Raj, Sushant

Joey came to UBC KIN as a transfer student from Langara College. “My background in sport led me naturally into this field. I played soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball and rugby as a kid, so when I found out that I could study the body, activity and sports, I was eager to pursue it all!”

After he graduated from UBC, went to Sydney University in Australia for 6 months to play rugby in the club league. He went on to travel across more than 24 countries for 6 months. “It was one of the best experiences of my life. I bought a Eurorail pass, went to the train station and decided where I wanted to go at the moment. My travels took me from the South Pacific, to Western and Eastern Europe and throughout Asia.” Joey says, “I implore everyone, young or old, to explore the world. See what is out there. Try new foods. Go to a café and have a conversation with someone you don’t know.”
Once Joey returned home, he enrolled at BCIT to study International Trade and Transportation. Halfway through the program, Joey decided that after completing his diploma, he would obtain the certifications to become a firefighter. He has now been a firefighter with the City of Surrey since 2013!

Joey reflects on his time as a student at UBC, “my time at UBC taught me resilience, the importance of a lifetime of fitness, and how to critically think and understand the human body as much as I could. My degree gave me the knowledge to be as prepared as possible in pursuing my career as a firefighter.” Joey’s most memorable moments at UBC occurred during his Annual trips to CAL Berkeley with the Varsity rugby team. “We played in a home and away match called The World Cup every year and it was an aggregate of both scores. In 2005, my last year, we finally hoisted the Trophy at home!” Joey was most inspired by his rugby coach, Spence McTavish. “He played a huge role in not only my success on the rugby field, but also in life. He taught me to never give up, to always keep fighting.”

Joey is also a valued member of the KIN Mentorship program. He states, “I love being able to give back to the program that gave me the tools of learning for life. I look forward to doing it for many years to come, and sharing my passion for life, travel and happiness to students!”

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.”