“Knowing that people are enjoying their undergraduate experience with the help of CASA gives me a lot of joy,” says CASA president Demetre Christopoulos, seated fourth from left, surrounded by his CASA colleagues.
“I wanted not just to get a degree but to use university as an opportunity to grow as a person,” says Bishop Thomas Dowd, BComm 92, Concordia’s CASA’s legacy of support for fellow John Molson students dates back to when Thomas Dowd, BComm 92, served as president of the association.
Dowd, now Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario, says that his time as a Concordia undergraduate was “life-changing,” thanks in no small part to his involvement with CASA.
“We wanted to encourage the faculty to recruit and retain a more diverse population of students,” says Dowd of the bursary fund’s genesis. “It was an obvious way to help and a show of solidarity from one group of students to another.”
Without his CASA experience, adds Dowd, he may have never considered the priesthood.
“I had never been involved in student life prior to Concordia,” he admits. “But I quickly realized that there were elements of my skill set that I wanted to focus on, both socially and leadership-wise. I wanted not just to get a degree but to use university as an opportunity to grow as a person.
“Through CASA, I learned how to network, how to run a meeting and how to work with a board. Advocating for and serving students was very transformative and rewarding.”
CASA president Demetre Christopoulos says that being able to help his fellow students is “incredibly fulfilling.”
