From service manager to student success story: Ryan

After spending a dozen years working his way up to manager and service adviser in the automotive sector, Ryan Topping left his job in 2021 to pursue his lifelong interest: law enforcement. Enrolling in the Police Foundations program at Algonquin College meant giving up a great salary, but what he gains in return is an opportunity to serve his community.

Topping, 31, studied online during his first two semesters. He now drives his 2015 Toyota Corolla an hour to the Ottawa Campus and back to his home in Maxville each day. He receives financial help from the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) and works 40 to 50 hours a week as a security guard.

He is grateful he received three bursaries that helped ensure he could keep his finances on track and continue to make the journey to campus when faced with the recent jump in gas prices and other costs.

More than that, though, the bursaries motivate him to do better, to strive to reach his full potential, because they mean someone he doesn’t even know believes in him. Topping says experience has taught him even small amounts of help, whether money or time, can offer big payoffs.

“I volunteer with the Big Brothers Big Sisters [organization] and I spend just an hour a week with my ‘little’ sometimes. And I can see the development with him even given just the short time that I have with him,” says Topping, who adds he also takes his young mentee on adventures like trips to Calypso Waterpark. “I always wanted to help people. That was my overwhelming goal.”

Despite his packed schedule – Topping also makes time to go to the gym and visit family and friends – he has achieved a 3.56 cumulative GPA, or an A-. His road to excellence has not been easy, though, which makes the bursaries and his current success even more meaningful.

Topping, who grew up in Ottawa, struggled in high school. After graduating in 2012, he started the same program he’s now thriving in before dropping out after a year. He gravitated to the automotive sector, where his mother and brother both work. Looking back, he can see that while he had a great work ethic, cultivated by time spent working on his mother’s family dairy farm outside the city, he needed time to mature.

Now, he’s a leader among his younger classmates, who come to him with questions because of his experience and his willingness to help, and following in the footsteps of his paternal grandfather, a longtime Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officer. Topping aspires to detective work, like robbery and homicide investigations.

He’s also open to further schooling to realize his goals: “What I’ve learned from being at Algonquin, especially at the age that I’m at now, is that you are never too old to learn more.” Never too old to learn, and never too old to be spurred on by others believing in your success and cheering you on. The Giving Tuesday Heart.

You can help more students like Ryan with your Giving Tuesday donation! Every dollar you give from Nov. 24 to Nov. 28 will be matched to double your impact, on a first-come, first-served basis.

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