Message from the President

As President of the Foundation, my heart is full of hope and support. As a realist, I believe for our youth to succeed and function effectively it is imperative that we not be dismissive of the facts.  We need to develop strategies so that future generations of engineering students can flourish and eventually become highly valued contributing members of society.

The future of the engineering profession requires much more than improvements through DEI. It requires developing spaces that are supportive and conducive to learning and connecting those with a penchant for excellence with opportunities that impact our world on a large scale — great talent combined with high impact leads to a safer world. Our post-secondary institutions and workplaces do what they can, however, as we know, the increasing costs of education can prohibit and limit some from participating which seems a bizarre reason for some not to benefit from what most of us now see as a large part of ourselves.  Giving to the Foundation means donating to your vision of an engineering profession that we can all be proud of.

In the last few years, many post-secondary institutions and corporations have supported diversity and inclusion initiatives which makes the dynamics in those environments much more reflective of the communities in which we live and work. 

The Foundation board had also committed to change and challenged the status quo by working with our Partner Schools to ensure students from all groups were considered for scholarships. Back in 2021 when the Foundation developed its new five-year donor agreement, one of the most significant changes related to gender identity.  Previous donor agreements stipulated that Partner Schools choose an equal number of males and females.  The revised agreements stated that schools would endeavour to select an equal number of students who identify as female or non-binary as those who identify as male. Recognizing that each Partner School requires a certain degree of flexibility to accommodate its own policies and procedures for awarding scholarships and bursaries including Foundation scholarships, the Foundation board is continuing to expand its criteria and eligibility requirements to move toward even greater inclusivity. 

Working with my fellow directors, we are focusing on expanding the ways in which we can provide more support to engineering students. Stay tuned. 

It is with gratitude that I embrace this opportunity to support the beginning of the road to licensure for so many hard-working and well-deserving students as they strive to fulfill their dreams of becoming engineers.  Foundation scholarships assist with covering incidentals and help to keep these students in school.

Sincerely,

Réjeanne Aimey, P.Eng, MBA (She/her)
President & Chair