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Going the extra mile: Barbara Mitchell & Andrew Wister
Andrew Wister and Barbara Mitchell are dedicated members of the SFU community, as both esteemed faculty members and long-standing donors.
Their philanthropic impact spans across multiple areas of support and, in 2020, they established the Wister-Mitchell Graduate Scholarship in Gerontology Endowment to ensure that graduate students passionate about aging-related research have the resources to thrive.
Why do you support SFU?
We hold a deep appreciation for the supportive and inspirational academic environment that SFU fosters. We were delighted to create the Wister-Mitchell Graduate Scholarship in Gerontology in recognition of SFU’s commitment to excellence and to give back to the next generation of gerontologists.
What specifically motivated you to support SFU?
The opportunity to provide a legacy scholarship to support graduate students who are passionate about addressing the challenging issues associated with population and individual aging was a motivating factor for us to create this award. We had donated to other gerontology-focused scholarships and lectureships such as the Ellen Gee Memorial Lecture, who was a friend and colleague of ours, so we were aware of the range of possible opportunities to create a new student award in our name.
Why do you believe it is important to support SFU? And more broadly – why support higher education in Canada?
There has never been a more crucial time to support SFU and higher education in Canada. This is due to the retrenchment of funding that has created the current budget crisis across Canadian postsecondary institutions.
We plan to leave a gift in our will to create the Mitchell-Wister Lectureship in Gerontology to memorialize our commitment to this field. This is our small effort to recognize SFU’s long-term investment into making the Department of Gerontology and Gerontology Research Centre unique in Canada and enhancing their world-class status. We are also looking at developing a legacy gift to SFU’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
Did you know: Each year, hundreds of dedicated SFU faculty and staff members go above and beyond in their commitment to the university by also giving philanthropically. In this past fiscal year alone, faculty and staff donors contributed $2.8 million toward vital initiatives across SFU, with more than 3,600 gifts toward critical areas of support like student health and counselling services, food security, and scholarship and bursaries.