This year, a new scholarship will be made available for Indigenous students pursuing a Bachelor of Commerce or a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in economics or political studies at Queen’s.

In a Board of Trustees meeting on May 7, the Daniel Tisch/Argyle Communications Bursary was announced.

The award is named after Daniel Tisch, ArtSci ’91 and MBA ’96, current CEO of Argyle Communications and former Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees, whose $100,000 endowment to the university helped form the bursary.

The scholarship will be available to applicants beginning this year on Oct. 31 and will be awarded based on financial need. The value of the award and the number of recipients will vary from year to year based on the applicants’ circumstances.

In an email sent to The Journal, Tisch described the motivations behind his contribution.

“As a boy, I was a Latin American immigrant to Canada, and my father was a Jewish escapee from the Holocaust. This personal history has given me a keen interest in inclusion, reconciliation and education,” he wrote.

“Before funding this bursary at Queen’s, my firm and I also helped fund a scholarship for Indigenous students and Black students, respectively, in public relations programs at Canadian universities or colleges.”

According to Tisch, Argyle has also worked with Indigenous groups in the past to bring attention to incidents like the Sixties Scoop, which eventually resulted in the creation of the Sixties Scoop Healing Foundation. The firm has helped the survivors of the residential school system understand and access settlements.

Tisch hopes this bursary will enable deserving Indigenous students to overcome barriers to education and employment.

“I had an interest in marking my years of service to the board with a gift that was personally meaningful, if possible spanning both chapters of my Queen’s education—politics and business.”

“After considering various options, I reflected on our firm’s purpose: to communicate truth and earn trust through relationships, to build a healthier, more sustainable society. That is impossible in Canada today without Indigenous reconciliation,” he wrote.

Tisch intends for this opportunity to uplift Indigenous scholars and their communities—especially those who may be admitted to Queen’s but otherwise struggle to fund their studies.

“We know that anyone accepted to Queen’s—particularly in these programs—will have high academic achievement, and the idea is therefore to reduce financial barriers to a Queen’s commerce education in particular.”

Tisch hopes that the bursary fund will continue to grow in the future with the support of donors.

“I would say that I just hope others will consider supporting the fund,” Tisch said in an interview with The Journal.

“It’s a fund that could grow over time, and I think it’d be wonderful as a community if Queen’s and its alumni could continue to expand the supports that are offered and remove the barriers to Indigenous students participating in a Queen’s education.”