Bandara, Nilanga Aki

Nilanga (Aki) Bandara, 1st year Master of Kinesiology student.

Aki states, “the pandemic has completely changed our ways of life. Evidence from health care professionals working on the frontlines shows that their mental health has been negatively impacted by the pandemic.”

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Nilanga (Aki) Bandara is an impressive first-year Master of Kinesiology student who arrived with a Bachelor of Science in Food Nutrition and Health. He is a top student with many projects, ambitions and goals, who is aiming to go to Medical School upon his graduation from KIN. His passion lies in international and local issues concerning the health of youth as well as those of healthcare workers.

Aki is recognized as a KIN Community Champion due to his leadership, research initiatives and advocacy work. He displays strong KIN values through his multiple research projects, one of which focuses on the well-being of healthcare workers serving on the frontline of COVID-19. You will find this research project listed on the official UBC COVID-19 Research pages. He and his research partners are presently focused on investigating and promoting awareness of self-care strategies for healthcare professionals during the pandemic. Aki states, “the pandemic has completely changed our ways of life. Evidence from healthcare professionals working on the frontlines shows that their mental health has been negatively impacted by the pandemic. Our work advocates for systems-level changes, so that healthcare professionals have the support they need to take care of themselves and the patients they treat.”

Aki is also researching the impacts of vaping on adolescents and the likely increased risk to them of becoming sick with COVID-19. He states that “there is a potential for confusion between the symptoms of COVID-19 and symptoms of EVALI, an e-cigarette or vaping product, associated with lung injury that can impact lungs in a similar way to COVID-19.”

Aki is interested in working with other students on his e-cigarette research topic. He invites students to email him at: n.bandara@alumni.ubc.ca.

Maxwell, Jenna

Jenna was a student who held down three jobs to help her get through university. Initially, Jenna thought she would teach children sport skills outside of a traditional organized sport environment. “I was always the kid who didn’t fit in in sports because I was lanky and uncoordinated and I also had ADD, so it was hard for me to focus in organized environments. I wanted to help children learn coordination and basic movement patterns in a different manner. She has since evolved this vision to working with adults who want to learn to become fit. She reflects, “I have had to teach myself how to be athletic so I find it quite easy to break complex movements down to teach people in an accessible way.”
Jenna attributes her ability to think out of the box to her favourite KIN professor Dr. Karim Kahn, and believes that her psychology courses have been very helpful in understanding human behaviour. “I wouldn’t be able to do my job without my KIN background.” She fell into her career in her last year of university when she started to work at Innovative Fitness as a trainer. She relays, “I was terrified when I started! Even though I had specialized in workouts and training in Kinesiology for the past 4 years, I still was afraid to put it into practice. A girlfriend of mine had landed a job there as well, and she convinced me that I’d be fine – this fear seemed to be a theme of mine in my early days!” When the personal training studio started to reduce her hours, she quickly realized she wouldn’t have enough to pay her bills. She decided to quit. “It was at this point that three of my clients had asked me to train them in their homes and offices. Before I knew it, I had 10 more clients sign on over the course of the year. I had to figure out everything about running a business on my own because although I knew fitness, I had no idea about any of the marketing and operational side. Thank god for google!”

After three years Jenna began to dream of opening her own studio space. “I started putting the ducks in a row to do this. It took another two years to bring everything together. I opened my personal training studio in 2015 1:1 and 2:1. Another three years later, I started a group fitness program. This was like starting a whole new business and it has taken so much work to get it going!”
Jenna states that social media platforms like Instagram have been very helpful for marketing her business and for creating a client community and advises that “If you are just starting out, I cannot stress enough how important the use of Instagram is as a marketing tool. How you portray your brand online is very important because that is where people find information these days. Especially during something like the COVID pandemic.”
As a result of the pandemic, Jenna closed her personal training studio and pivoted her business online. “I would say that a large portion of my current success is because I have a strong online presence so people know where to find me. I feel very fortunate. I literally fell into my job after my degree and have been very lucky to be able to have grown it to this point because of my interest in marketing and sales. Jenna is now focused on starting a Podcast and YouTube channel for her business. “I am very focused on getting myself up to speed with technology because this is the way of the future. Jenna is very ambitious. Her goals for the future include building a global fitness brand, now that she is online, and states “I would also love to teach other students or trainers to do what I have done eventually.”

Shalom Howe

Shalom Howe is a fourth year Kinesiology student who is set to graduate this coming May, 2021, from the interdisciplinary Stream. She recently received the Qwasen Graduating Student Award from the School! She joined the School of Kinesiology “because it has so many different academic areas included. We learn about human movement from a physical science perspective, but also from socio-cultural and psychological perspectives. I really enjoy learning and did not want to limit myself to one area, which is why I was drawn to interdisciplinary studies; it gave me the freedom to learn about everything. I am interested in researching the influences of race in sport and leisure activities. Specifically, how anti-Black racism presents itself in representation, media, social activism, and how Black athletes navigate these arenas.” Shalom will be pursuing a Master of Science in Kinesiology at the University of Toronto in the fall.

Shalom’s favourite classes have been KIN 363 – Leisure, Sport, and Popular Culture and KIN 360 – Sport, Peace, and Conflict. These courses “look at sport and leisure activities from different perspectives and challenge our ways of understanding concepts.” Shalom was a track athlete in high school, competing at the provincial level in pole vault. Since entering UBC she no longer competes but frequents the gym and has recently committed to boxing.

She currently serves as a Residence Advisor at UBC, which she believes has given her a very supportive community. “As an RA, you work but also live with your colleagues. I have made friends in Residence that will last me well past finishing university.” Shalom is the Director and Founder of the KUS BIPOC Committee, which she established in the summer of 2020 “in hopes of bringing Black students, Indigenous students, and students of colour in Kinesiology together.”
Shalom’s advice for students is to “Believe in yourself and open up to opportunities! Do not limit yourself to what you think is the right path. Try new things and engage in experiences outside of your comfort zone. Particularly if you are a BIPOC woman, do not doubt yourself and your capabilities, you belong in the lecture hall, the laboratory, the arena, and the boardroom as much as anyone else.

From the Exposome to the Socioexposome in COVID-19 Research – A Call for More Multidisciplinary Research

by Sarah Koch, Liv Yoon and Bieke Gils.

Three recent UBC Kinesiology PhD grads, Sarah Koch (2018), Liv Yoon (2019), Bieke Gils (2014), have recently published an article in the JAMA Network (December 29, 2020). In their Commentary, the KIN alumnae make a call for a multidisciplinary research approach that encompasses perspectives from both natural and social sciences to studying health disparities in the wake of COVID-19. While the coronavirus was initially thought of as ‘The Great Equalizer’, the unfolding of the current pandemic tells a different story, one of increasing health disparities affecting populations marginalized along race and class lines. The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder that existing research methodologies and approaches often focus on the outcomes of health disparities, and less so on their social, historical and political roots. Koch, Yoon, and Gils, therefore, call for a rethinking and increased integration of natural and social science research approaches that target vulnerable populations without singling them out.

To accommodate for such an approach, they suggest the further development and use of the so-called ‘socio-exposome’ model as suggested by L. Senier, P. Brown, S, Shostak, and B. Hanna (2017) 1. Via this multidisciplinary framework, researchers can situate and contextualize natural science data and findings across the individual, local, and global scales, rendering a full picture of the interplay between biological disease pathways and the social and environmental forces that are interacting with each other.

Thus, as an extension and augmentation of the existing health and pandemic research models, implementing the multidisciplinary socio-exposome approach would help create policies that address these realities informed by multiple layers of influencing factors. They invite researchers, policymakers, and health practitioners to critically reflect on their research strategies and resulting interpretation approaches – a ‘must’ as we reimagine health research methodologies in a world where zip codes matter more than genetic codes in determining health outcomes.

This Commentary captures the multi- and interdisciplinary nature of the UBC Kinesiology graduate programme, which advocates for understanding human movement and bodies not merely physiologically and biomechanically, but also in a social, cultural, and political context. This means being concerned with not only the functioning mechanism of a body, but also its interactions with the socio-cultural and socio-political environment around it — considering, for example, how some identities are considered more threatening than others, and how some bodies are considered more dispensable than others, as the COVID-19 pandemic and the racial reckoning movements of 2020 have illustrated. As a respiratory physiologist, an environmental sociologist, and a cultural historian respectively, Koch, Yoon, and Gils are applying this holistic understanding of the body in this Commentary and in their research pursuits.

Read the article: Click Here

Andrea Bundon Guest Co-Editor of Special Issue of QRSEH Journal: Contemporary Digital Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health

A special issue of the Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise & Health (QRSEH) journal (Volume 13, Issue 1, 2021) has been published on the fascinating and timely topic of ‘Contemporary digital qualitative research in sport, exercise and health.’ The special issue was edited by Dr. Andrea Bundon, an assistant professor in the UBC School of Kinesiology and by Dr. Victoria Goodyear, a senior lecturer in Pedagogy in Sport, Physical Activity and Health who specializes in digital technologies and social media in young people’s health and wellbeing at University of Birmingham.

QRSEH is one of the leading international academic journals for researchers from various disciplines (including such areas as sociology, psychology, history, pedagogy, and philosophy) that use qualitative methods. As Andrea explains, “a special issue is essentially the academic equivalent of an Instagram takeover!” The editors of an existing journal hand over the reins to a guest editor (or co-editors in this case) who then issue a call to researchers to submit papers on a particular issue. Special Issues are often done around a particularly ’timely’ or ‘emerging’ topic. In this case, Bundon and Goodyear had started to work on an issue on digital technologies and sport, exercise and health two-and-a-half years ago — long before the pandemic. But the pandemic only amplified what they were speaking about. “How many people went out and bought a Peleton bike or starting taking online yoga classes?” asks Bundon.

Why now? Why this topic?
When Bundon started her PhD in 2008 she studied the use of blogs by Paralympic athletes. She reveals, “I was one of a handful of scholars worldwide at that time who were interested in how internet culture and sport culture were coming together. It was still pretty niche to say you were using ‘digital qualitative methods’ (ie. researching digital content, using digital tools or platforms to engage participants). Now most qualitative researchers engage with digital tools or digital culture in some way – even if it’s just doing your interviews via Zoom. It’s rare that I review any work these days that doesn’t have a least some engagement with digital methods or digital data. This has been referred to as the ‘post digital age’ – a time where technology is so embedded in our lives that it is more notable in its absence than in its presence. We wanted to capture this moment – discuss how far it’s come, what’s coming next and showcase the work of scholars doing truly innovative, ethical, rich research.” There has also been a real explosion in digital networks of athletes and exercisers (ie. runners and cyclists on Strava), a change in how sports organizations and individual athletes engage with fans on social media (Twitter, Instagram), and a huge increase in digital fitness prosumption (a term used to reference how we both produce and consume fitness related data in using wearable devices such as Fitbits). For scholars interested in this field, the options and opportunities are endless.

Carefully curated, articles in this special issue include:

Two of the articles published are by researchers from the UBC School of Kinesiology including:

There is FREE ACCESS to this special issue of QRSEH to the end of January, 2021, and which may be extended into February.
To read the issue click here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2159676X.2020.1854836

Congratulations to Sara Hodson, Recipient of a 2020 Alumni Builder Award

Sara Hodson

BHK’02

Sara Hodson is the president of the Live Well Exercise Clinics. She is a celebrated professional in exercise health prescription and successful entrepreneur. Sara has served as a mentor to Kinesiology students, provided co-op opportunities, served as an esteemed keynote speaker, is a valued donor and served on the alumni UBC Advisory Council.

Sara graduated from the School of Kinesiology (formerly Human Kinetics) in 2002. With the chosen stream of Exercise Science, she quickly pursued a career in the final year of her undergrad with Fraser Health as a Clinical Exercise Physiologist in the Chronic Disease Management Programs. Holding this position for ten years until 2011, she then decided to make the courageous jump and open up her own clinic, Live Well Exercise Clinic.

In 2018, Sara was named by BIV (Business in Vancouver) as one of the top 40 under 40 winners. This award recognizes young entrepreneurs under 40 who have demonstrated excellence in business, judgment, leadership and community contribution. Add to this, her company was named as one of the Fastest Growing Companies in BC that year.

Created in 2017 as part of the 100th year of alumni UBC, the Alumni Builder Awards recognizes a cross-section of alumni representing all faculties who have significantly contributed to the University and enriched the lives of others, and in doing so, have supported alumni UBC’s mission of realizing the promise of a global community with a shared ambition for a better world and an exceptional UBC. We are proud to honour this year’s Alumni Builder Award recipients whose generous contributions have been recognized by their UBC faculty.

The KUS BIPOC Committee Recipient of the SLC Showcase Award

Shalom Howe, who is a fourth year Kinesiology student in the Interdisciplinary stream, is the KUS BIPOC Committee Founder and Coordinator. “The committee began this past summer, in hopes of bringing Black students, Indigenous students and students of colour together in Kinesiology. We have a website and social media pages where we curate online resources such as podcasts and mental health resources for BIPOC students. We also highlight related current events as well as BIPOC-owned businesses and artists. We run social and educational events and are hoping to have more of these in the new year. We ultimately want to create a space in the KUS and the School where BIPOC students feel welcome and included and have the resources they need to succeed in university.”

According to Shalom, winning a Showcase Award from the Student Leadership Conference will give the BIPOC Committee the chance to connect with more students and cultivate a collaborative relationship with other student leaders.

The committee conducted a “Listening Session” in October 2020 “with the goal of hearing more from BIPOC students about their experiences with discrimination, anti-Black or Indigenous racism and sharing this feedback with faculty and staff so that we can enact real change. This has given a lot of students the opportunity to share things that they have not been able to talk about and to hear that they aren’t alone in these experiences.” In the new semester, the BIPOC Committee is hoping to host an Indigenous speaker, and have more social events. They are also aiming to highlight Black history month in February and address racial health disparities. Eventually, the committee would like to develop a scholarship for BIPOC students in Kinesiology and work towards having a bigger impact on “an institutional level and influence structural changes.”

As the global pandemic has pushed community building to occur virtually, the BIPOC committee has shifted their focus to building their social media and online content so that it is more accessible to students. “I want to see the committee continue to grow and, in the Fall, see what a fully functioning in-person committee looks like, and what they can do. I am hoping that in the future we can have a physical space and that we can grow the number of events we hold!”

Sub-concussive impacts in soccer as measured using mouthguards

Principle Investigator:
Rebecca Kenny

Hours/Time Commitment:
Monday 8am-10am, Tuesday 11am-1pm, Wednesday 8am-10am,Thursday 11am-1pm.

Expected Duties:
Your primary duty will be filming soccer practices. Your role can expand over the course of the semester.

Contact Information:
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me beckenny@student.ubc.ca

Posting expiration:
04/30/2021

Grant Phillips-Hing

My name is Grant Phillips-Hing, I am a fourth-year Kinesiology student in the Health Science stream and I currently serve as the Vice President, Campus Engagement within the Student Alumni Council (SAC). The SAC consists of a team of charismatic student leaders from all areas on campus, dedicated towards bridging the gap between UBC alumni and current undergraduate students. The SAC has excelled in facilitating meaningful connections between alumni and current undergraduate students by using a multifaceted approach to enhance student, alumni, and faculty engagement.

Within the SAC, there are various roles that enable members to strengthen their professional skills. Whether your focus is community engagement, internal team development, establishing strong relationships with alumni, or marketing and media, the SAC provides numerous opportunities to gain valuable experience and insight into these fields. In my role as Vice President Campus Engagement, I work with a team of six other members to create unique content and programming for undergraduate students and alumni to communicate and learn from each other. For example, one of our past projects included highlighting students, alumni, and faculty on our Instagram page, @ubcsac, with a day in their life.

Being a part of the SAC has not only helped consolidate my undergraduate experience, but has also led to great personal and professional growth as a student, collaborator and leader. Between sharing ideas and learning from a passionate and diverse group of peer student leaders, networking with incredibly accomplished alumni, faculty, and staff as well as designing novel campus-wide events from the ground up, my involvement in the SAC has contributed to a truly holistic university experience. I am extremely grateful and proud to be a member of such an inspiring community and I am excited to continue to apply the skills I have learned, as well as maintain the strong connections I have made throughout my time in the SAC. I hope that some of my fellow KIN students consider submitting an application for next year’s Student Alumni Council.

KIN Student Kseniya Yakovenko, Recipient of the UBC Presidential Scholar’s Award

My name is Kseniya Yakovenko and I am a first-year Kinesiology student. I consider it a huge honour and accomplishment to have been accepted into the UBC School of Kinesiology with a Presidential Scholar’s Award this year. You see, my family immigrated to Canada from the Ukraine in the early 2000’s with very little in their pockets, and I am the first person in my family to go to University in Canada.

It’s amazing to me that I got into the program, as I have always feared not fitting in or being behind academically, as English is not my first language. My parents immigrated to Canada so my brother and I could have a better life and more opportunities. Consequently, I did everything in my power to make sure their sacrifice was not in vain. Earning this scholarship has allowed me to pursue my dream of a post-secondary education!

I chose to apply to UBC’s Kinesiology program because it came across as one of the most welcoming, interactive, fun, and innovative programs at UBC. Now, being one semester in, even though school is online, I can confirm that all of those things are true. Upper year students have made me feel welcome, and professors have been very understanding of the unprecedented circumstances in which we are studying. Although these circumstances are challenging, I have already met many other first year Kinners online, as everyone is so open to making new friends in the virtual realm. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we cannot wait for the day to meet everyone in person, especially because we get along so well virtually!

Another big reason I chose this program is because I love sports and love being part of a team, which is what this program is all about. I was inspired to go into KIN after I suffered injuries as an athlete and saw how my mental health was impacted as a result. Not being able to play varsity volleyball or pursue rugby due to two ACL surgeries really impacted my identity as an athlete. I had to figure out who I was without sport.

I hope that one day I will work with young athletes to promote injury prevention methods so that common injuries like ACL tears are better understood and possibly prevented. Awareness around mental health is also really important to me, so I am really happy to be a part of the KiWe team for the KUS! It has been really tough to get involved in activities with everything being online, but KiWe has been super supportive and something I look forward to being involved with every week. Overall, I cannot wait to experience the KIN program to its full potential when we are all back on campus.

After my degree, I hope to either go to medical school or continue my kinesiology studies through grad school somewhere abroad. When I’m not studying, I like to play guitar, ski, and hike! I am also a huge spike ball and volleyball fan, so that is what I spend most of my time doing on sunny days. I hope to meet some of you out on the court some time when COVID ends!