At a time when school teachers everywhere are being challenged by the second wave of the pandemic and by technological advances that are changing where, when and how students learn, McGill’s Faculty of Education is pleased to announce over $7 million in new philanthropic support through a pair of generous gifts from longstanding donors.

The first gift, totalling $4.8 million, is a bequest from the late Mary (Marie) Marsh, DipEd’42, an elementary school teacher whose generous spirit and love of the profession first led her to create a suite of entrance bursaries, scholarships and fellowships at McGill in 2009. Most of the funds from her estate will boost her existing awards, resulting in an exponential increase in the amount of needs-based and merit-based funding available to future educators. Another portion has been targeted to support students working on inclusive education projects.

The second, a gift of $2.5 million from The Molson Foundation, will support the CoLab, a new partnership between the Faculty of Education and Montreal’s Trafalgar School for Girls. The CoLab aims to bring researchers and educators together to develop best practices in teaching and learning practices that can be directly applied to the classroom experience. The investment represents the first half of a $5-million commitment from the foundation in honour of McGill’s upcoming bicentennial.