June 2006 ISSUE
FOUNDATIOn update
An Ongoing, Humbling Experience
BY RON LAWSON, P.ENG.
Secretary-Treasurer
Last month, APEGGA Education Foundation President Andy Gilliland, P.Eng., summarized the efforts of the foundation to achieve financial independence. We’re getting there and I thank you, the membership, on behalf of APEGGA and our board, for your support.
As a foundation board member for six years and before that a member of APEGGA’s Honours and Awards Committee for close to three years, I would like to give you the context of these two volunteer operations as it relates to your membership in APEGGA.
The mission of the foundation is “to enhance and provide leadership and support in the education and development of engineers, geologists and geophysicists and those who might enter these professions.” Operationally, the foundation generates the financial means on an ongoing basis, to both generate funds to disseminate scholarships and awards to a larger number of extremely capable young people from all walks of life. This will help the recipients to further their own careers and goals — and enhance the capability of the country to perform in the 21st century.
On the other hand, the Honours and Awards Committee solicits candidates from the professions and nominates from these for recognition by APEGGA at its annual Summit Awards Gala each spring. It also selects young high school and transfer students for the receipt of scholarship awards for entry to Alberta universities, as well as to universities further afield.
The HAC — as it has been called affectionately by some — does the spadework for the foundation by realizing the Summit Awards and the scholarships into actual people.
Having now had the experience of membership in both of these volunteer groups, I can assure you that — on all fronts — the professional engineers, geologists and geophysicists in the province are healthy and vibrant. The quality of the young high school students is second to none; the university students benefiting from their hard-won awards are top-class. These young people know how to present themselves and the HAC is challenged every year to winnow the winners from a plethora of excellent applications!
Shortly after I joined Honours and Awards, the chair asked me to present an entrance scholarship to a high school student on behalf of APEGGA. Not having been on this particular student’s selection sub-committee and wanting to personalize the presentation at the function, I asked the chair for more information.
“Well,” he said, “his marks would have to be excellent. What sets one student apart from others is the volunteer work they’ve done.”
Sure enough, his applicant showed that his marks were high and his volunteer work was such that his waking hours were packed with activity. But every application is like that. There are no losers in the eyes of the HAC, which is why I found serving on this committee so rewarding.
As we move to the more mature end of the spectrum of our professions, I can attest to the excellence of the nominations for recognition at the Summit Awards banquet. As before, the HAC is hard-pressed to nominate the winners in the categories for the Summit Awards. APEGGA could not afford to pay these committee volunteers if it had to go out into the open market.
Recognition, too, must go out to the fine teams of people that generate the nominations, you, the APEGGA members. Without your volunteer work, there would be no education scholarship presentation evenings, no Summit Awards banquet. I would come away humbled from the days of deliberation on HAC, having been faced with sustained evidence of technical excellence and volunteer dedication both by high school students and by seasoned adults.
Of course, all of this would not be possible without the financial support of APEGGA’s members, you who donate faithfully to these awards. As a result, APEGGA operates on a symbiotic basis.
We’re all in this together. Pat yourselves on your collective backs, you earn it every year. And I love being humbled.