Annual Giving update

With our residents having departed to enjoy their summer holidays, it’s an opportune time to reflect on the year and highlight a couple of areas where the combined generosity of Wyverns and friends of Queen’s have made such an impact.

Scholarships and Bursaries

With the increasing costs of a university education and accommodation, our scholarship and bursary programs continue to be one of the key focuses of our Annual Giving program. This year, over $500,000 in scholarships were awarded to over 100 residents at Queen’s. They covered incoming Freshers to graduate residents, and were awarded based on variety of criteria including academic excellence and financial need.
With over a third of our residents receiving a scholarship or bursary in some form, the support of our donors has continued to help make the opportunities and benefits of a College and university experience accessible to many.

Featonby Library and Student Facilities

Anyone who has had to study in the library during the late summer months will remember how hot and unpleasant it could become. With the library continuing to be a favoured communal study zone, this year saw a new heating and cooling system installed making it much more pleasant place year round. In addition, the quiet study areas were renovated to provide more seating and table space and in a nod to today’s technological needs, every desk and seat now has access to power and USB ports.
One of the more unusual additions to the library was a DE1-SOC FPGA development kit. Purchased at the request of our computer science students, this consists of a hardware design board that allows them to test their electronic designs. In a subject where iterative experimentation is required, having a FPGA development kit available without having to fight for access or make a trip to the university labs is a huge boon to the students.
Despite ‘everything moving online’, the reality is that the Featonby Library has never been more relevant to the residents and the improvements that the annual giving donations have enabled have further boosted its position as a key learning and study hub.

Future Updates

There were many other areas that benefited from the annual giving program and these will be covered in future issues of the Wyvern newsletter. We will be showcasing the many ways that the generosity of our Wyverns and friends of Queen’s College provides so much support to our residents.
Thank you to all our Wyverns and friends for continuing to support our current and future generation of students.