First generation student thankful for life-changing gift

Amanuel Gessess is the proud recipient of a $10,000 Bennett Entrance Award for First Generation Students. This renewable award assists high school graduates who are the first generation in their family to attend university.

Amanuel won’t forget how he reacted when he received the award. (Neither will his neighbours.) “When I opened the email it was around 10 o'clock at night and my siblings were sleeping and my parents were watching the evening news in the living room,” he recalls. “When I tell you I probably woke the neighbours up, I'm not joking! I ran down the stairs to show my parents and they were ecstatic.”

The Bennett Awards were created by a lead gift from The Bennett Family Foundation to the President’s Awards to Champion Excellence (PACE). In addition to the awards for first-generation students, half of the foundation’s gift was used to create awards at Ryerson for Indigenous students. That support was matched by Indspire.

Currently in his first year of Accounting and Finance at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Amanuel was born in Sudan to Ethiopian parents. His family moved to Canada when Amanuel was just five-years-old.

Amanuel is leaning towards a career in finance after he completes his Ryerson education. “I have always had an interest in numbers and how money works. In high school, I had amazing teachers that showed me new concepts of accounting and finance,” he says.

The Bennett scholarship has allowed Amanuel to pay his tuition without working part-time over the summer. “I can now take summer courses to finish faster and help my family. Hopefully, I can be in a position to pay the tuition of my youngest brother Dawit, and sister Mekdes.”

Amanuel also has some words for the generous people who have made his Ryerson experience possible. “You have literally changed the trajectory of my life and expectations. Thank you so much.”