December 2025

Photo: SFU students studying between classes.

In this issue: A Q&A with an alumnus, year-end giving, celebration of authors, alumni in the news, and more!

☃️ Please note that SFU will be closed starting December 25 and will re-open on January 2.

Fueling the future with generosity

Before graduating in October, Philip Huynh made the remarkable decision to create a student award in sustainable transportation. His goal? To support current SEE students and spark innovation in transportation decarbonization.

Hear from Philip

Help SFU students this holiday season

DYK: This year, 3,200+ scholarships, awards, and bursaries supported students—thanks to SFU’s generous donors. Even small gifts make a big impact: 10 people giving $100 can create a meaningful award for a student in need.

Please consider making a difference in the lives of SFU students—and get a 2025 tax receipt—by making your gift online by Dec. 31, 2025. DYK: if you donate to the FOOD PROGRAM, every dollar you give will be matched by SFU, doubling your impact, up to $60,000

Learn more & give today!

Calling all authors!

The Celebration of Authors is back! It’s a university-wide event that publicly acknowledges and honours community members—including alumni—who have authored or co-authored a publication, or its equivalent, within the 2025 calendar year. Deadline to submit your work: January 7, 2026.

Types of work considered for submission include books, book chapters, musical compositions, audio recordings, film/video recordings and more!

View the criteria for submissions

SFU Archives creates walking tour of SFU

A new historical walking tour of SFU is available for download thanks to SFU Archives. The tour highlights buildings and landscaping completed between 1963 and 1967. Through recorded oral history excerpts, Chancellor Gordon Shrum tells the story behind the selection of the Burnaby Mountain site and details of the architectural competition, while archival images bring this exciting time to life.

Check it out!

In case you missed it...

SFU Beedie MBA alumnus Fattah Haeri honoured with Mitacs award for health tech innovation SFU story

Know the risks: SFU study highlights gaps in avalanche safety awareness among snowshoers and winter hikers SFU story

Art teacher and SFU alumnus Perry Rath wins national award CBC Daybreak

Thanks to the generous support of our donor community, we were able to create 42 new annual and endowed awards, scholarships, and bursaries. SFU story

Three graduate students tackling real-world problems with the support of a scholarship. SFU article

Thanks to the support of our donor and alumni community, this past fiscal year we’ve created vital student awards, opened the Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum, and more. LinkedIn video

FYI: We share news on our social channels and link to news articles featuring alumni in our alumni in the news section of the website. Follow us to keep up-to-date on alumni and SFU news!

Upcoming events

Dec 9 | MBA Mini Class: Internal Controls and You (Accounting Made Approachable) Online
Dec 9 | Info Session – MA/MEd Teaching English as an Additional Language Online
Dec 17 | Lunch Poems presents Amber Dawn & jaye simpson Vancouver
Dec 31 | Deadline to make a donation to receive a tax receipt for 2025 Online
Dec 25 – Jan 1 | SFU Winter Closure

⭐️ Did you know: SFU alumni have access to a variety of discounts, including to Rogers Communications, Vancouver Canucks, Vancouver Warriors, PNE, BAK'D Cookies, Dilawri, and more! Explore your discounts

Access your alumni benefits

Looking for home or tenant insurance? In need of health/dental or life insurance? A credit card with rewards? Learn about the many products our affinity partners offer SFU alumni.

Our partnerships provide high quality products and services for our alumni. In return, our partners contribute financially to SFU Alumni, which enables us to fund scholarships and bursaries, plan events, deliver programming and more.

Explore your options!