INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / FEBRUARY 13, 1990 §- sss FOUNDATION News Three sisters create bursary to help students Three sisters have shown the true meaning of Christmas spirit. The sisters, Dr. Sheilah Thompson, Nenagh Hanly and Leonora Dunse, decided to stop giving each other Christmas presents this year and start helping students at Douglas College. They have each contributed $1,000 towards the Leonora Hutchin- son Long Term Care Aide Bursary in honor of their mother. The endow- ment will be administered by the Douglas College Foundation and in- terest will be used to assist a mature female student who is enrolled in the Long Term Care Aide Program. Thompson is former Director of Douglas College’s Health Sciences Department and helped form the Long Term Care Aide program at the College. Thompson says it was a unani- mous decision among the sisters to establish the bursary in honor of their mother because “she was an extraordinarily wonderful person” who provided long term care to elderly patients during the depression. For further information, please contact the Douglas College Founda- tion at 527-5360. @ Gram bursary to aid health services students Students training to be health services professionals at Douglas College will soon benefit from the es- tablishment of the Gordon and Char- lene Gram Bursary. Long time New Westminster residents, Gordon and Charlene Gram, recently donated $3,000 to es- tablish a permanent endowment for the award with the Douglas College Foundation. The interest from the endowment will be used to provide one or more bursaries each year. This award will assist students in nursing and other health services programs to complete their studies. Preference will be given to single parents. Public Health Nurse Charlene Gram has enjoyed many years of ser- vice as a health care professional and currently works in New Westminster. Executive Director of the Douglas College Foundation, Randi Duke, commented “the need for well-trained health care profes- sionals in this province continues to grow. With a heavy work load and few opportunities for part-time work, many students are forced to withdraw due to a lack of funds. This bursary will go far to help these students complete their studies and achieve their career goals.” & Biology scholarship established Outstanding biology students at Douglas College will soon benefit from the establishment of the Biol- ogy Scholarship. The Douglas College Biology Discipline raised $3645 to establish a permanent endowment for the award. The interest from the endow- ment will be used to provide one or more scholarships each year. It was the fund-raising efforts of biologists Val Schaefer, Helen Pal- mer, Adrienne Peacock, Bob Hirtle, Nina Munteanu, Eija Peitso, and Michelle Choma and Academic Dean Gordon Gilgan that made this award possible. @ Rotary Club helps people with disabilities People with disabilities will soon reap the benefits of high tech- nology at Douglas College. Thanks to a $30,450 donation from the Rotary Club of New Westminster, a new high-tech learn- ing laboratory will be developed in the College library. Rotary Club president Irwin Stewart, a surgeon at Royal Colum- bian Hospital and St. Mary’s Hospi- tal, says that his Rotarians often donate money to hospitals and educational institutions. This year, their major project is aimed at help- ing people with disabilities. “High-tech equipment is essen- tial to such a lab. Unless you have it available, people with first-rate minds never have a chance to prove themselves to others and serve a use- ful purpose in life,” says Dr. Stewart. Gladys Loewen, Coordinator of Disabled Student Services at Douglas College, says the Rotary Club’s support helps make the Col- lege more accessible to the com- munity and will help to put the Douglas College library on the lead- ing edge of learning techniques for disabled people. The learning lab will contain a reading machine (a voice syn- thesizer that scans and reads books aloud to the visually impaired), a visual-tech machine that magnifies print onto a television screen, and the computer hardware and software necessary to allow students who are print disabled to take exams and complete their course work more independently. “A lot of people with disabilities normally can not use libraries,” says Loewen. please see page 4