Supporting community ambitions
Courtney Pringle-Carver has worked in the public, private, and non-profit sectors, and run for political office. In her many leadership roles, Pringle-Carver has remained a strong advocate for community and Maritime life. In 2021, she joined Mount Allison as Vice-President, University Advancement — leading the areas of development, alumni engagement, and marketing and communications.
Pringle-Carver sat down with the Record to share her Mount Allison experience and thoughts on the power of community and the University’s latest big projects.
Q: What has it been like getting to know Mount Allison over the last three years?
It’s been a privilege getting to better know the institution and what I have observed is that there is a real richness to the experience that Mount Allison offers to young people — and it doesn’t end when they graduate. It stays with them their entire life. There’s something special that happens on this campus. There’s a magic here. You would find broad agreement with this statement amongst our alumni.
Q: What’s it like connecting with Mount Allison alumni?
One of the really interesting things about meeting with alumni is you have the privilege of being instantly brought into a time in their life that continues to hold a richness for them. You hear wonderful, intensely personal stories about the impact Mount Allison had on their life, long after they left this beautiful campus.
I have found our alumni to be incredibly willing to share their insights and their hopes and aspirations for the University. They are always curious about what’s happening here today. They take a genuine delight in learning what’s new, what’s interesting.
There is something about Allisonians that makes them celebrate in the achievements of all Allisonians — not just their own, not just those of their particular class year or cohort, but those of all Allisonians, across generations. That is just one element of what makes the Mount Allison community unique. There is a deeply cherished, shared history.
Q: One of your chief roles as the Vice-President, University Advancement is leading Mount Allison’s fundraising efforts. What is your own outlook on philanthropy and in particular the role it plays in post-secondary education?
I believe that the surest way to achieve your dreams for the future is to ensure that young people can achieve the dreams of their own. The way you do that is by ensuring young people in their most formative years have the opportunity to learn not what to think, but how to think, and that’s what a university like Mount Allison provides.
Q: What’s it like working with Mount Allison donors?
Hearing their stories and hopes for Mount Allison is a great privilege. Each and every donor makes the unique Mount Allison experience possible. What I admire about our donors is that they give a great deal of thought to what matters most, what their values are, and how they can make a difference for future generations.
So many of our Mount Allison donors make gifts in honour of people who have been instrumental in their own lives, who have helped shape the quality of their life in some respect. I’ve known donors who have given to recognize a professor who showed them kindness 60 years earlier — and to acknowledge that kindness has never been forgotten.
That’s what the magic of Mount Allison is — there’s a deep understanding here of the significance of community and how your quality of life is determined by the relationships you have.
Q: The University recently announced a transformative renovation to its R.P. Bell Library and the construction of a new Multi-Sport Complex. What more can you tell us about this project?
This is an historic project and so important to the University’s future. The R.P. Bell Library is going to be completely renovated and, as part of that, there is a need to also construct a temporary library space. That temporary library will later become the University’s Multi-Sport Complex, which will both help expand the University’s capability to support all student-athletes — whether intramural or varsity — while also creating a unique offering for the broader Tantramar community. It’s easy to look at infrastructure projects as just bricks and mortar, but this is much more than that — this is a huge investment in the student experience and in the life of our campus, town, and region. In many ways, there has never been a better time to be a student at Mount Allison, or a member of this community.
These new infrastructure projects are scheduled to begin in 2025 and will hit various milestones until their anticipated completion in 2030. Friends of the University are making gifts to the project, seeing it as a real opportunity to honour past generations and invest in the future of the institution. I feel fortunate to be able to work with them on the very personal ways they plan to do this.
Q: Any final thoughts?
I understand this is a Q&A with me, but I really don’t want it to be about me. At the end of the day, my role is in service of everyone who came here and those who one day will. I try to orient myself in the history of this community and its intensely interesting, empathetic, and remarkable people. It’s their story; my role is helping them find personally meaningful ways to share it so that it is never forgotten.