A gift and a new funding campaign from Loui Pappas (CivE 8T8, MASc 8T9) and his family will expand access to counselling and other services
When it comes to mental wellness, support from family is often vital. Now, one family in particular is working to extend that support across the entire U of T Engineering community.
Loui Pappas (CivE 8T8, MASc 8T9) and Sandra Gionas are the parents of Elena Pappas (ChemE 2T2). Inspired by her father’s example and her experiences at outreach programs such as the DEEP Summer Academy, Elena set her sights early on a career in engineering.
“I had great summers at those programs, and I really got hooked on the idea of solving complex problems through math and science,” she recalls.
“I was always dead set on being an engineer.”
After successfully achieving admission to U of T Engineering, Elena quickly made lots of friends among her fellow first year students. She enjoyed being part of the community but she soon found that the actual classwork was presenting more of a challenge than she had expected.
“I was really struggling to keep up, and during my final exam in first year, I had a full-blown panic attack,” she says.
“I failed that course, and others. I wasn’t able to meet the goals I set out for myself.”
Despite these challenges, her father Loui says that withdrawing was never an option for her.
“It was difficult seeing your child struggle that first year, but Elena was adamant that she was going to get through it somehow, and with help and by her own resilience, that’s exactly what she did,” he says.
Thanks to a referral by a friend, Elena ended up receiving a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The discovery enabled her to better understand where her challenges were coming from and to develop new learning and coping strategies.
She began second year as a part-time student, and soon was back on track, hunkering down the next few years and ultimately completing her degree in 2024. Today, she works in Calgary, Alberta as a Junior Project Coordinator at Lanmark Engineering Inc.
After graduating from U of T Engineering, Loui Pappas had spent more than three decades as a business leader at Morrison Hershfield, a Canadian-based multidisciplinary engineering firm originally founded in 1946 by two U of T Engineering professors. The firm was acquired by Stantec in early 2024 — and as a longstanding shareholder, Pappas now had the means to make a new kind of legacy contribution to U of T Engineering.
“Throughout my career, I have always enjoyed maintaining a relationship with and volunteering at the Faculty,” he says.
“I’ve spoken to students at career fairs, participated in the Faculty’s broad-based assessment program, contributed to scholarships and many other fundraising initiatives . I have also seen the impact to students that alumni have in giving back, and I always knew I too wanted to create a legacy at U of T Engineering. Elena’s experience again became top of mind.”
Sandra, a Trinity College graduate and former TV Ontario journalist, had covered mental health extensively in her research and reporting.
“It’s one of the most overlooked areas of health,” she says. “Cancer and heart disease raise a lot of money, but mental health doesn’t always inspire the same level of generosity. Elena’s generation has done tremendous work in breaking the stigma, and we wanted to contribute to that momentum, and recognize her efforts specifically.”
The family found the perfect fit in Skule™ Mental Wellness a student-run initiative within the Engineering Society that Elena herself once helped to establish.
Together, they are strengthening the Skule™ Mental Wellness Bursary, which was created by student, for students, back in 2021. The bursary provides financial aid to students facing challenges related to mental health. The award has helped dozens of students so far, but demand for the bursary far outpaces the current funding.
“The more we got into this, and had the chance to discuss the issue with Dean Chris Yip, the more we realized that immediate need is there in supporting mental health,” says Gionas.
“We are also strongly supportive of the fact that, as a student-run initiative, the students themselves can rally behind and socialize it to further grow the bursary.
“We’ve provided $20,000 initial funding for operational costs for two years, so that more students have immediate access to much needed counseling and support services. On top of that, we’ve also created a matching campaign to build up the bursary for the future, so that no students have to be turned away in the long term”. Donations to the bursary are open now, and will be matched by the Pappas family up to a maximum of $50,000 over the course of the next year.
“We know that the best and brightest kids from Canada and around the world are coming to U of T Engineering, the #1 program in Canada.” says Loui.
“We want to help keep them in the faculty, and not have them leave the profession because of challenges that can be overcome with support and perseverance. I personally want to know that I did whatever I could to leave my engineering profession in good hands.”
For Elena, the initiative closes the circle on her own experience. “At the end of the day, what students are dealing with when studying Engineering isn’t just school, it’s their lives,” she says.
“This project is about making sure that they can get where they want to. That’s been a huge theme in my personal story. It just makes me feel incredible that future students will be able to get that help as well.”
By Tyler Irving
This story originally published by Engineering News
Join the Pappas family in supporting engineering student mental health. Thanks to the generosity of the Pappas family, all donations will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to a campaign total of $50,000, and new monthly gifts will be matched for one year.