Future Alumni Committee Lead 2019/20
Aaron is an active student leader in the final year of his studies at UBC’s School of Kinesiology. As a transfer student, he found new connections and communities within the School, and is grateful for the opportunities that KIN has provided him.
He has served in a work-learn position for KIN’s Student Engagement and Co-op programs, and is now a lead for the newly formed “KUS Future Alumni Committee”. This committee is comprised of students who wish to spread awareness on the importance of student-alumni relations. Aaron sees his new role as an extension of his prior campus leadership work, and looks forward to bringing students and alumni together. For him, the concept of alumni means building community, and wanted to be a part of this new pilot program in order to educate students on the benefits of interacting with the diverse KIN alumni population.
Aaron’s Future Alumni Committee is planning to collaborate with the Young Alumni advisory on a variety of events, including social gatherings, Q&A panels and philanthropic activities with alumni. With first-hand experience on the positive impact that mentorship can have on students, the goal of these events is to provide students with opportunities to learn about what an alumnus is, and how they can tap into a larger KIN community. He hopes to demonstrate the benefits of alumni mentorship, the importance of maintaining links to the extended KIN circle, and to model leadership and philanthropy.
Aaron has a love for content creation, and currently produces his own podcast called “Beneath Vancouver”. He is also passionate about digital marketing and storytelling. Although his career vision has changed multiple times, he is excited about the many different opportunities that are open to him upon graduation.
KUS President 2019-2020
Nikol is in her final undergraduate year of a health science stream in the School of Kinesiology. She is the current KUS president and works with the first all-female KUS council in 10 years. When she initially applied to UBC, she planned to enter science with the vision of pursuing medicine in the long run. She’s happy to say that she ended up in Kinesiology and states, “I am beyond grateful this happened as I don’t think that I would be the student or the leader that I am today if it wasn’t for this school.”
When asked what her most memorable experience has been on campus to date she says, “it’s been serving on the KUS executive council.” Nikol became involved in the KUS in her first year working as the Recreation Sports Coordinator and in third year she was elected as VP Finance. She adds, “These KUS opportunities have permitted me to become more engaged with the School community and to work and learn alongside other like-minded student leaders.”
When Nikol is not studying, applying for med school, or working on the multitude of KUS events, she spends what free time she has volunteering and giving back. She currently works with a person who lives with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and assists him with basic motor skills. She says “the individual that I spend time with … reminds me of the true importance of life… He teaches me to smile and be positive, to love others and to accept being loved.”
Nikol is a strong believer that everyone needs to be their own #1 supporter in order to take the first few steps towards attaining goals and dreams. While Nikol is still focused on pursuing a medical degree, her time at UBC has also allowed her to explore different career options she hadn’t previously thought about, and to remain open to other possibilities.
Graduate student Krista Glowacki has developed an innovative Exercise and Depression Toolkit for Canadian healthcare providers who work with adults with depression. The kit is designed to support healthcare professionals in exploring exercise as a treatment option for depression in collaboration with their patients.
As a Kinesiology PhD candidate and registered occupational therapist who worked for the Canadian Mental Health Association with adults with a diagnosed mental illness, Krista’s research focuses broadly on the relationship between physical activity and mental health, and she has led the development of this project under the supervision of UBC Kinesiology faculty member, Dr. Guy Faulkner.
Inspired by her experiences working in the mental health field, the three-part Exercise and Depression Toolkit is an effort to begin integrating exercise into healthcare services delivery, as access to exercise therapy is not yet standardized in most mental health services in Canada. “After personal and family experiences with mental illness, I started recognizing the benefits of engaging in regular exercise for managing mental health,” she says. “When working as an Occupational Therapist, I saw benefits for individuals who would engage in our Active Recovery program. People became more confident, socialized more, and had noticeable improvement and changes with their mood.”
According to the development team, this toolkit was built through a rigorous evidence-based process that involved extensive consultation with adults who have lived with depression, health care providers, exercise professionals and researchers. “Ultimately, we hope that the Exercise and Depression Toolkit will be a starting point to exercise becoming a utilized and accessible treatment [option] to help improve the lives of Canadians living with depression.”
For more information about how and why the toolkit was developed, you can read the academic paper published in the October issue of “Mental Health and Physical Activity” journal here, as well as the article published in Centre for Active Living here.
Bachelor of Human Kinetics, 1995 (Stream: Leisure & Sport Administration)
Many of our alumni have careers that provide them with the power and potential to change lives. As director of the Ride to Conquer Cancer at the BC Cancer Foundation, Lindsay Carswell has had the privilege of building a career which enables him to make a lasting difference in the lives of others. By overseeing BC’s largest mass participation fundraising event for the past five years, Lindsay has had the opportunity to promote cycling to thousands of British Columbians looking to make a difference in the fight against cancer.
A great number of participants in the Ride are returning to cycling for the first time since childhood. Many are new to sport altogether. One of the things that Lindsay finds so gratifying about his job is hearing from people who discover road biking as a new pastime and have adopted it as a lifestyle change that leads them on a path to better health. Of course, the fact that the Ride raises millions of dollars annually to fund ground-breaking cancer research is incredibly rewarding too.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Human Kinetics at UBC in 1995, Lindsay enrolled in the Sport and Event Marketing post-diploma program at George Brown College in Toronto. For fifteen years of his career, he was involved in the marketing and business side of major sports as he worked closely with corporate clients in their efforts to reach consumers in meaningful ways. This immersed him in the worlds of ice hockey, auto racing, beach volleyball, pro football and even the Olympic Games.
Lindsay was a member of the Thunderbird varsity cross country and track & field teams during his time at UBC. He continues to run regularly, and looks to inspire others to adopt this lifelong pastime by recently starting up an elementary school cross country program in East Vancouver.
Sept. 17, 2019 – Dr. Guy Faulkner and PhD candidate Negin Riazi sit down with Global News BC to talk about the premiere of the documentary, “Running Free: Children’s Independent Mobility” and the benefits of letting children ‘run free’. Watch it here!
Sept. 13, 2019 – New paper out by Dr. Lira Yun, PhD student Matthew Fagan, and Dr. Guy Faulkner examining whether changes in physical activity predicted reductions in depression. Read it here!
Sept. 13, 2019 – New paper out by PhD candidate Krista Glowacki and Dr. Guy Faulkner outlining the development of the new Exercise and Depression Toolkit. Read about it here!
Sept. 9, 2019 – The Exercise and Depression Toolkit was released on September 1st, 2019. This resource was developed by PhD candidate Krista Glowacki, Dr. Guy Faulkner, and in collaboration with community partners. Check out the website for more information and to download the toolkit: https://exerciseanddepression.ca/
