This year, a tremendous group of peers were nominated for four individual and three project awards. All the nominees made outstanding contributions to UBC Peer Programs in 2011/12. Congratulations to all of this years nominees and winners!

Individual Awards

ABOVE AND BEYOND AWARD - a peer who displayed consistent passion, initiative and hard work for all things Peer Programs.

• Sarah Eden from the Wellness Peer Program
• Jin Lee from the International Peer Program
• Rebecca Leung from the International Peer Program
• Wendy Ming from Science Peer Academic Coaches
• Catherine Tsai from Equity Ambassadors
• Paige Zhang from the Wellness Peer Program

EMERGING LEADER AWARD - a peer, in their first year with UBC Peer Programs, who demonstrated outstanding growth and development as a leader.

• Aaron Bai from the Science Peer Academic Coaches
• Rojin Kaviani from the International Peer Program
• Matthew Piva from Career Peers
• Erin Roeder from the Kinesiology Transition Program
• Teng Teng Liu from Equity Ambassadors
• Michael Tjong from Equity Ambassadors

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - a peer who has made outstanding contributions to UBC Peer Programs over the course of three or more years.

• Claire Heymans from SCI Team
• Rebeca Menini from the International Peer Program
• Justine Wardle from the Wellness Peer Program

MOST LIKELY TO BECOME A UBC ADVISOR AWARD - a peer with the skills and personality best suited to becoming an advisor in UBC Peer Programs.

• Jin Lee from the International Peer Program
• Paige Zhang from Wellness Peers

Group Awards

MOST INNOVATIVE - the group, project or initiative that best demonstrated fresh and creative thinking in the 2011/12 academic year.

• Friends with Benefits: Social Support Networks for Academic Success, a joint workshop from IPP and Wellness, presented at the CLASS conference
• The International Women’s Day Project, an event and campaign presented by the Equity Ambassadors
• The Kinesiology Transition Program, a brand new Peer Program
• Celebration of Thanks, an initiative led by the International Peer Program

BEST COLLABORATIVE – the group, project or initiative that best embodied the spirit of working together, sharing ideas and being inclusive.

• The Intercultural Understanding Presentation, a collaboration between IPP, SPAC, the Peer Academic Coaches and PPEC
• Coaches Corner, a peer coaching program and collaboration between IPP, SPAC and the Peer Academic Coaches
• The Science Wellness Fair, organized by SCI Team, SPEC, the Wellness Peers and the Science Undergraduate Society

MOST INFLUENTIAL – the group, project or initiative that had the strongest positive impact on Peer Programs and the wider UBC Community.

• The Know Your Status Campaign, led by the Wellness Peers
• The Beyond the B.Sc. event, organized by SCI Team

The year is coming to a close, and as such, it is time to reflect on the accomplishments made throughout Peer Programs. Keeping this in mind, I think that this may be the ideal forum for me to present the work of the newly formed Accessibility Working Group.

This year, I was able to serve in the Accessibility Working Group, a team of Peer Programs students working to ensure that all events and activities put forth by Peer Programs are able to be enjoyed by all members of the student body. Needless to say, the task was initially daunting; how does one even start to find a way to make every event able to be enjoyed by every student? After a year trying to answer that question, it is every bit as difficult to answer as you may think.

In the end, the group has now decided to publish a series of brochures; each of these brochures will discretely cover a certain step in planning an event, such as choosing a venue or planning activities. Each brochure will present useful information for event planners in order to assist them in planning an event able to be attended by all students, including those with exceptionalities.

The first of these brochures may be ready for distribution as early as September of next year, so be on the lookout for them around the CSI!

Matthew Piva
Career Peer
2nd Year Physiology

Members of the Equity Ambassadors.

The Equity Ambassadors program is growing and changing. We are currently planting the seeds for an Intercultural Symposium that will take place in March of 2013. The idea for this initiative was brought forward by the EA team, who felt that there could be a third conference could be added to the calendar, along side the SLC (Student Leadership Conference) and CLASS (Conference for Learning and Academic Student Success).

The Intercultural Symposium at UBC will be a one-day event where interactive workshops and presentations get the conversation started about intercultural learning. To reiterate Matthew’s last blog post, intercultural understanding is a necessary skill that all UBC community members should have. It often involves taking the risk in having tough conversations, but these conversations are invaluable in creating that sense of community. Unfortunately, the average day at UBC does not have a lot of opportunity to engage in these high-risk dialogues.

In fact, the community norm at UBC is the exact opposite—students can easily associate with people who they identify closely with and no one outside that group. This is a problem and a big one at that. Intercultural Understanding is a part of UBC’s Place and Promise Plan: “The University engages in reflection and action to build intercultural aptitudes, create a strong sense of inclusion, and enrich our intellectual and social life.”

Our hope is that the Intercultural Symposium will be a stepping stone in reaching the larger Intercultural Understanding goal that is part of UBC’s Place and Promise Plan. Stay tuned for more information on how to be part of the executive planning committee of the Intercultural Symposium!

Kyuwon Kim
4^th Year BSc. Natural Resources Conservation
Equity Ambassadors

Update: We are no longer accepting nominations. 

The third annual Peer Programs Awards are coming up at our End-of-Year Celebration on March 27th.

Do you know an outstanding peer who you think deserves to be recognized for their hard work? What about a group, project or event that really stood out? If so, then nominate them! Nominations are quick and easy and are your way of recognizing exceptional contributions to UBC Peer Programs in 2011/12.

This years awards are:

Group:

• Best Collaborative
• Most Influential
• Most Innovative

Individual:

• Lifetime Achievement
• Emerging Leader
• Above & Beyond
• Most Likely to Become an Advisor

What’s next?

Step 1. Think of an individual or project in Peer Programs that you think should be recognized.

Step 2. Read the criteria for the each award.

Step 3. Complete a submission form before March 21st, 2012.

Step 4. Attend the Peer Programs End-of-Year Celebration on March 27th, 2012 to see the winners!

This seminar will be a guided Jackson Pollock paint splatter workshop. Pollock changed his paint colours based on his mood and would drip, splatter or splash paints across his canvases. Each person will choose their own colours and create their own painting, as well as have the chance to contributing to a larger group painting . No experience is required and all levels are welcome.

This workshop is part of the Week of Hope campaign sponsored by the UBC Suicide Awareness Committee.

Date: Thursday, March 22, 2012
Time: 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Location: 4 Cats Art Studio – 3730 West 10th Avenue
Cost: Free!

Register for this free workshop.

Certificate of Leadership and the UBC Global Lounge presents…

Do you want to learn practical skills, gain ideas and be inspired to be an agent of change? Join us at the Global Leadership for Social Change Professional Development Day!

Learn practical skills, gain ideas and inspiration to become an agent of change
- Lunch and refreshments provided throughout the day!
- Attend one, two or all 4 workshops
- Students attending the entire day of workshops will receive a Global Leadership for Social Change certificate of completion

Guest Presenter: David Jang
Director, Marketing, Communications & Brand at CBC

Register for free.

Earlier last month, on February 7, many presentations were held throughout the Peer Programs community on the topic of intercultural understanding. For those of you who didn’t receive the sterling opportunity to see one of these presentations, I suppose this blog could serve as your cheat-sheet.

1. Definition: First off, intercultural understanding as an idea implies an interconnectedness and exchange between different cultures; think of it as a free-flow of all types of information across any visible or invisible human boundaries or differences. This idea is quite different from the idea of multiculturalism, which essentially entails peaceful coexistence…and not much else.
2. Importance: Intercultural understanding at UBC is important in that it enhances respect for diversity in all forms, increases the likelihood of engaging others in “high-risk conversations” which are very frequently beneficial, enforces a positive sense of affiliation with the larger community, and influences us to act in a socially and ecologically just manner.
3. What we can do: Intercultural understanding is an important initiative on the UBC campus, and Peer Programs, certainly being an indicatively diverse group of students, is poised to be very valuable in the process. Keep an eye and an ear out for future events on this topic.

That’s it! You are now (basically) up to speed.

Matthew Piva
2^nd year Physiology
Career Peer Program

When: Friday, March 23, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm

Where: Dodson Room, Chapman Learning Commons,IKBLC

QPR stands for Question, Persuade, Refer. QPR Gatekeeper Training is a suicide prevention program that provides the knowledge needed to reach out to a friend, peer, student, family member, or colleague who may be experiencing suicidality and connect them to resources that will help.

QPR Gatekeepers are those in a position to recognize the warning signs that someone may be contemplating suicide. Once trained, Gatekeepers will have the knowledge needed to assist someone in crisis.

This workshop is open to any UBC student; no prior experience or knowledge is required.

Register online: https://secure.students.ubc.ca/workshops/health.cfm#2440

When: 6:30pm-8pm, March 9
Where: Hennings 201

UBC Professors Colin Gay and Douglas Scott will describe how modern science combines probes of the innermost regions of particles with the outermost regions of the Universe to answer fundamental questions such as: what is everything made of? why do some particles have mass? where did the Universe come from, and what is its ultimate fate?

Colin Gay is part of the ATLAS team, which uses the LHC particle accelerator to study physics at the highest energies and smallest scales. Douglas Scott is part of the Planck satellite team, exploring the cosmology at the largest scales and earliest times. The “inner space” and “outer space” come together in a combined investigation to understand the essential features of the Universe in which we live.

This free public lecture is part of the UBC Celebrate Research Week. The lecture will be held in Hennings room 201 on UBC Vancouver campus (see map http://www.maps.ubc.ca/?652)

Please contact Theresa Liao, Communications Coordinator (communications@phas.ubc.ca), UBC Physics & Astronomy if you have any questions or need additional information.

When: 12:30-3:30pm March 8
Where: Jack Bell Rm 028, Lower Level, 2080 West Mall, UBC

12:30-1:00pm Catered buffet lunch.
1:00-2:30pm Panelist Dr. Anna Carastathis, Dr. Benita Bunjun, Dr. Eunyoung Choi, Manuela Valle and Natalie Hill will present research on women’s rights, lives, and experiences and explore the problems and advantages of International Women’s Day in its current construction.
1:45-3:30pm Introduction of a new website dedicated to issues related to women’s suffrage, both in Canada and around the world. Dr. Veronica Strong-Boag.

www.wmst.ubc.ca
604-822-9171