The International Conference on Health Promoting Universities and Colleges was held in Kelowna from June 22nd – 25th, 2015. Hear what some students from the Vancouver campus who attended the conference had to say about their experiences.
Video by: Kaavya Lakshmanan, Communications Assistant
Post by: Kaavya Lakshmanan, Communications Assistant
Erika Sagert has lived all over the world.
Born in Canada, the second year master’s student in Urban Planning lived in the United States, the Middle East, and Scandinavia, before eventually returning to Canada. This unique upbringing shaped the way Sagert views wellbeing.
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Joan Bottorff, Professor, UBC Okanagan
Dr. Joan Bottorff admits she has a case of sitting disease, and if you’re a student or work at a desk in a 9-5 job, chances are you have this, too.
Bottorff, a professor at the School of Nursing at UBC Okanagan, spends most of her time at work sitting. Even though she exercises every morning, she thinks UBC’s work climate needs to change. “There is research to show that we need to start changing the environment so that people are encouraged to be active throughout the day.”
“Even though there are yoga classes and there is a gym on campus, these don’t integrate well into my faculty day, because I don’t have time during the day to get away to the gym,” she added.
Bottorff, who is also the Director for the Institute of Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention, is involved in research focused on cancer prevention. Bottorff and her team have designed smoking cessation interventions for new fathers and young men. She has also worked with community partners to develop a new program to prevent cancer by promoting physical activity and healthy eating in male-dominated workplaces.
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Qiuning Wang, Community Engagement and Volunteer Coordinator, UNA
The first thing you’ll notice when you meet Qiuning Wang is that she’s a woman who wears many hats. Not only is she a University Neighbourhoods Association (UNA) staff member, she’s also a UNA resident, UBC alumna, mom, and somewhat recent immigrant to Canada.
Wang, who originally hails from a town in the northwest part of China, moved to Vancouver from Beijing in 2008. After trying out different temp jobs, she made the decision to go back to school, and graduated from the School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC in 2012. She eventually found a job at the UNA as a Community Engagement and Volunteer Coordinator.
“At the beginning, my main focus was to really streamline the procedure of volunteer coordination and management,” she said.
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Andy Wang, Volunteer, Youth Leadership Program
Andy Wang is one of many students who live on the Vancouver campus and attend the local high school, University Hill Secondary.
A resident of Hampton Place, Wang volunteers at the University Neighbourhoods Association (UNA), as part of the UTown@UBC Youth Leadership Program. A joint initiative with Campus and Community Planning, this program offers teenagers an opportunity to make an impact in the UBC community while gaining volunteer hours.
“Every Friday, from 4 to 7:30, we will meet. We plan events, for example for Lunar New Year or Halloween,” said Wang.
As a 10th grader, Wang has experienced the pressures of being a high school student.
“As you go higher in grade, there’s a bit of stress mentally, because of high workload. That, I think, affects your wellbeing a lot,” said Wang.
Wang also cites the need to sit in a classroom for 8 hours as a source of stress.
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Stephanie Aitken, Sustainability Scholar, UBC Wellbeing Initiative
If you ask Stephanie Aitken what wellbeing means to her, she’ll tell you it’s like a garden. “It’s never finished. A garden is always growing and it’s always changing, and you’re never going to be like, ‘Okay, I’m done. I’m well now and I don’t need to take care of it anymore.’”
Aitken, a grad student in Landscape Architecture and Sustainability Scholar at the UBC Wellbeing Initiative, has had plenty of experience working on wellbeing initiatives at UBC. She created the Health & Wellness rep position on her program’s student council after struggling with health issues. “I got quite ill in my first year in Landscape Architecture,” said Aitken. “I felt like there wasn’t really a lot of support for students who were maybe having a bit of a tough time.”
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The AMS Academic Experience Survey was recently distributed to UBC Vancouver undergraduate students. We caught up with Daniel Munro, Associate Vice President, Academic and University Affairs, to tell us about some of the major findings.
Universities and colleges from around the world will come together at UBC’s Okanagan campus in Kelowna, B.C., for four days in June to share their experiences and develop new strategies to create healthier communities on their campuses and beyond.