Frank Mckenna announces $20-million StFX scholarship donation

Frank Mckenna announced a $20-million scholarship donation to St. Francis Xavier University, tying the gift to a campus he first entered in 1966 at age 18. The McKenna Scholars Program opens for applications this year, with the first cohort set to matriculate in September 2027.

The program will award $2-million in scholarships annually for the next 10 years and is planned to distribute 192 scholarships overall. Sixty scholarships will go in the first year, with awards ranging from $20,000 to $125,000 over four years.

StFX gift details

McKenna said, "When we had a chance as a family, we all agreed that StFX is where we should try to make a major philanthropic impact" and added, "We love all the traditions, we love our friendships and we want to give back." He also said, "We see this as the family university now."

The program includes 30 top scholarships valued at $30,000 per year. Those scholars will also receive a dedicated $5,000 in their third year to fund international study abroad, which McKenna described this way: "It hugely supplements a formal education" and, "We very much want the leaders that we’re going to produce to be citizens of the world."

Andrew Hakin on the gift

Andrew Hakin, St. Francis Xavier University’s president, said the McKenna family’s gift is the largest private philanthropic donation in the university’s history. He said it would "produce transformational change in the way we bring students to StFX" and added, "To see such a gift and such generosity to be given to a school is rare, and it takes leadership to do that,"

The family connection runs through several generations. McKenna was the only one of his eight brothers and sisters to go to college, and 15 members of his family have attended St. Francis Xavier University. Julie McKenna and their daughter both met their husbands at StFX, and granddaughter Ella Smith is the clan’s latest alumna.

Antigonish and the McKenna family

St. Francis Xavier University is in Antigonish, N.S., a town of about 5,000 approximately 160 kilometres northeast of Halifax. The university’s staff and students more than double the town’s population when they return to campus, and McKenna’s family said the scholarship program is aimed at strengthening that connection through new students arriving over the next decade.