Welcome to the first edition of the School of Kinesiology’s Alumni newsletter. It has been some time since the School has had a staff member dedicated to our alumni. So, I am happy to say that our new Manager of Alumni and External Relations, Kate Castelo, has begun to run alumni focus and advisory groups to re-engage you in a meaningful and beneficial relationship with the School . I hope you will reach out to Kate and get involved to support our next phase of growth. Your support is vital to us!
You have a lot to be proud of in your alma mater! Over the last 5 years the School’s 23 research faculty have brought in $15 million in external funding and produced 860 publications, 45% of which were in the top 10% of world-ranked journals. The School is now featured prominently at UBC in research leadership through cross-cutting Research Clusters funded by the Provost’s office. The School’s graduate students are amongst the highest in tri-council funding success, and the BKIN degree is one of the most admissions-competitive programs at UBC. KIN student ratings of satisfaction are consistently amongst the highest across the university.
We are currently focused on one of our important strategic imperatives – overcoming our inadequate and outdated physical space. We have made progress with the recent opening of the new Chan Gunn Pavilion which houses the Alan McGavin Sports Medicine Clinic and the School’s Health and Integrative Physiology Lab. We have submitted a proposal to the UBC Executive for a new Kinesiology building to create a hub of knowledge that puts kinesiology in a central role in the realm of preventative healthcare. We will need a capital campaign for a portion of the cost, but we are confident that the many influencers and visionaries at UBC, within government, our alumni, and the wider community will share our aspirations to create a multi-use research, teaching, and community engagement facility in which our accumulated reserves of human capital can be optimized for the greater good of all.
We consider our alumni as our ambassadors, and we ask that you take time to talk to people in the School, to understand who and what the School is today, and to share this new understanding with as many other people as you can. Because if we and others in our spheres of influence commit to doing that – together – we can all contribute to raising funds for the School and writing the next chapter of this incredible story.
I wish you all a happy and safe holiday. I look forward to meeting you at upcoming events in the New Year.
Best wishes,
Rob Boushel
Professor and Director
School of Kinesiology