Walter Fenlon, Linda Ann Daly and Student Rodrigo Pereira
By Laura Byrne Paquet, BJ/87
When Linda Ann Daly, BA/71, first met Brazilian Rodrigo Pereira, she had no idea how he would change her life.
In 2009, Rodrigo came to live with Linda Ann and her husband Walter Fenlon in Kingston, as a high school Rotary scholar. “We just
enjoyed his presence hugely. He was the kind of man who had a huge zest for life and wanted all the experiences of Canada that he could possibly get,” recalls Linda Ann, a member of Carleton’s Board of Governors.
With their help, he came back to Canada to study at Carleton’s Sprott School of Business, where he immersed himself in university life. “He was busy in different clubs; he was as active as he could possibly be. He represented what you hope someone who goes to university will be,” she says.
The couple were careful to make financial provisions to ensure Rodrigo could finish his studies, Linda Ann notes. “Once he was in our life, we ensured that there was money for him in our wills, should something happen to us. He was depending on us.”
In the fall of his fourth year, Rodrigo began suffering pain in his hip. Linda Ann took him to an orthopaedic surgeon, who diagnosed him with stress. However, by early October, the pain was so severe that he withdrew from Carleton and returned to Brazil. Linda Ann and Walter paid for his health care costs, which included flying him by helicopter to a private hospital in Curitiba, where he was diagnosed with a rare cancer called Ewing sarcoma.
“Because of the experience with Rodrigo, we decided to create a fund that would offer short-term emergency assistance for international students, because not everybody has a Linda Ann and Walter,” she explains. Any international student facing a personal crisis can apply to the fund for financial aid.
Linda Ann and Walter kept in touch with Rodrigo regularly as he went through his cancer treatments. “He had spirit, he had hope, he had vigour, in as much as he was capable, right to the very, very end, but he died in August 2014,” says Linda Ann with a catch in her voice. The emergency fund they had established in his honour was renamed the International Student Emergency Fund in Memory of Rodrigo Pereira.
During his years at Carleton, Rodrigo had connected with a wide range of students and faculty members. In the fall of 2014, many of them attendeda tribute to Rodrigo that Walter and Linda Ann hosted in Kingston and contributed to the emergency fund. This show of support touched them deeply. “The heart of Carleton is still very strong. It reaches out to people and it helps people,” says Linda Ann.
She is happy that the fund addresses a specific need in the Carleton community that hadn’t been directly met before. “I think the fund is important to raise awareness that an international student is different than a domestic student. They come from a long way away and they don’t have the kind of support system that domestic students typically might have.”
She and Walter are also pleased that Rodrigo’s name will live on at Carleton in the name of the fund. “The fact that it is in his name made us so proud, and he was so proud to think that that this fund would be there for others.”