Beedie students raise over $25,000 for Canadian Cancer Society

A group of Beedie students raised $25,800 for the Canadian Cancer Society last semester, in an initiative run as part of a project management class at the school.

Students enrolled in the Bus 361 Project Management class, taught by Beedie lecturer Dr. Kamal Masri, raised the funds through the 25toLife initiative, a joint project between the class and the Canadian Cancer Society. This is the fourth consecutive year that Masri has run the project in the fall semester of his project management class raising a total exceeding $109,000 to support cancer research.

25toLife gives students the opportunity to put the lessons they learn in the project management class into practice as they organize a series of fundraising events and activities. After meeting for the first time on September 12, 2016, the class came up with a series of seven events to run throughout the month of November.

The students teamed up with a range of corporate sponsors to deliver a diverse program that included a gala dinner, an XBOX gaming tournament, a five-pin bowling event and an obstacle-course race.

“The opportunity to learn project management principles in class and apply them toward a tangible result was truly a breath of fresh air in post secondary education,” says Beedie student Tim Kwon, who participated in the program. “The structure of the course allowed us to gain deeper insight into the reality of the work involved as a project manager, and knowledge of risk management gained in the classroom helped us mitigate potential issues.

“In the end, the course was extremely rewarding, not only because we raised over $25,000, but for the amount of collaboration between students and the relationships formed during the process,” he concludes.

Dr. Kamal Masri’s work to establish the 25toLife project has earned him significant recognition, including a Surrey Leader Community Leaders Award in 2016 and the Canadian Cancer Society’s Community Champion Award in 2015. Masri is also a two-time winner of the TD Canada Trust Distinguished Teaching Award, the highest teaching honour available at the Beedie School of Business

However, he does not let awards distract him from his true mission: helping students to learn while making a positive impact on his community.

“I am excited that the 25toLife project we started four years ago continues to be successful both in giving students real, hands-on experience in project management and in raising funds for this important cause,” says Masri. “Experiential learning is central to what we do here at Beedie, and I look forward to running this project for many years to come.”