Event: UBC’s Vancouver campus Spring Congregation
Event highlights and story ideas:
- 7,400 student graduates
- Former Prime Minister Joseph Clark, singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie and five others receive honorary degrees from UBC
- Largest class of Aboriginal MD graduates
- Graduation celebration for UBC Aboriginal students
- Honorary Degree Ceremony for Japanese Canadian Students of 1942
Location: The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, 6265 Crescent Rd.
For a map, visit: www.maps.ubc.ca/?130 .
Parking: Media may park at the Rose Garden Parkade, located adjacent to the Chan Centre off Northwest Marine Drive.
Webcast: The live webcast of all ceremonies can be found at http://www.graduation.ubc.ca/ubc-vancouver/live-webcast/
Assignment/Photo Editors:
Media authorization is required to cover congregation ceremonies in the Chan Centre. Please call Heather Amos at 604.822.3213 or 604.828.3867 to arrange. Stationary camera space is very limited. Please arrive early. Handheld cameras highly recommended. A media feed will be provided but media must provide their own wireless transmitters and adapters.
Honorary degree recipients
May 23
4 p.m. Buffy Sainte-Marie, iconic singer-songwriter and advocate for indigenous peoples. She is renowned for her innovative work as a visual artist and educator.
May 24
1:30 p.m. The Right Hon. Joseph Clark, elected prime minister of Canada in 1979; he is a professor of practice for public-private sector partnerships at McGill University.
May 25
1:30 p.m. Chief Sophie Pierre, the elected chief of St. Mary’s Indian Band in Cranbrook, B.C. She turned a former residential school into the St. Eugene Mission Resort, providing inspiration and economic success.
May 28
11 a.m. Memory Elvin-Lewis and Walter Lewis, ethnobotanists who have traveled the world, shedding a light on the medicinal properties of plants.
1:30 p.m. Robert Hung Ngai Ho, a well-known philanthropist who helped establish UBC’s Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program and has made major contributions to B.C. healthcare.
May 30
8:30 a.m. Dominic Barton, the global managing director at McKinsey & Company and the author of the 2007 book entitled China Vignettes: An Inside Look at China.
4 p.m. Honorary Degree Ceremony for Japanese Canadian Students of 1942, 76 students will be honoured.
*A separate advisory for this ceremony will be issued on May 28.
Student graduation ceremonies
More than 7,400 grads will cross the stage at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts to receive their degrees. Undergraduate and graduate degrees from all 12 Vancouver campus faculties will be conferred at 23 ceremonies.
Graduation Dates / Times: 8:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. on:
Wednesday, May 23
Thursday, May 24
Friday, May 25
Monday, May 28
Tuesday, May 39
Wednesday, May 30 (Note: The 4 p.m. ceremony will be replaced by the Special Honorary Degree Ceremony for Japanese Canadian students of 1942)
Largest class of Aboriginal MD graduates
Twelve Aboriginal students will graduate with a UBC medical undergraduate degree (MD) this spring, the largest cohort of Aboriginal students to graduate in the history of the Faculty of Medicine and in the province. The graduation ceremony for all UBC medical students takes place Wednesday, May 23 at 8:30 a.m. A separate media release has been issued at: http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/?p=48463
Graduation celebration for UBC Aboriginal Students
The First Nations Longhouse is hosting a special graduation celebration for all UBC Aboriginal graduates; more than 100 Aboriginal students will graduate from its Vancouver campus this year. Honorary degree recipient Chief Sophie Pierre will give the keynote address at the celebration.
The celebration will take place on Saturday, May 26, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. in the Sty-Wet-Tan Great Hall, First Nations Longhouse, 1985 West Mall (Map: www.maps.ubc.ca/?337). Media interested in covering this event should contact Thane Bonar at 604-822-4648 or fnhl.research@ubc.ca by May 25. For more information, please visit: http://www.calendar.events.ubc.ca:80/s/3Q3
Graduating students stories of interest
Annelies Tjebbes is the co-founder of Kaizen Biomedical and their medical device MobiChill, which reduces the risk and side effects of cardiac arrest and will be introduced to the market over the next few months. Tjebbes is graduating with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering–biomedical option.
Elin Tayyar is graduating from UBC after six years of completing a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Economics but his time has been well spent at the university. He served as the Alma Mater Society’s (AMS) Vice President Finance for the last two years, eliminating a yearly deficit, and helping set up a student-run brewpub and sustainability fund for students.
For more stories, visit: http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/ubc-reports/
For more information about graduation, visit: www.graduation.ubc.ca
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