Neil, Andrea

Neil, Andrea

Andrea Neil, a 1996 UBC Kinesiology graduate and former star Thunderbird soccer player, has been described by the local media as “. . . a legend with an unimpeachable reputation.” As a student at UBC her soccer skills and coaching ability were coming into focus as she now is considered to be one of UBC’s soccer greats having been inducted in 2009 into the UBC Sports Hall of Fame. During her UBC career she was four times selected Canada West All-Star, a U SPORTS All-Canadian and in 1993 was co-winner of the Marilyn Pomfret trophy as UBC’s female athlete of the year.

It was her career with the Vancouver Whitecaps women’s team along with 17 years on Canada’s National team that brought her on to the national and international stage. She helped the Whitecaps win two league championships to go with her one U SPORTS national title with UBC. It was at that championship she was selected the tournament MVP. Then one can add the four consecutive FIFA World Cups she won with Canada’s National team and you have a soccer record of ‘legendary’ proportions.

Idolized by many young soccer players and considered a role model, her coaches have lauded her for the leadership and inspiration she provides. In addition to UBC’s induction in 2009, Andrea was also inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2012 the same year she became the first woman soccer player to be inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

Fred Hume

April 2019

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Thank you and congratulations to the 2018/19 KUS

The School of Kinesiology would like to recognize and congratulate the outgoing Kinesiology Undergraduate Society (KUS) Executive for their leadership and contribution to the undergraduate experience over the past year.

  • President: Andrew Au
  • VP Academic: Delon Chan
  • VP Communications: Sara Cathcart
  • VP Finance: Nikol Grishin
  • VP Student Life: Brandon Lam & Olivia Tobias

Some of their accomplishments include:

  • Rebranded the KUS and expanded communications through a new logo and website (shout out to Karmen Leong!)
  • Expanded the Kinesiology Wellness Committee initiatives to include Mental Health Advocacy efforts
  • Collaborated with Health and Wellness units across campus including SASC, other undergraduate societies, and Speakeasy to broaden the impact of Kinesiology wellness initiatives
  • Increased academic support for first year students through expanding the Kinesiology Peer Academic Coaching Program to offer workshops and 1-on-1 peer coaching sessions
  • Garnered 90% student support for Kinesiology Student Space, effectively securing ~$1M in funding towards the proposed Gateway North Project
  • Increased engagement for student orientations by 17% by expanding KIN Camp to accommodate 120 incoming Kinesiology students

We would also like to welcome the incoming executive who were recently elected for the 2019/20 term.

  • President: Nikol Grishin
  • VP Academic: Sonia Gavrilova
  • VP Communications: Karmen Leong
  • VP Finance: Keira Britto
  • VP Student Life: Allison Hill & Madison Bulloch

Documentary coming soon…

Apr. 13, 2019 – A new documentary on children’s independent mobility will be coming soon! Watch this space for updates.

Dr. Stanley R. Brown (1923-2019), Professor Emeritus

The School has learned that Dr. Stanley Brown passed away on March 13, 2019 in Vancouver, BC.

Born in San Francisco, Stan moved to New Zealand in 1934. After war broke out, at aged 17, Stan applied to join the Royal New Zealand Navy but found he had first to renounce his American citizenship. After serving for six years, 1941-1947, he left the Navy as Lieutenant RNZVR.

On a Returned Serviceman’s Bursary he attended the University of Otago, New Zealand and completed his DIP. P.E. (Physical Education).  In 1956, he received a Fulbright travel award to attend the University of Illinois (Urbana) where he completed his Ph.D. MS (Physical Education) while working part-time as a graduate assistant in the Physical Fitness Research Laboratory run by Dr Thomas K. Cureton.

After returning to New Zealand, Stan was appointed as Research Officer, P.E. Branch, Education Department of New Zealand to do specific projects, preparing tests for NZ schools, estimating physical fitness levels of NZ school children.

In 1961, Stan was invited to join the School of Physical Education at the University of British Columbia. Although a keen sportsman, in his application he declined an invitation to coach a sport, maintaining that it was impossible to devote much time and energy to coaching and do research as well; he was very much in favour of the approach to graduate study in P.E. through the scientific method.

He became the Director of the Human Performance Lab and taught graduate and undergraduate courses. Stan was in charge of testing BC children for CAHPER’s first national survey, travelling as far as Whitehorse and Ross River in 1970. He was involved in preparing fitness surveys or studies for CAHPER, YWCA members, UBC men (1,000) and elite BC and Canadian teams.

In 1961, Stan began an exercise program for faculty and staff, meeting 5 days a week, concentrated on cardiovascular fitness, often finishing with a run through the woods. He continued to lead these classes, expanded in 1975 to women, until he retired in 1988.

As more specialists joined the Faculty, Stan became less involved in graduate teaching. His interests became focused in two main areas, exercise and applied anthropometry. He worked closely with W.D. Ross, Simon Fraser University, on Kinanthropometry and acted as an external examiner for Simon Fraser theses.

Always an innovator, during the 60’s, Stan had proposed that yoga might be introduced as a recreational activity for UBC students but this was vetoed. During the 70’s on Sunday mornings, he conducted a popular University Extension class with Dr. Bina Nelson and Lyn Sereda called “Yoga and Bioenergetics.”

In association with Mr. Sol Kort, supervisor for the “Explorations in Human Potential” program at UBC, Stan brought Dr Moshe Feldenkrais to UBC in1973. Subsequently he attended the four-year summer course at the Humanistic Psychology Institute in San Francisco and became one of the first North American Feldenkrais practitioners, teaching “Awareness through Movement” and practicing “Functional Integration.”

In 1962-64, while living in President’s Row, he built and maintained a playground for the children in the area, which was supervised 5 days a week by parents.

Stan retired in 1988 after 27 years at UBC. He made frequent trips to New Zealand until 2014 when a fall impaired his mobility. He continued to exercise until his 96thbirthday learning Chi Gong in the last month of his life, enjoying reading his technical books, music, drama and films.

Stan will be remembered for his intelligence, wit and humour.

He leaves Valerie, his wife of 65 years, daughter Miranda, sons, David, Andrew and Paul, grandsons, Sinclair, Christian, Julian, Jordan and Landon; predeceased by his son Christopher in 2002.

A Celebration of Stan’s life will be held at the University Golf Club, University Boulevard, on Wednesday April 17th, 2019, 2:00pm – 4:00pm.

The BC, Musqueam, and UBC flags at the North Plaza of the Life Building (the Old SUB) will be lowered on Wednesday, April 17, in remembrance.

School of Kinesiology hosts 10th annual Mentorship Wrap-up Event

On April 4, the School of Kinesiology held its annual Mentorship Program Wrap-up event in the Ideas Lounge in Sage Bistro on UBC’s Vancouver campus. This event formally wraps the year’s program, recognizes mentor and mentee contributions, and provides participants an opportunity to reconnect one final time before the program concludes.

Over the past six months, students involved in the mentorship program were engaged in monthly meetings with their mentors; developed learning objectives to guide their experience and completed a variety of professional development activities such as job shadowing; conducted informational interviews; attended career fairs, and more.

Throughout the evening, participants heard from two students who reflected on their experience in the program over the past year. Chelsea Chua, who is in her 4th and final year, shared that through the program, she learned the importance of taking initiative and asking questions. It is, “the simplest way to satisfy a curiosity that could turn into a learning experience you would not have had otherwise.” Additionally, she learned the importance of “staying true to yourself while always striving for growth.”

Emily Dart, a 2nd year student who, like Chelsea, had an opportunity to job shadow her mentor on various occasions. As part of her experience, Emily reflected on some of the conversations and activities she engaged in, including identifying individual strengths and weaknesses as well as the 10 defining moments of her life. “Being part of this program and talking to [mentor] Bret has given me a lot of insight as to what my future path might look like and [I feel like I have] the confidence now to travel down it and see where it takes me.”

Our final speaker for the night was alumna mentor Caroline Dickson (BHK, 2001). A professor at Langara College and entrepreneur, Caroline shared her passion for mentoring others and reflected on how her experience as a former snowboard racer has taught her a lot about goal-setting. One piece of advice that she shared with the audience comes directly from this experience; goals are like race gates, in order keep learning and moving forward in your career, you need to focus on not just what’s in front of you, but keep your head up and look ahead.

The School recognized two alumni mentors from this year’s cohort who had contributed five years or more to the mentorship program, including Bianca Knop (BHK ‘06) and Jennifer Dowdeswell (BHK ‘02).

The purpose of the Kinesiology Mentorship Program is to enhance career learning and professional skills by pairing undergraduate students with Kinesiology alumni to exchange ideas, share experiences, explore and define career paths, and expand their professional networks. If you are a current undergraduate student or alumnus of UBC Kinesiology and would like to find out more about how you can get involved in the September 2019/20 mentorship cohort, please reach out to Elise Le Brun, Student Engagement Officer at: elise.lebrun@ubc.ca.

The School would like to congratulate the full list of Mentorship program participants this year, including:

Mentors:

Abhi Cherukupalli (BKin, 2015); Amara Miles (BKin, 2015); Ana Boskovic (BKin, 2015); Angelo Graffos (BKin, 2016); Bret Hodge (BKin, 2010); Bianca Knop (BHK, 2006); Caroline Dickson (BHK, 2001); Glen Mulcahy (BPE, 1991); Jennifer Dowdeswell (BHK, 2002); Marc Huddlestan (BKIn, 2011); Matt Baumeister (BKin, 2012); Olga Mavritsakis (BKin, 2016); Philip Yan (BKin 2016); Shireen Mistry (BHK 2010); Silvia Hua (BHK, 2009); Tyler Chong (BKin, 2015); Tremayne Koochin (BKin, 2017); and Wilfred Ly (BKin, 2012).

Mentees:

Alex Yang; Angela Xu; Braelyn Gandossi; Chelsea Chua; Emily Dart; Emma Lei; Emma Vadot; Esther Chee; Janny Chan; Jonathan Yao; Junisa Nguyen; Mika Fogelman; Monica Lopez; Sabrina Hou; Sebastian Lee; Shamus Menard; Skye Zhang; and Talia Berson.

New Paper Out

Apr. 5, 2019 – New paper out by our former co-op student, Julia Rudecki, and Pop-PA Lab members Katie Weatherson and Dr. Guy Faulkner examining low-cost standing desks in the home environment. Read about it here.

KIN Grad student Ben Hives wins Killam Teaching Assistant Award

This week, KIN Grad student Ben Hives was awarded the Killam Graduate Teaching Assistant Award.

As one of six Killam institutions, UBC offers yearly awards from the Killam Endowment Fund to faculty and teaching assistants who demonstrate excellence in teaching.  Each year, 16 receipients across campus are recognized for the valuable role that Teaching Assistants play in programs. Successful candidates have to meet the set criteria that demonstrate a high level of respect for the candidate from undergraduate students and academic or course supervisors. For the full list of Killam teaching award winners, visit the Provost’s website.

Ben is doing his MSc with Dr. Eli Puterman. He will be presented the award at the Faculty of Education meeting on May 9. Congratulations, Ben!

 

Chung, Jonathan

Jonathan Chung, BKin 2014, developed a passion for business while studying in the UBC School of Kinesiology’s Interdisciplinary stream, where he had enrolled in various economics, accounting and marketing classes. His interest in business did not stop with his UBC courses. During his studies at KIN, he  served as an executive on the UBCCVC (formerly known as the Chinese Varsity Club) and founded a small personal training company, where he worked as a certified medical exercise specialist with the American Council of Exercise.

After his graduation from the UBC School of Kinesiology, Jonathan moved to Hong Kong where he  pursued his interest in business further at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and received his Masters in Accounting in 2016.  He is currently an investment analyst focused on high-yield alternative investments in private credit at a US$3 billion private equity office, working in real estate, aviation, and public-company shell financing deals; and is currently focused on the cross-border restructuring of a major Hong Kong listed construction company. The company he works for also invests in growth stage firms in biopharma, digital health, hospitals, devices and biotech in deal sizes between US$10 – 50 million.

In addition to his successes in business, Jonathan still has a passion for healthcare. He has decided to return to his Kinesiology roots, and has started a side project: FITTCODE.IO, a health analytics-driven, offline-to-online service with a goal to improve affordability and effectiveness in the personal training space.

Jonathan’s exposure to healthcare and banking, as well as his work experiences both in Hong Kong and Vancouver, have taught him alternative ways to provide value in the health community. He wishes to continue to gain experience in the areas of finance, health, and technology and to hopefully one day make an impact on global healthcare equity.

As the UBC School of Kinesiology Alumni Ambassador in Hong Kong, Jonathan invites the UBC KIN community of students and alumni to contact him should you ever visit (or decide to move to) Hong Kong; or if you are interested in business and finance, and kinesiology at: jonbchung@gmail.com

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Dr. Eric Broom, Professor Emeritus

Dr. Eric Broom moved from England to Canada in 1964, when he was invited by Robert Osborne to join the UBC School of Kinesiology (then known as the School of Human Kinetics). At a time when many academics were researching biomechanics and physiology of the human body, Dr. Broom began to study the national institutions, associations, and organizations that administer a country’s sports programs.

His work in these areas has touched tens of thousands of people, impacted hundreds of national organizations, and influenced the design of recreational buildings as we know them today. During his long and impressive career, he travelled to more than 25 countries to study everything from coach training and transportation to recreational buildings and innovative funding streams. He led multiple delegations to study the best attributes and understand what to avoid in the field of recreation and leisure and for three years (in the early 80s), he was appointed the provincial Deputy Minister of Sport.

He was a founding father of the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) in 1974, which serves as the flagship program of the Coaching Association of Canada, and which continues to be identified as a world leading coaching education program. It is currently the largest adult continuing education program in the country and is delivered in partnership with the Government of Canada, provincial governments, and national, provincial, and territorial sport organizations.

A technical expert and coach educator for rugby, swimming, tennis, and field hockey; he has positively affected the lives of many coaches in Canada. In fact, more than 10,000 coaches and sports professionals in this country can thank Dr. Broom as the NCCP Master Learning Facilitator for his work at all levels of sport – from grassroots children’s leagues to high performance elite competition.

Dr. Broom himself coached for over 50 years and is linked to some of Canada’s most influential and prestigious sport leaders. He has been teaching coaches how to successfully coach since the day the national certification program was developed. In particular, he has a special place in his heart for the sport of field hockey and is a cherished member of Field Hockey Canada and Field Hockey BC, where he coached many athletes on both the Canadian National Men’s Field Hockey Team and the UBC Men’s Team.

Dr. Broom’s leadership in BC has also been extended toward the national training centre concept and junior athlete programming – both of which are being rolled out nationally by Field Hockey Canada. Known for his optimistic and encouraging style, he has influenced and shaped the sport of field hockey. His legacy is felt at the community, provincial, and national levels.

Dr. Broom is a recipient of the Governor General’s Commemorative Medal in recognition of significant contribution to compatriots, community and Canada.

An influential coach is a powerful catalyst and Dr. Broom has played such a role in thousands of lives. He is a powerful storyteller and says, “A good coach can help an athlete to achieve their potential in any particular sport. And a good coach influences that person as a person.”

At age 90, Dr. Broom’s name is truly a legend in the Canadian coaching education world and is known for driving the quality of coach education delivery and for shaping the athletic program environment we see today. He still actively contributes to the community by bringing his vast knowledge and experience to the fore in volunteer roles such as the Coaching Director to the Field Hockey BC Board of Directors.

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Storm the Wall 2019

Mar. 25, 2019 – Team bonding at its best! Team ‘We’re Over It’ dominated Storm the Wall with the support of their amazing cheering squad! #PopPALab #UBCKIN

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