paikin leveraged his connections to begin hosting an annual exclusive golf tournament that has brought alumni and golf enthusiasts from throughout Canada and the U.S. together in Ontario for what Paikin calls, “my favourite day of the year.” In 2024, the tournament raised $100,000 for Mounties Football.

“My longstanding support of the football program is less about football specifically than that I think there are high school football players throughout this country that should know about Mount Allison and the opportunity to go there and be able to play their sport in first year and get a first-class education, all in the supporting environment that is Mount Allison and Sackville.”

When it comes to understanding the role volunteers and donors have in Mount Allison’s success, Paikin gives much of the credit to Harvey Gilmour, who was the Mounties Football kicking coach and the University’s director of development during Paikin’s student days.

“We spent a lot of time together on the field, working on my kick,” says Paikin. “After a while, well there is only so much you can talk about football, so I started asking him about his other job as the University’s fundraiser. Harvey taught me that this amazing Mount Allison experience doesn’t happen by accident — it happens because we all work together to keep the love affair going.”

Bob Stallworthy has been a writer for close to 40 years and thanks Mount Allison for the career he loves.

“In my fourth year I took a creative writing course with Professor Herb Burke,” says Stallworthy. “I remember the course was listed as having no exam and thought ‘that’s the course for me’. Turned out it was one of the few courses I stayed up past midnight to work on, and I got some positive feedback on my work.”

Stallworthy graduated from Mount Allison with a psychology degree and had a 13-year career as a social worker before turning to writing. He credits his late wife, Marilyn, for encouraging him to pursue his passion and for supporting his career change.

“She was a teacher, and when I said no one would want to read what I write, she looked at me with that school-teacher gaze and said, ‘you won’t know if you don’t try.’”

Stallworthy went on to publish five books of poetry, write for various organizations, and in 2019 received the Golden Pen Award for lifetime achievement from the Writers’ Guild of Alberta.

He has often visited high schools, giving workshops and readings, and speaking with students about his life as a poet. These experiences encouraged him to establish the Bob and Marilyn Stallworthy Visitor in Creative Writing fund at Mount Allison. The fund brings Canadian writers to campus to speak to, work with, mentor, and/or guide students in creative writing.

Stallworthy’s philanthropy was also greatly influenced by his memory of poet and novelist Earle Birney visiting his Mount Allison creative writing class and by the fact that the University was such a big part of Stallworthy’s early life — he grew up in Sackville and his father was a professor in the biology department.

The Department of English recently welcomed Susan Goyette as the first Bob and Marilyn Stallworthy Visitor in Creative Writing. Stallworthy joined Goyette’s reading and talk via Zoom from his home in Calgary.

“I was so pleased that everything came together so quickly after my original correspondence with the University and that I am able to experience the impacts of my giving.”

Stallworthy is making an annual contribution to his fund and has arranged an endowed gift in his estate plans.

• Mount Allison welcomes Dr. Ian Sutherland as 16th President and Vice-Chancellor.
   
• Renovated Harper Hall residence opens, welcoming 139 students to its updated rooms and facilities, including a new student lounge named in memory of Suzanne Crawford (‘79).
   
• J.E.A. Crake Foundation, which supports 22 scholarships and programs at Mount Allison, creates its first endowment funds, making an even greater long-term commitment toward students and the Mount Allison education.
   
• Alumni and friends donate $174,980 to the Mountie2Mountie fund in 2023-24, providing 67 students with scholarships and bursaries.
   
• Mount Allison welcomes Dr. Richard Isnor (‘89) as Provost and Vice-President, Academic and Research.