{"id":244,"date":"2019-12-10T09:35:25","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T14:35:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/?page_id=244"},"modified":"2026-03-13T13:56:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T17:56:54","slug":"donors-give-refugees-a-chance-to-pursue-post-secondary-education","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/donors-give-refugees-a-chance-to-pursue-post-secondary-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Donors Give Refugees a Chance to Pursue Post-Secondary Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Donors Give Refugees a Chance to Pursue Post-Secondary Education\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone wp-image-80 size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"401\" role=\"none\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/285\/Donors-Give-Refugees-Photo-400x401.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-80\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/285\/Donors-Give-Refugees-Photo-400x401.jpg 400w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/285\/Donors-Give-Refugees-Photo-160x160.jpg 160w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/285\/Donors-Give-Refugees-Photo-240x240.jpg 240w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/285\/Donors-Give-Refugees-Photo-768x769.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/285\/Donors-Give-Refugees-Photo-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/285\/Donors-Give-Refugees-Photo-360x360.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Donors Paula and Vicken Koundakjian<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span class=\"highlight\">By Laura-Byrne Paquet<br>\nPhotos: Jessica Deeks<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Vicken Koundakjian\u2019s family members fled Armenia during the 1915 genocide, going first to Syria and later to Lebanon, where Vicken, BAHons\/04, grew up. Paula Fedeski-Koundakjian\u2019s great-great-grandfather fled Poland for the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe think it\u2019s really important that we all remember that somewhere in our families, all of us have a refugee,\u201d says Paula. \u201cRefugees are not a new thing. They\u2019re a very ancient thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The couple has become even more aware of refugee issues through their work around the world. After meeting at a translation school in Brussels, they moved to Canada, where Paula had spent her early childhood and university years. Vicken began a career with the Canadian diplomatic corps that eventually took them to Saudi Arabia, Iran, Nigeria, and Venezuela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They realized that many programs for refugees help young children or their parents adapt to their new country, but teenagers often fall between the cracks. In many cases, young adults were enrolled in post-secondary education in their former countries but can\u2019t afford tuition in their new home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe wanted to at least make an attempt at giving some of those kids a better chance of getting into a university program,\u201d Paula explains. That\u2019s how the idea of the Welcome to Canada bursary was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Philanthropy Within Reach<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was actually Paula\u2019s idea to call it Welcome to Canada, because that was the first thing that the immigration officer said to me,\u201d Vicken says, remembering their arrival from Belgium in 1990. \u201cWe both got choked up, I\u2019d say.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their plan is to donate to the bursary throughout their lives, then leave a portion of their estate to it after they are gone. They hope other donors\u2014perhaps inspired by news of ongoing refugee crises throughout the world\u2014will give as well. Such philanthropy is within everyone\u2019s reach, they emphasize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re not millionaires,\u201d says Paula with a smile. \u201cWe\u2019re just ordinary folk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The process of working with Carleton was easy and straightforward, they agree. In fact, they are hoping to work more with the university to help refugees in other ways, perhaps by finding a way for business students to write business plans for refugees who were formerly entrepreneurs. \u201cCanada is an incredibly exceptional country, and we want to make sure people understand and appreciate all that it can offer,\u201d Vicken says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Laura-Byrne Paquet Photos: Jessica Deeks Vicken Koundakjian\u2019s family members fled Armenia during the 1915 genocide, going first to Syria and later to Lebanon, where Vicken, BAHons\/04, grew up. Paula Fedeski-Koundakjian\u2019s great-great-grandfather fled Poland for the United Kingdom. \u201cWe think it\u2019s really important that we all remember that somewhere in our families, all of us [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[],"class_list":["post-244","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1658,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/244\/revisions\/1658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/planforgood\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}