Miselta Ihekwoaba is a fifth-year Kinesiology student in the Interdisciplinary Stream. She joined the School of Kinesiology “because of how revered it was. It has allowed me to focus on the humanities aspects of sport and exercise, which exists in addition to extensive scientific education.” Miselta hopes to engage in research for organizations that will continue to address the many inequalities in sport, especially in a Canadian context. My positionality has led me to focus on the ways in which racism and settler-colonialism in sport intersect to affect newcomers’ experiences.”
One of Miselta’s favourite classes has been KIN 368 – Indigenous Sport & Physical Culture in Settler Canada. “Moss Norman did a great job of facilitating constant reflection of our past, present, and future actions in paying homage to the nurturers of the land we settled on.” Miselta is currently committed to strength training and yoga.
Miselta serves as a member of the KUS BIPOC Committee. She is a past Vice-President Governance and Administration of UBC Sororities, where she “spearheaded initiatives and policy changes to disrupt some of the harmful practices that continued to exist in Greek Life.” Miselta reflects, “I struggled very much to form a community in KIN before I formed communities elsewhere, and found that several individuals in these spaces happened to also be in KIN. Later on in my degree, I bonded with Black students and students of colour through our experiences in the School. While we were brought together over shared trauma, I’m grateful for the safe spaces we’ve created for ourselves. The work we’re doing will hopefully improve the experiences of underrepresented groups in this School.”
In addition to continuing her advocacy work, Miselta states, “I hope to further advance my career as a curve model as another one of my passions is to normalize big black bodies in spaces of health, wellness, and luxury.” She also wishes to help small businesses, organizations, and creatives develop a brand through graphic design. As a lover of languages, I hope to become more established in the revitalization of the world’s endangered languages – and to provide education on this, amongst my many other passions, in multilingual spaces.”
Pushhti Parekhh is a second-year Kinesiology student from Mumbai, India who is studying Neuromechanical and Physiological Science. She says she joined the KIN program to “learn about human kinetics and how it affects physical activity and life in the bigger picture. Pushhti was drawn, too, by “the opportunities for students to volunteer under a researcher and apply their theoretical learnings in a practical environment.” Pushhti aims to pursue a Physiotherapy degree at UBC and hopes to specialise in rehabilitation. Right now though, you can find her working as a Sushi chef at the new Brown’s Crafthouse on campus.
Some of Pushhti’s favourite classes have been KIN 110 – Human Anatomy, KIN 131 – Physiology with Dr. Anne Lasinsky and KIN 216 – Biomechanics with Paul Kennedy. “You could not have a better professor than Paul Kennedy to guide and support you through the course with his witty examples and funny class-starter stories.”
Pushhti held the role of Senior Orientation Leader (and back-up Orientation Leader) in 2020, and is now one of the Jump Start Orientation and Transition leaders, supporting first year Kinesiology students in Virtual Collegia. She is also a member of a Bollywood fusion Dance Club called UBC Junoon. “It’s a competitive dance team and we represented UBC and Canada at an International competition in Texas. UBC Junoon competed with 8 other USA teams and stood 3rd on the podium. It was a really big win for us as dancers and as students.” Pushhti also serves as one of the second-year representatives at UTSAV, the UBC Indian Students Association. “It is the largest club of the AMS and embraces the true spirit of South Asian Culture. It is a home-away-from-home for students and allows us to hold a variety of events every year to embrace South Asian festivals.”
When asked about the most important aspects she has learned from KIN so far, Pushhti states, “It doesn’t matter if we haven’t met face-to-face before, the most important thing is that we are all here for each other. Right now, our small messenger group chats make us all feel connected and no one is alone with their doubts and queries.”
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The UBC School of Kinesiology mourns the loss of its revered alumnus and professor emeritus, Dr. Bob Hindmarch, who passed away on February 20, 2021. His presence at UBC spanned more than 60 years, careers as an athlete, coach, director of UBC Athletics and professor of physical education in the School of Kinesiology. He was a dominant figure in both the School and in UBC Athletics.
While a student in UBC’s School of Kinesiology (then Physical Education), Bob was an outstanding all-around athlete playing Varsity football, baseball and basketball and upon graduating in 1953 was the recipient of the Bobby Gaul Award as UBC’s male athlete of the year.
From 1961 through to the end of the 1970s Bob taught in the UBC School of Kinesiology becoming a full professor in 1974. During the late 1950s, he served as UBC’s assistant football coach and director of intramurals. He would be asked to be General Manager and assistant coach of Canada’s 1964 Olympic hockey team, which was based at UBC, and which won the Olympic Bronze medal. Bob’s Olympic experience was followed by 12 seasons as head coach of UBC’s hockey team, the most successful era in team history. He coached only one losing season out of 12, setting a UBC hockey record with 214 victories.
As UBC director of Athletics from 1980 through 1990, it was Dr. Hindmarch’s Olympic connections and his creativity that fostered UBC’s relationships with universities and teams in Asia and Europe. As a result, he put UBC on the leading edge of university team tours together with exchanges of players, coaches and trainers. For decades UBC set the standard for travelling to and hosting teams from other countries.
The consummate builder and ‘people person’, Bob has been acknowledged in so many ways; he was Chef de Mission for Canada’s team at the 1984 Winter Olympics, was an inductee in the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, UBC Sports Hall of Fame and the BC Sports Hall of Fame. He was honoured with a UBC Alumni Achievement Award and earned the Order of British Columbia as well as the Order of Canada. His presence will be deeply missed amongst us all. Our sincere condolences go out to his family.
UBC is recognized as one of BC’s Top Employers in 2021. This designation recognizes the British Columbian employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional places to work and the most progressive and forward-thinking programs.
Some of the reasons UBC is selected as one of BC’s Top Employers this year:
- UBC organizes an annual Thrive event, a week-long series of activities to help employees and the campus community explore mental health.
- UBC encourages physical activity through the “Move U Crew”, a group of specialists with experience in fitness, dance, stretching and other recreational activities who provide guided movement breaks in classes, conferences, and meetings, and hosting guided walks. (Learn more about Move UBC and events taking place!)
Congratulations to Betty Baxter (BPE ’75), for her Hall of Fame Induction, highlighting her career in volleyball!
Betty played volleyball at UBC and was a member of the Thunderbirds team that won back-to-back National Inter-university Sport titles in 1972-73 and 1973-74. In 1974 she was named BC’s University Athlete of the Year. Betty is also a co-founder of the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport and the National Coaching School for Women.