Giving Tuesday is coming up on Dec. 1, and for Patrick Shu, the global day of generosity is a reminder of just how important support from the Queen’s community can be for students like him.
The fourth-year Smith Engineering student is the president of the Queen’s Lunar Exploration Team (QLET), formerly called the Queen's Human Exploration Rover Challenge team. It's a student-led design team that builds rovers capable of traversing the kinds of challenging terrain engineers need to think about as humans prepare to return to the moon through NASA's Artemis missions.
Every year, QLET puts their rover to the test through NASA’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge, an international competition in Huntsville, Alabama, home of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. This year, QLET has been accepted into both the human-powered and remote-controlled divisions – something only 10 teams worldwide and the only team in Canada achieved.
Getting to this point has taken more than just good ideas, says Shu. QLET relies on access to labs, machine shops, funding, industry sponsors, and other supports from Queen’s alumni and friends to turn their ideas into working machines.
It's the kind of backing Giving Tuesday is designed to make possible.
“It’s a unique opportunity for Queen's students to present their ideas to NASA,” says Shu of the value of that support to QLET. “Team members gain more than just technical experience. They develop industry specific aerospace skills and learn to collaborate in a realistic team environment.”
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Members of what was then the Queen’s Human Exploration Rover Challenge (QHERC) team celebrate at the 2025 NASA Human Exploration Rover Challenge in Huntsville, Alabama. Now known as the Queen’s Lunar Exploration Team (QLET), the team won the Ingenuity Award twice and a Pit Crew Award in its first two years of competition. (Photo: QLET)
Shu’s experience is far from unique at Queen’s.
Oluwamismi Oluwole, BNSc’26, for instance, co-founded the Queen’s Sickle Cell Awareness Group of Ontario while studying in the School of Nursing.
Third-year computing student Chloe Houvardas won first prize at the Hackseoul Global Hackathon by creating an app that turns cooking videos into easy-to-follow recipes.
And Esther Vlessing, MBA’26, is developing a microbe-based insect repellent through her company, Cloak Biotech, to advance global health and biosecurity innovation.
Across Queen’s, students are finding innovative ways to put learning into practice, thanks to the generosity of the wider Queen’s community.
For many students, though, access to these opportunities begins with making a Queen’s education financially possible. In 2024-25, Queen’s provided $40.6 million in financial assistance to 7,970 students, with nearly half of that support made possible through donors.
Support for students takes other forms, too. This September, more than 930 donors contributed over $315,000 during Queen’s Athletics and Recreation’s annual Giving Day campaign, supporting 60 varsity teams, clubs, and student-athletes.
Giving Tuesday on Dec. 1 is another chance for Queen’s alumni and friends to come together in support of students across the university and the experiences that help shape the next generation of leaders.
For Patrick Shu, his next step could be a career in aerospace. He recently completed an internship in the industry and hopes to return to the field after graduation.
He sees QLET as critical to his preparation.
“QLET – and design teams in general – are such unique experiences that give you the full stack of the engineering design process,” he says. “I’m so thankful for this and for the support our team gets.”
Learn more about supporting Queen’s students through the Queen’s Fund this Giving Tuesday.
