"I gave at the office"

Chair of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Dr. Jacob Friedman likes to see good students recognized and encouraged. To ensure that happens, he gave Ryerson a $25,000 gift to help endow the very first award for graduate students in Industrial and Mechanical Engineering.

Friedman knows the good it will do: “Most of our students are financially strapped – this is largely a commuter school, many new Canadians, first-generation students – an extra $1,000 or $2,000 can mean a great deal. And there is a real dearth of awards for graduate students.”

“In graduate school,” recalls Friedman, “I received a couple of awards. They made a big difference to me; gave me confidence. The recognition really pays in that sense. Everybody needs a pat on the back now and then.”

Friedman teaches advanced fluid mechanics at the graduate level, and a variety of courses from combustion to thermal design for undergrads. With more than 10 years of industry experience as a designer of industrial furnaces and heat transfer equipment, he knows that an award like the one he created is also an important distinction on a graduate’s cv as they head into the job market.

“Giving back,” says Friedman, “is part of the family ethos. One of my uncles was the founding chair of the faculty of medicine at UBC. He never had kids – his students were his children. When he passed away last year, he left most of his estate to the university. I’d always planned on giving some kind of gift to Ryerson. The bequest he left me made it possible to do it a little earlier. It seemed an appropriate way to honour him at the same time.”

“There is something particularly special about gifts to Ryerson when they come from our own faculty and staff,” says Rivi Frankle, interim vice-president of university advancement. “People here give of themselves every day – in their teaching, their research, their roles with students and more – so many well beyond the job description. When they add to that their financial support – coming as it does from a place of intimate knowledge about the good it can do – it’s a real vote of confidence in students and the university.”