Class act to help out with fees
 Something
special will be on the agenda when the Richard Ivey School of
Business/ Asia’s executive MBA class of 2000 get together
for their sixth annual alumni reunion dinner.
“Someone said we should do something special beside getting
together, having a drink and reminiscing,” said class representative
Joe Attrux.
“We decided we should do something special to set the tone
of what other classes could do.”
After much discussion, the alumni came up with the idea of setting
up a fund to help applicants who met all of the requirements but
lacked the financial resources to pay the programme’s hefty
tuition fees.
“We have all benefited from the programme, and we wanted
others to benefit from it too,” Mr Attrux said.
Two names were proposed for the fund: the Guinea Pig Fund, because
they were the first group of students, and the Millennium Fund,
because they graduated in the year 2000.
“We took a vote and Millennium Fund won.”
The fund has been financed entirely by voluntary donations from
the 23 students in the class, and is now worth $150,000. The goal
is to pay 10 per cent to 25 per cent of the fees of one or two
deserving applicants each year.
The fee for the August intake will be $525,000.
“With only 23 of us, we are very close,” Mr Attrux
said. “Alumni in general get connected through the class
and then stay connected. The school tries to get them connected
with other classes.”
At least one other group of graduates has shown a generous heart.
The class of 2004 raised $174,000 to build a school in Yunnan
province through the charity organization Sowers Action. About
180 children attend the school, including 76 who board because
they lived too far away to walk there daily.
The Richard Ivey Business School, established in Ontario, Canada
in 1920, launched its Hong Kong-based EMBA programme in 1998.
It is essentially the same as the Canadian programme, except for
an emphasis on Asian case studies and business in Asia.
The school also offers a host of public, consortium and custom
executive development programmes.
It was the first North American business school to set up a permanent
facility in the region.
The school has 27,000 alumni around the world.
Saturday, February 11,2006
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
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