On April 3, the HEC Montréal Foundation and Alumni Relations Office launched an emergency campaign to help students hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, close to 400 donors, alumni and employees of HEC Montréal have made donations. Approximately $120,000 has been raised and a further $200,000 offered by the School and the HEC Montréal Foundation to help students struggling due to the crisis.
Over the last few months, hundreds of students have approached Student Services to request urgent financial support for many different reasons, including:
These unforeseen circumstances could have put an end to their studies, but now their futures look brighter than ever thanks to the generosity of our donors. We are so grateful for your donations, as are our students, as you can tell from what these two* had to say:
“I would like to thank you for the financial support I have received. We had to move out of our student residence at the Université de Montréal because of COVID-19, and I was in quite a bind. Between the pressure of exams and having to find somewhere else to live, I was completely stressed out. Without your help, I could have ended up on the street. It may seem like a small gesture, but it saved the life of a student in need.”
“I would like to thank you for the financial support I have received. We had to move out of our student residence at the Université de Montréal because of COVID-19, and I was in quite a bind. Between the pressure of exams and having to find somewhere else to live, I was completely stressed out. Without your help, I could have ended up on the street. It may seem like a small gesture, but it saved the life of a student in need.”
Mélanie Gagnon, Director of the HEC Montréal Foundation and Alumni Relations Office, is very pleased with how successful the campaign has been. “The HEC Montréal community has banded together in a time of adversity to help our students get ahead, showing just how important collaboration is and demonstrating why it is a key value at the heart of our tradition of excellence. This outpouring of support speaks volumes about the strength of our community. Thank you to all our donors for helping some of our most vulnerable students succeed!”
Over 60 faculty and staff members have contributed to the emergency campaign since the beginning of the pandemic. HEC Montréal’s library team felt particularly compelled to give to the fund to thank students for their show of solidarity in April 2019 when they rushed to help the library save thousands of books following serious water damage to the building.
“On April 16, 2019, a bunch of students spontaneously came together to help save the library despite being in the middle of their exams. With their help, we managed to rescue over 80,000 books in just four hours! A year later, to thank them for their support, the library’s team has made a modest contribution to the emergency fund created to assist students affected by the coronavirus pandemic.”
“HEC Montréal is a very tight-knit community. There was no better display of this than when students came to our aid last year when the water pipe broke. Their support helped us save the main collection. So this donation is my way of thanking the students for their selflessness.”
From Canada to Hong Kong, Morocco and France, our alumni around the world showed how much their alma mater means to them by making donations to the campaign.
We would sincerely like to thank all our donors, wherever in the world you may be!
“I was in the final year of my Bachelor of Business Administration when the ice storm hit in 1998. I realized back then just how far the School would go to help its students. I felt it was important to give back now to help current students during this difficult time. Maybe one day they’ll look back and remember the support they received and make a donation to help the next generation.”
“I wanted to give a boost to the students who have been hard hit by the pandemic. I work in one of the areas badly affected by everything that’s been happening and many of our partners have been able to help us, so that we can work together to get things back up and running once the crisis has passed. And that’s exactly what I wanted to do for the current students as an HEC Montréal alumnus — offer my help so they can look to the future rather than being bogged down by their financial worries today.”
*Students who provided quotes wished to be kept anonymous.
