Learning, upgraded

Simisola Ajayi remembers the Buller lab before and after its renovation.

When she was a biochemistry student at UM, the old lab did the job. But the renovated space brought more equipment, better lighting and updated safety features.

“The renovations weren’t just cosmetic,” Ajayi says.

The changes gave students experience with equipment and safety practices closer to what they could encounter in biotechnology, biopharmaceuticals or other professional lab settings.

“It definitely made the lab a better learning environment,” she says.

Across UM, more than 100 classrooms, labs and learning spaces have been renewed with support from the Richardson Foundation.

In 2016, the Foundation committed $10 million to upgrades across the Fort Garry and Bannatyne campuses, ranging from new technology and equipment to furnishings, flooring and audiovisual systems.

The investment responded to a university-wide need: ensuring the spaces where students learn could keep pace with the education and training happening inside them.

When the gift was announced in 2016, Hartley Richardson [BComm(Hons)/77, LLD/04], trustee of The Richardson Foundation and president and CEO of James Richardson & Sons, spoke about the role learning spaces can play in a student’s university experience.

“All of us who have been enriched by a university education can appreciate how critical the spaces and facilities are to the success of our experience,” Richardson said.

Ajayi saw that impact firsthand as a student. And years later, her connection to those investments has continued in a different way.

She went on to complete both a bachelor’s and master’s degree at UM before moving from science into donor relations. Today, she fundraises for the Faculty of Science, helping create some of the same kinds of opportunities she experienced as a student. 

Ajayi remembers seeing new labs and other improvements take shape during her studies. Those changes, she says, motivated her to do well and showed her what investment in students could make possible.

Her connection to science has continued in a different way. She may no longer spend her days in a lab, but she remains close to the research, students and spaces she now helps support.

For Ajayi, that work comes back to the opportunities education gave her.

“If I can help in any way with students getting better opportunities, better infrastructure, it definitely goes a long way,” she says. “It changes people’s lives. That’s just the truth.”