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.