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The Class of 1958 – Emergency Award

Over the years many of our graduating classes have demonstrated that nursing students develop intimate bonds strong enough to withstand the test of time. For a prime example, look no further than the Class of 1958. The common thread that tightly binds this class is the story of many a student nurse: struggling to make ends meet while pursuing a dream. Together, the Class of 1958 learned to balance life and education as they acquired the skill sets for the practice of nursing. As students, they spent most of their waking hours together, studying, eating, practicing their skills on one another, and rooming together. As lifelong friends, they have supported one another through decades of career-building, family-producing, empty-nesting, and retirement.

Several members of this dynamic group became university nursing professors who were well-positioned to witness the financial challenges of nursing students, similar to the challenges they had experienced themselves while students. At their 50th reunion in 2008 (pictured below), the group was motivated to honour their milestone anniversary by creating an endowment to provide emergency financial aid to current and future generations of nursing students. Since its establishment, this fund has assisted with tuition, textbooks, groceries, and even rent. In some cases, the student’s education would have halted without the support from this fund, which the School of Nursing administers.

The gift is a needs-based award, so it is not necessarily awarded every year, and recipient names are always kept confidential. For those reasons, the fund may not appear in the list of awards we publish in our Spring/Summer issue. However, we take this time to recognize a pioneering group that established an atypical, special fund born out of typical nursing skills: to recognize the trials of others; to find solutions for those problems; and to be present, available, and ready when needed.
Members of the Class of 1958 continue to contribute regularly and generously to this endowment. To join these inspirational women in supplementing this fund for future students in need, to choose another fund, or even to initiate your own, please contact Darya Sawycky in UBC’s Gift & Estate Planning office by phone at 604.827.2973 or by email at darya.sawycky@ubc.

50th Reunion (2008)

60th Reunion (2009)