{"id":183,"date":"2019-12-02T15:42:39","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T20:42:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/?page_id=183"},"modified":"2023-09-05T15:01:21","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T19:01:21","slug":"supporting-future-entrepreneurs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/supporting-future-entrepreneurs\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Future Entrepreneurs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Donors

Dave Roberts and Patricia Dionne<\/p><\/div>\n

By Laura Byrne Paquet, BJ\/87<\/span><\/p>\n

Between them, husband and wife Dave Roberts and Patricia Dionne run three Ottawa businessess: an esthetics studio, a hot-air balloon company and a sports bar. So perhaps it\u2019s not surprising that when they decided to create a bursary at Carleton University in their wills, they focused on supporting future entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n

The funding will go to a second-year student in the Sprott School of Business from the National Capital region. The couple pinpointed secondyear students because they felt that, by second year, students would be more certain of their educational path.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not about us and our legacy. It\u2019s about others and having a continuing impact on somebody that may need financial assistance: somebody that can demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit, somebody that maybe comes from a lower income household\u2026 somebody that may continue to employ people in our community,\u201d says Roberts.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more surprising than the focus of their gift is the fact that the couple chose Carleton, as they are not alumni. \u201cWe have no connection with Carleton at all,\u201d says Roberts.<\/p>\n

So what attracted them? The Sprott School of Business and its solid reputation. \u201cWe\u2019re really proud to have that school in our own city,\u201d says Dionne.<\/p>\n

Their accountant had set up a planned gift with Carleton, and a friend had also mentioned the idea to them. The couple have no children together and were thinking about ways to ensure that whatever is eventually left in their estate will go to a cause that reflects their interests and values.<\/p>\n

Both Dionne and Roberts say it has been easy to work with the university to hone their ideas for the gift. \u201cThey\u2019ve been really accommodating,\u201d Roberts says.<\/p>\n

The pair are eager to give Carleton students opportunities they themselves didn\u2019t have. \u201cWe\u2019ve both worked really hard our whole lives,\u201d says Roberts, who was an OC Transpo bus driver and a City of Ottawa firefighter before becoming an entrepreneur. \u201cI never finished high school, so maybe one of the biggest mistakes that I personally made was not completing post-secondary education.\u201d<\/p>\n

One unexpected side benefit to working with Carleton has been having a reason to visit the campus. \u201cSometimes when you look at youth, you say, \u2018Oh my God, where is this world going to?\u2019\u201d says Dionne. \u201cAnd we go to Carleton, and there\u2019s so many great, intelligent, hard-working young people that we say, \u2018Oh,there\u2019s a chance!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Laura Byrne Paquet, BJ\/87 Between them, husband and wife Dave Roberts and Patricia Dionne run three Ottawa businessess: an esthetics studio, a hot-air balloon company and a sports bar. So perhaps it\u2019s not surprising that when they decided to create a bursary at Carleton University in their wills, they focused on supporting future entrepreneurs. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":{"banner_image_type":"none","banner_button":"no"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/183\/revisions\/1114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}