Those who knew her will remember Allison Borges as a nurturing and highly-involved student who never boasted about her many successes.
Allison, CompSci ’13, died from a sudden medical condition in her Kingston house on Oct. 9. She was 19.
Her father, Caesar Borges, said Allison was the oldest of his and wife Cabrina’s three children. “She was the backbone to our family,” he said. “She was a very good role model to our children and to all the kids here in the school community.”
From a young age, Allison dreamed of coming to Queen’s. After experimenting with several courses, she found her passion in computer science.
Her father said she dreamed of working in animation, and was planning on enrolling at Sheridan College in her hometown of Oakville for an animation degree after finishing.
“Her dream was to work at either Disney or Pixar,” he said.
Allison was a natural leader and a straight-A student. She didn’t go home for Thanksgiving weekend this year because she wanted to study for her midterms.
“She received a lot of awards, to her she never thought about the awards, she thought about contributing,” Borges said.
By Grade 1 Allison was already involved in numerous extracurricular activities.
“She was acting, she sang, she did a lot of volunteer work, she was involved in the yearbook,” Borges said.
Allison was someone who went out of her way to answer people’s questions.
“She was my go-to person. I didn’t need a 1-800 number, it was 1-800 Allison,” Borges said.
Even during her teenage years, Allison never clashed with her parents.
“We never, ever in her 19 years had a single conflict,” he said. “She never thought that there was any person less than someone else, she treated everybody very well.”
Borges said the 400-person attendance at her funeral yesterday was a testament to how many people’s lives she touched.
“We didn’t know how many people Allison knew,” he said. “We realized that she had a presence online as well with several people from all over the world.”
Allison worked for Queen’s Telefundraising Services (QTS), first as a caller last year and then as a team leader.
Jo Minhinnett, ArtSci ’12, worked under Allison’s supervision as a caller. Her last shift with Allison was last week.
“We had a good time on Friday [Oct. 7] ,” Minhinnett said. “At one point during the shift she came over and sat down and started talking to me. She just wanted to get to know me, I hadn’t had a shift leader do that before.”
She said Allison was a positive person who loved working at QTS.
“I got together with our QTS family [Wednesday] night and everyone was just saying how much she loved the job at QTS and she really treated everyone as part of her family,” she said.
University Chaplain Brian Yealland said there will be a memorial service on campus for Allison in the coming weeks.
“To lose someone like that is just a profound shock for the University,” he said. “It shocks the rest of the University as well, even those that didn’t know her personally.”
— Katherine Fernandez-Blance
Students can contact Health, Counselling and Disability Services at (613) 533-6000 ext. 78264.
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