Aditya’s speech at Ryerson University reception

Mr. Sheldon Levy, Adam Kahan, Your Excellency Mr. Satish Sharma- Counsel General of India, Mr. Ajit Khanna- President ICCC, Mr. Kam Rathee- President of CIBC, members of Ryerson Faculty, staff and friends from corporate Canada,

Let me start by thanking you for coming today.  It is an honor for me to be here today and, I thank Ryerson that has hosted the acknowledgement dinner.

We all have our own definitions when it comes to Education, but it leads to one thing for a lot of us i.e. – prosperity, accomplishment and a sense of dignity to the individual. The ultimate key to success, prosperity, fulfillment of one’s ambition and dream is Education. This is the reason why I am constantly trying to connect with Educational Institutes like Ryerson, because to me the power of quality Education leads to something beyond academics; with Education comes success and that success forms the catalyst to engage in successful endeavors in building a strong community. While Entrepreneurship provides the long ladder to prosperity, it is Education that is the rungs of that long ladder to reach to the top.

I would like to personally thank Mr. Hari Pandey for steering me to Ryerson. Thank you!!!

I have my deep admiration for Adam Kahan for the simple fact that, as a donor, you are not out of the ring once the final cheque is written off or the commitment agreement is signed. To be an active donor and able to shares the experiences is very rewarding.

I am grateful to Ryerson for all the support that I get Project Beyshick that aims to nurture Entrepreneurship amongst members of First Nations. My special Thanks to Neil Wolff, ken Jones and Adam Kahan for all the support.

Adam- You have a wonderful and supportive team like Janet, Karen and Elsie who are not hassled when donors like me like to structure the donation disbursement in a particular way.

Like me, many donors today would like to be an active donor- would like to be part of the mast mile of disbursement. We feel we have more to give then just a cheque. So thank you again Adam and to your team for accommodating changes to your donor agreement.

I strongly believe that like health-care in Canada and we should have Universal access to Education. Those who want to pursue highest level of Education should be provided irrespective of whether they have the means or not. For this to happen, we would need two things- serious involvement of private organizations and individuals, and a kind of “ Pay it Forward” model for those who come out of the system through assistance .For every dollars  of Government funding there should be one dollar from private source through donation.

Once students graduate, they should pay back what assistance they received. WE should have a gentle person pledge from students that what they receive as assistance, they will pay back within 10 years and nationally we should have an honor roll for that. It should not be a later stage payback rather it should be the way we don’t defer payment for car, mortgage, children etc.

I hope to raise the size of my endowment fund to $400,000 from current $316,000 at Ryerson working with Adam, ken and David Tucker.

WE have here some of the prominent and highly successful leaders of Indo- Canadian Community. We are eager to work with Ryerson as it has then most diverse students and faculty population and it focuses on imparting job oriented skills and Education.

We would like to help in building Ryerson’s credible presence in this era of rising India and help attract the best international students from India.

I am also working with some of my friends to find home for our initial $100,000 (from me) endowment for Canada India Foundation Fund building a multi- university think tank.

Above and all, we would like to work with Ryerson so that your links with the highly successful corporate leaders with Entrepreneurs of Indo- Canadian community is deepened.

I am excited being part of Ryerson as I feel the electricity here. If Ryerson has a stock listed on Toronto Stock Exchange, I would buy it.

Thank you once again for your kind gesture in arranging this event.

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