Cenovus invests $2M in UCalgary programs to advance inclusion and diversity

With an investment of $2 million at the University of Calgary, Cenovus Energy is on a mission to change lives and advance inclusion in education.

Calgary-based energy company Cenovus is investing $2 million to strengthen five existing UCalgary initiatives to improve Indigenous access to education and advance inclusion.

Making the announcement at the Collision Lab at the University of Calgary last week, senior vice president of Cenovus’ People Services, Susan Anderson, said investments like these benefit the university, the community, the workforce and also the society as a whole — with diversity of thoughts as well as talent.

“We have a broad student program that helps bring us those qualities, as well as including hiring over 380 students this year with a focus on all of those,” she said. “And so I would say the purpose of this investment is to make sure that those people are supported in their educational journey and make sure that they’re able to go into the workforce with all the skills that they need.”

Amongst the speakers at the event was Lourdes Juan, who is a female entrepreneur with five businesses now, but initiated her food rescue startup through one of these five UCalgary initiatives, called UCeed.

“UCeed was our first money, a few months ago, so they took a chance on our business and we’ve seen some progress with the commercialization of our platform and that was with the help of the UCeed funds,” she said.

Lourdes says programs like these give women entrepreneurs not only a great platform and resources but also substantial funding to set up a business strategically that they would otherwise struggle to launch.