Max Miller and Kate Kovaleva are two UBC students engaged in the Olympic experience – Photo by Martin Dee
Skating, skiing, snowboarding – move over and make some room for learning.
With the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games just a year away, learning about the event is on the podium at UBC. As a result, some students are gaining valuable experience as they examine and participate in one of the world’s great sporting spectacles.
Take Kate Kovaleva. The 21-year-old Arts Co-op student, who is pursuing a double major in political science and English literature, completed a co-op work term with VANOC in the fall of 2008.
Kovaleva was involved in community relations at VANOC (the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games). Her many tasks included answering inquiries from the public, working with volunteers, and handling logistics for press conferences and other events.
She was fascinated to learn how a complex organization such as VANOC operates and fosters relationships with governmental and non-governmental partners.
“I think it was the best thing that could have happened,” says Kovaleva.. “What struck me is how much they place an emphasis on team and teamwork, and the values they expressed really fit with my own.”
Indeed, Kovaleva plans to volunteer for the Winter Games – she may even be able to put her fluent Russian to use.
Meanwhile, since last summer, 21-year-old Commerce student Max Miller was busy organizing the Student Olympic Conference (Miller is a co-chair of the event, along with 19-year-old Jason Ng, a fellow Commerce undergrad).
The day-long event, held Jan. 31 at the Life Sciences Centre, featured a range of workshops tackling topics including the environmental and economic impacts of the Games, homelessness, First Nations participation, the evolution of the Paralympics and more (additional information can be found at www.soc2010.ca). Follow-up conferences are also planned.
The idea was to provide a forum for a range of views on the Olympics – from supportive to critical – and to encourage dialogue and action. The forum’s motto was Think. Discuss. Act. “We found that many students were interested in the Olympics, but did not have that medium to go out and volunteer and meet speakers,” says Miller. “With such a big event coming here, we wanted to give students that extra learning opportunity.”
A series of public events supported by UBC’s 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Secretariat will feature lectures, dialogues and performances touching on the relationship between sport and politics, technology, ethics, conflict, peace and more. Stay tuned for further details.
Olympics in the UBC Classroom
The Olympics and sport are featured in a range of classes at UBC. For example, the School of Human Kinetics offers courses such as The Modern Olympics: Power, Politics and Performance; and Sport, Peace and Conflict. Meanwhile, the Faculty of Law features Law of the Olympic Games; Sports Law; and Topics in Sports, Media, Entertainment or Communication Law.