{"id":141755,"date":"2023-02-22T13:08:21","date_gmt":"2023-02-22T18:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=141755"},"modified":"2023-02-22T16:17:18","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T21:17:18","slug":"memorial-bursary-fundraising-ongoing-two-years-after-death-of-mount-a-grad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/memorial-bursary-fundraising-ongoing-two-years-after-death-of-mount-a-grad\/","title":{"rendered":"Memorial bursary fundraising ongoing two years after death of Mount A grad"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Mount Allison<\/span> graduate Kavana Wa Kilele died unexpectedly two years ago in her home country of Kenya, a group of people came together to establish an endowment to honour her memory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The goal is to create a needs-based bursary that will support Black students who are passionate about social justice activism. It will be Mount Allison\u2019s first endowment meant specifically to support Black students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Kavana has been described as a beloved friend known for her compassion and intelligence. She<\/span>\u00a0co-founded the Sackville Refugee Response Coalition, which helped resettle several families in the Maritimes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"I know she was definitely an important part of the Sackville community and the Mount A community,\" said Helen Yao, a Mount Allison graduate involved in the effort.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About $10,000 has been raised towards the goal of $25,000 for the endowment so far. Once that goal is achieved, the bursary is expected to become self-sustaining, producing about $1,000 per year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During Black History Month, organizers are asking local businesses to pitch in, noting that Kavana held a number of jobs at enterprises around town to afford her studies. <\/span>Tuition for international students at Mount Allison is about $20,000, approximately double that of domestic students.<\/p>\n

Kit Nicholson, who was a close friend of Kavana, described her as a natural leader who left people with a powerful impression. <\/span>\"She boosted the confidence of a lot of people, especially of young women and of young women of colour,\" Nicholson said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the university provided an emailed statement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It said that Marcie Meekins, the university\u2019s Manager of Alumni Giving, has worked diligently with a group of people \u201cto ensure the endowment reflects Kavana\u2019s strong social justice leadership characteristics and would support international students.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

People involved in the initiative include Kavana\u2019s friends, members of the Sackville Refugee Response <\/span>Coalition, the International Centre and Black Students\u2019 Union (BSU).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past two years, the BSU and the university bookstore have partnered during Black History Month to sell T-shirts with a portion of sales going to the endowment, according to the statement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re honoured to be able to play a role in this amazing initiative that will pay tribute to a student leader who was taken from us far too soon,\u201d Meekins said.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To support the Kavana Memorial Endowment Fund, you can donate online at mta.ca\/donate<\/a>. You can also buy a Black History Matters T-shirt from the Mount Allison bookstore. Follow the initiative on Instagram at kme.fund<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Listen to the interview with Helen Yao and Kit Nicholson, two Mount Allison graduates involved in raising funds for the Kavana Memorial Endowment Fund.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Mount Allison graduate Kavana Wa Kilele died unexpectedly two years ago in her home country of Kenya, a group of people came together to establish an endowment to honour her memory.\u00a0 The goal is to create a needs-based bursary that will support Black students who are passionate about social justice activism. It will be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":141757,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57,221],"tags":[5553,438,877,1221,2673],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141755"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141841,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141755\/revisions\/141841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141755"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=141755"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=141755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}