Algonquin College Alumnus Created Bursary to Empower Black Students

Posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2021

During last summer’s Black Lives Matter movement protesting racial injustice and police brutality against Black people, Carl Clergé, a 25-year-old risk analyst at Export Development Canada and an Algonquin College graduate, wanted to do his part to help. Clergé decided to reach out to Algonquin and donate funds to a bursary for Black students. Turns out, no such thing existed.

Clergé was not deterred.

“I reached out to Advancement over the summer to donate to a bursary for Black students,” said Clergé. “There wasn’t one, so I asked how I could go about creating one. For me it was remarkable how fast everything went – from my first email to when the bursary was created—it was about a month.”

Clergé pushed forward with an ambitious objective that he quickly reached. “I had a goal of fifteen thousand for the bursary and it took a month and a half to get over that amount,” he said proudly. He was happy with the wide-ranging support. “My employer was on board, one of my former profs made a donation; everyone’s support was appreciated,” he said. “For me personally, and for Black students, I was very appreciative of that of how everything transpired.”

When asked why Black History Month is important, Clergé is quick with his response. “For me, it means celebrating everyone in the past to benefit people in the future. People my age 50 or 60 years ago wouldn’t have had the opportunity to create this bursary,” he said. “We are celebrating people paving the way with [these] actions. I think it’s important and it means a lot to me.”

Clergé studied Business Administration with a concentration in Finance at Algonquin from 2013-2016. He had a positive experience as a student. “I loved my time there,” he said. “It prepared me more for real life than university. I still have connections with certain profs.”

He appreciated the willingness and openness of the College to create a grant for Black students. “The College did a great job of understanding and asking questions,” he said. “When I reached out to the Advancement team and was told there wasn’t a bursary, they called, asked questions and listened.” He said they were open to the idea from the beginning.

His advice from the experience is “never think that anything is not possible. If you have an idea or a vision, try everything you can to make sure it happens. You never know how far you can go.”

To make a donation to the Empowering Black Students Bursary, visit this link.


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