Environmental sciences receives $100K injection

Photo by Jeremy Nolais. Matthew Webb, centre, along with fellow environmental sciences students and professors at Mount Royal take some pond samples as HSBC announced a $100,000 donation to program.

HSBC Bank Canada has presented a cheque for $100,000 to Mount Royal’s environmental sciences program in an investment aimed at promoting sustainable development for the future.
The contribution will be put towards preparing today’s students for future success in a critical field as well as furthering the college’s goal of reducing its carbon impact, explained Mount Royal President Dave Marshall.
“Institutions like Mount Royal University need to be the leaders in experiments and innovation and that’s what this contribution will help us with,” he said. “Secondly it supports students, it’s not just supporting the land but the people who are going to go out and be the environmental leaders in the future. They’re the ones who are going to go work for the oil companies and find a way to make the tarsands most environmentally friendly.”
Robin Penfold, HSBC’s western region senior vice-president, said the decision to support environmental sciences at Mount Royal coincides with the organization’s aggressive environmental initiatives.
“We are the first of the major financial institutions to become carbon-neutral and we continue to invest in projects all over the world,” Penfold said. “At HSBC we value and support the communities in which we operate. As one of the world’s largest financial organizations, the HSBC group believes that education helps give young people hope, a positive attitude, opportunities for success and, above all, a better future.”
Environmental sciences students Matthew Webb and Christine Spyker both expressed excitement for the future direction of the program as a result of the new funding.
It’s great to see the program getting more recognition, it’s a nice community initiative at the college to move towards a university. It will be interesting to see where the degree goes from here,” Webb, currently in his last year at Mount Royal, said.
“The instructors all have experience in the field so it’s really practical, I feel the applied aspect of the program is something I really enjoy,” Spyker added. “I am excited about potential new opportunities to be involved with research projects.”

For more on Mount Royal’s environmental sciences program click here.

Beyond the environmental and educational benefits, Marshall said the donation helps address the lack of undergrad funding at Mount Royal.
“As we transition to becoming a full undergraduate university, we understand now that there are gaps we need to fill and one of those gaps is the amount of funds we provide in aid to students. We’re simply not up to par with the undergraduate university category.”