Existential Tylenol

There was great media interest in UBC research that found a new potential use for the over-the-counter pain drug Tylenol. Typically known to relieve physical pain, the study suggests the drug may also reduce the psychological effects of fear and anxiety over the human condition, or existential dread.

Dept. of Psychology PhD candidate Daniel Randles authored the study with Prof. Steve Heine and Nathan Santos. The study was published in the Association for Psychological Science journal Psychological Science, and advances our understanding of how the human brain processes different kinds of pain.

The study findings were covered by: UPI.com, the New York Daily News, Yahoo News, The Houston Chronicle,  MSN.com, Business Insider & Business Insider Australia, International Business Times, Live Science, The Toronto Star, CTV News, Huffington Post,  The Vancouver Sun, The Province,  Nature World News, the National Post, The Toronto Sun, and Gawker.com.

Chinese foreign fisheries

Research from UBC’s Fisheries Centre shows that Chinese fishing boats catch about US$11.5 billion worth of fish from beyond their country’s own waters each year—and most of it goes unreported.

The paper, published in the journal Fish and Fisheries, estimates that China’s foreign catch is 12 times larger than the catch it reports to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the international agency that keeps track of global fisheries catches.

Coverage included The Guardian, UPI, the South China Morning Post, Asian Scientist, The Canadian Press, and the International World Fisheries & Aquaculture.

Harmful effects of medicines

Family doctors receive little or no information about harmful effects of medicines in the majority of drug promotions during visits by drug company representatives, according to an international study involving Canadian, U.S. and French physicians.

Lead author Barbara Mintzes of UBC’s School of Population and Public Health says the same doctors indicated they were likely to start prescribing these drugs, consistent with previous research that shows prescribing behaviour is influenced by pharmaceutical promotion.

The study was covered in: The Globe and Mail, CTV News, Time, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Canada.com, The Vancouver Sun, and WebMD.

UBC top of the class

The New York Times, The Toronto Star and The Vancouver Sun covered the first report card assessing how much university laboratories benefit the world’s poor, and the top grade, an A-, went to UBC.

The report card came from Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, a student group with chapters at schools around the world.

The grades were based on three categories: how much research is devoted to neglected diseases that affect poor countries; how much effort  is made to ensure discoveries become available to the poor; and how many global health courses are taught.

Prof. Toope’s departure

The announcement that Professor Stephen Toope, UBC’s 12th president, will leave on June 30, 2014 to pursue academic and professional interests in international law and international relations received wide media interest.

The announcement by UBC Board of Governors Chair Bill Levine was covered by: The Globe and Mail, CBC, The Canadian Press, The Vancouver Sun and The Province.

The finalists were:

Nursing grad Sara Eftekhar  (Faculty of Applied Science) is a volunteer and activist who has made a difference in nine countries. Between advocating for global health on Parliament Hill and empowering Iranian-Canadian youth, Eftekhar finds time to volunteer locally in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and an Aboriginal community in B.C.  Her accomplishments have been recognized with a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, a YWCA Vancouver Young Woman of Distinction award, and a prestigious fellowship from former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Shannon Greenwood (Faculty of Medicine) made the sacrifice of uprooting her family from Haida Gwaii to pursue an education in midwifery so that women wouldn’t have to leave their traditional territory to give birth. An advocate for “well-women” care that addresses all stages between conception to birth, Greenwood is excited to bring birthing back to Haida Gwaii and to help improve health care in this primarily First Nations region.

From a refugee camp in Malawi to the DJ booth at CiTR, Yasin Kiraga  (Faculty of Arts) has shared his experience to inspire others. The Burundi student was selected from more than 300 World University Service of Canada Student Refugee Program applicants to study at UBC. Kiraga has immersed himself in the local community, contributing to STAND UBC, UBC Africa Awareness Initiative, and the Canadian Red Cross Society. He hopes to pursue a career in International Law to address human rights issues and continue to serve the communities around him.

While conducting research in Cambodia, PhD graduate Sarah Youngblutt (Faculty of Arts) advocated for better understanding of regional poverty issues, and integration of the landmine history in the country’s archaeological excavation process. She established a non-profit organization (searcheologies.org) with four UBC professors to support the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. Their first 20-foot freight container of donated laboratory equipment and books was delivered last fall. She is at the forefront of opening up a chapter of human history that has been locked behind the doors of war and poverty.

Ask Tim Krupa how to make a difference and the conversation turns to leadership.

The graduating science student at the Okanagan campus was recently voted mostly likely to change the world in a UBC Reports online campus contest.

Krupa believes changing the world is a team effort. Guiding people along a path where their individual efforts contribute to making a difference is how to effect seismic change, says the 21-year-old from Kelowna.

“That ability to check your ego at the door is the first thing you need to do to be an effective leader,” says Krupa, who expects to graduate with a BSc degree in Biology from the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at June’s convocation.

Krupa already has plenty of experience in questioning, informing himself, and helping shape positive change. He has been both a student member of UBC’s Board of Governors and the Okanagan Senate.

“My life at UBC has been an incredible learning experience. I have not only enjoyed a superior academic education, but I now have an idea of how the business of the university functions.”

Krupa’s grasp of the world—and how to change it—also spans the globe.

Wanting to understand what makes children happy, Krupa spent the past two summers in Zambia, developing soccer programs and studying happiness with youth. Supported by both an Irving K. Barber International Education Travel Subsidy in 2011 and an Irving K. Barber Undergraduate Research Award in 2012, Krupa consulted Associate Prof. of Psychology Mark Holder, whose research focuses on the science of happiness.

Deborah Buszard, deputy vice chancellor and principal of UBC’s Okanagan campus, says Krupa embodies the pinnacle of student excellence at UBC and his sense of values set a great example for others.

“We are justifiably proud of Tim Krupa’s accomplishments and contributions at UBC,” says Buszard. “Tim has a brilliant future and we can expect to hear much more from him as he furthers his education and embarks on a career that will no doubt benefit the greater good.”

Asked to project where he will be in five or 10 years, Krupa says it is too early to tell. But he’ll begin by pursuing a master’s degree in political science at UBC’s Vancouver campus this fall.

“I’m a policy wonk,” he says. “My goals are on the horizon. I think leading change and crafting policy on a Canadian scale would be a dream come true.”

The support of family—his parents, brothers and sister—have contributed to Krupa’s accomplishments and desires.

“All of my family members have had the ability to build upon their successes and they have been my personal inspiration.”

Poking around old manuscripts and researching dusty archives helped Natasha Rebry unravel the mysteries of the Victorian era. She sought new insights by blending her study of Gothic literature with the history of modern psychology for her PhD dissertation.

Scholars have long linked Victorian culture and Gothic literature, says Rebry. But what interested her was a growing societal fascination at the time for testing the boundaries of reality—spirits, séances, mediums, and psychic curiosities. Victorian-era scientists quietly examined these to understand the capacities of the human mind, while at the same time denouncing spiritualism as charlatanism.

“Everyone thought that scientific discovery, the study of spirits and what has evolved into modern psychology were somehow related,” says Rebry, “Especially in the late 19th century, both science and literature were exploring that gray area at the same time.”

Rebry expects to be the first interdisciplinary PhD graduate from the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC’s Okanagan campus. She studied Gothic and Victorian influences with the Dept. of Critical Studies and pursued the history of psychology through the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences.

She initially investigated the literary trend of multiple personalities, hypnotism and hysteria such as found in Robert Louis Stephenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. That Victorian boffins culled ideas from Stephenson’s work lent credence to the notion that literature not only disseminates information, but contributes to the discussion.

Rebry’s research received a major boost when she obtained a research grant from the Bakken Museum and library in Minneapolis to examine its extensive collection of original Gothic documents and books.

“There is this very clear connection between science and literature, things far removed from the humanities and cultural studies,” says Rebry. “I’m really looking at those phenomena that suggest there is depth to the psyche, that what is on the surface is really only a small part of the true story.”

Jodey Castricano, a professor during Rebry’s undergraduate days at Wilfrid Laurier University, encouraged her to pursue graduate studies. When Castricano joined UBC’s Okanagan campus in the Dept. of Critical Studies, Rebry contacted her to do a PhD.

“Natasha has a passion for the world of ideas and the ability to think them through and make them her own. It takes a scholar with that flexibility of mind to discover the affinities and make those connections,” says Castricano.

Rebry is considering post-doctoral study but says the classroom is where her ultimate future lies. She plans to be among those leading a new era of academic collaboration.

“The trend in the humanities moving towards interdisciplinarity is really exciting,” says Rebry. “Every kind of idea draws upon a matrix, it’s not just a linear development. It tends to look a little more like a family tree with lots of branches.”

Wisdom Tettey, Dean of the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, says Rebry has blazed the trail for current and future doctoral students, her work epitomizing the faculty’s approach to exploring and understanding the complex dynamics of our world.

Dustin Sproat’s professional hockey career may be over, but he’s still attracting NHL interest thanks to an app he created for hockey players and fans.

Sproat graduates this month from the UBC Sauder School of Business. His transformation from hockey player to tech startup CEO stems from roots in professional and Ivy League hockey—which he played for more than a decade. And he’s had a lifelong interest in business.

During his 16-month MBA, Sproat created Shnarped, a social networking app that lets professional hockey players and fans connect with each other and track statistics across leagues. The name comes from a popular card game hockey players often play on road trips, popularized—according to hockey lore—by Vancouver Canucks legend Harold Snepsts.

“Hockey players have friends on teams and leagues around the world, and Shnarped helps them to connect,” says Sproat, who likens the app to an interactive hockey card complete with Twitter feeds, messaging platform, game trackers and live stat updates.

“And it gives fans a better way to follow and interact with their favorite hockey players.”

With more than 220 players from the NHL and its minor leagues on board—including Stanley Cup-winning goalie Jonathan Quick and Edmonton Oiler Sam Gagner—a new version of the app will launch in the Apple store this fall. Sproat is set to pitch the app on CBC’s Dragon’s Den, and he’s in talks with the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers to potentially tailor the platform to enhance the fan experience.

For Sproat, who attended Princeton on a hockey scholarship before playing three years in the minors and winning the ECHL championship with the Cincinnati Cyclones, the opportunity to fine-tune Shnarped with Sauder professors and classmates has been invaluable.

“I can’t say enough about the experience—everyone has been amazing and so generous with their time and ideas.”

In his spare time, Sproat helps run Hockey Players for Kids, a charity he co-founded to promote literacy.

“We share personal stories and give them a six-week reading challenge,” says Sproat, who received a chemical engineering degree from his Princeton days.

“The kids go nuts. They read an astounding number of books, and the winners get to play in a floor-hockey game with pros. The whole school shows up. It’s amazing.”

After graduation, the Red Deer, Alberta, native plans to stay in Vancouver, crediting its natural beauty and growing technology sector.

“I’ve learned a ton with my first start-up experience. With these new skills and the great resources available here, I feel Vancouver is a great place for me long-term.”

Visit the Shnarped website:  www.shnarped.com.
Hockey Players for Kids: hp4k.org

Seven years after high school graduation, Jordan Coble knew he wanted a career, not just a job.

Luckily, someone suggested he check out the new Aboriginal Access Studies program at UBC’s Okanagan campus.

Coble, a member of the Westbank First Nation, was one of the first students to register in 2007, and this June he expects to cross the stage at convocation with his bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies.

“I wasn’t the greatest high school student,” Coble admits.  “I knew I was smart enough to do well, but I didn’t have a very good work ethic or the skills to apply myself. The program really showed me what I needed to do to succeed and helped me establish my own study patterns.”

In January he began work as the curatorial and heritage researcher at the Westbank First Nation’s heritage office and repository.

Aboriginal Access is designed to provide Indigenous students with a solid foundation as they are introduced to university studies. Adrienne Vedan, director of Aboriginal Programs and Services, stresses the importance of providing holistic support for student academic and social success.

“The program provides an opportunity for students who might not have been able to attend post-secondary,” she says. “Each student brings a unique skill set with them and we build upon those skills to ensure a successful transition from their first year of studies into their degree programs.”

Once enrolled, students take three first-year university courses per term. They earn prerequisites they might not have, and gain admission requirements for programs in line with their long-term academic goals.

In partnership with the En’owkin Centre in Penticton, Nsyilxcen, the Okanagan language, is offered along with Indigenous Studies and Aboriginal perspective options such as Math 126 and English 114. The program also incorporates cultural activities such as smudges, visits from Elders, and other social events.

Initially, Coble thought he would pursue a degree in English. But when UBC’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies introduced the Cultural Studies degree, he registered for the program and never looked back.

“I knew I wanted to study, but didn’t really have a clear direction. And now I am working at a place where I can use all the skills I’ve learned. Every day I use my research capabilities and my writing skills and I have videography and media skills that I use all the time.”

From just a few students in 2007, the program now has 154 students. Of these, Vedan says 73 per cent have remained in post-secondary studies. At UBC’s Okanagan campus, students have transitioned into various degree programs including Arts, Sciences, Fine Arts, Management, Human Kinetics, Social Work, and Education.

While the growth is exciting, Vedan says the real reward is seeing students succeed. Joining Coble at convocation this June will be three other Aboriginal Access Studies graduates from the faculties of Arts, Management, and Social Work.

At an age when most of his peers are still finding themselves, Will Guest will add the letters M.D. and PhD to his signature—and soon a patent to his name.

This month, the 25-year-old will become the youngest graduate from UBC’s combined MD/PhD program, having started at 19 and completing it a year sooner than usual.

After skipping fifth grade and taking university math courses while still in high school, Guest graduated from the University of Manitoba with degrees in physics and biochemistry and had to decide in which direction he was headed.

“At the time, only University of Toronto and UBC offered MD/PhD programs, and I was more impressed with the quality and organization of the program here,” says Guest, who admitted that his younger brother’s well-timed admission to UBC’s undergraduate program in geophysics also nudged him towards the west coast campus.

Now, an algorithm Guest formulated with his mentors, neurologist Neil Cashman and physicist Steve Plotkin, is patent-pending and shows promise in aiding the development of diagnostic tests for neurodegenerative disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (the human variant of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease).

“At present there are poor diagnostic tests and therapeutic options for both diseases,” says Guest. “Patients are diagnosed at late stages when they experience motor deficits or rapidly deteriorating dementia—and in some cases only after death.

“By figuring out the molecular mechanism of these diseases, we could catch them early on, and also identify new potential targets for treatment.”

Guest’s algorithm searches for regions in a protein that become exposed when it misfolds, creating a sort of “handle” that an antibody can latch onto. It is currently being tested by Cashman’s spin-off company, Amorfix Life Sciences.

Described as “mathematically gifted and scientifically creative” by Cashman, a world-leader in prion disease research, Guest exudes a humble confidence that only comes from really knowing your stuff—and how much there is yet to learn.

While references have been made—usually by much-older colleagues—to Doogie Howser M.D., the ’90s TV series’ young medical savant, Guest admits he has never actually seen the show, or has time for TV for that matter.

“Research is quite all-consuming,” says Guest, who credits his U of M professor Ken Standing for his pursuit of a research career. “Dr. Standing was in his late seventies and had already retired by the time I worked with him, but his dedication and passion for research—he’s now in his mid-eighties and still active in the lab—is a real inspiration to me.

“It’s hard to not let research become your life, but ultimately total immersion is often what it takes in order to make meaningful contributions.”

When Panteleeva moved to Vancouver from Moscow to pursue a BCom at the Sauder School of Business, she had no idea that managing a $5 million portfolio of investments would figure so largely in her academic life.

Nor could she have predicted that this training would place her on a trajectory towards one of the most sought after jobs in the world of high finance.

With four years of study behind her, she’s now set to take a seat at the centre of the global financial market—a trading desk at Goldman Sachs in London’s financial district.

“It isn’t close to the action. It is the action,” explains Panteleeva about her new job as a trader. “There is no way to get closer to the market.”

You might think she would be nervous about the prospect of trading billions of dollars at one of the world’s most powerful investment banks, but Panteleeva is taking it in stride. She’s already polished off internships at Deutsche Bank in Moscow, Merrill Lynch in Toronto, and Goldman Sachs in New York.

“It’s a fast paced environment and extremely stressful because you are taking risk all the time. It’s not for everybody,” she says, but her smile reveals that it is most definitely for her.

Panteleeva is graduating as one of a select group of finance students who qualified to be a member of Sauder’s UBC Portfolio Management Foundation (PMF). Started 26 years ago, the two-year extra-curricular program puts students in charge of a real portfolio of stocks and bonds, currently valued at about $5.8 million.

“The risks are real and we are given the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them,” she says.

During the year Panteleeva took the lead managing the fund, it outperformed a market benchmark composed of the S&P/TSX Composite Index, S&P 500 and DEX Universe index by five per cent. That’s an 11-per-cent return on investment. Goldman Sachs was impressed.

But the PMF students aren’t left completely to their own devices. They’re supported by a network of Sauder finance professors and 17 advisors from the financial services industry around the world—most of whom are Sauder alumni.

It’s these mentors who make the program a transformative experience, says Panteleeva. She credits her success to mentor Tracey McVicar, a former PMF student who is Managing Partner of the Vancouver office of New York firm CAI Private Equity.

Above all of the tactical guidance she provided in navigating the market, Panteleeva says there is one thing McVicar said that has stuck with her.

“She said that we’re not in this business for one week and that we can’t be focused on short-term profits. You have to maintain client relationships with a long-term perspective. Relationships are what this business is built on. If you lose those, you lose everything.”

It’s this core value that Panteleeva says she will hold on to most dearly when she pulls her chair up to her desk at Goldman Sachs this July as the phones ring off the hook, the computer screens flash, and the trades begin to fly.

Call her a champion of plant poetics, wielding a scythe to shear down barriers between the humanities and sciences. Sonnet L’Abbé is on a mission, an eco poet in bloom. Graduating with a PhD in English Literature, she fuses poetry with plant science in a bid for literary distinction.

An award-winning poet with two published volumes of work, L’Abbé explores the “language of plants” with unabashed gusto.

“Why are we moved by looking at pretty flowers or majestic trees? Why are we then moved by poems about trees?” asks L’Abbé. “The sense of calm or awe gained from paying attention to nature is physical.

“I had a question about what poetry does in a biological sense, and I hypothesized that analyzing plant-human hybrids in literature might tell us something about how we imagine the relationship of human being to a larger concept of nature.”

L’Abbé situates her work in the emerging field of Critical Plant Studies, a branch of environmental philosophy that focuses on understanding the way humankind relates to plants. Her PhD focused on the writings of the late American poet Ronald Johnson that explores metaphors for plants and people.

L’Abbé taught creative writing and poetry at the Okanagan campus this year, challenging students to find their emerging voice as writers through a series of group presentations called The Plant Intelligence Project.

“If science is the discourse that separates everything into its categories, poetry uses metaphor to blend those categories back together, making us think about how we order our world,” L’Abbé observes.

After first trying out civil engineering, she switched to university arts. “I felt I could be a more effective leader by inventing ideas and ideals rather than inventing technology,” says L’Abbé. “I feel that is where I want to be as a leader. I want to create Canadian culture.”

After receiving her degree, L’Abbé will write full time and pursue a variety of cultural projects. This spring she won a Canada Council Grant to Professional Writers that will help her complete the collection of poems entitled Sentient Mental Flower Book.

“We live in times where it is difficult to be creative and take imagination and art seriously,” says L’Abbé. “Being creative is its own treasure. Any practice, including creative practice, nurtures the bushy dendrites of your brain into its unique shape.”

Working with CBC Radio and Via Rail on a project called 2017 Starts Now that looks ahead to Canada’s 150th birthday, L’Abbé will soon embark on a six-week cross-Canada tour to interview Canadians about national identity, and will blog and create poetry about her journey.

In 2007 when a punctured pipeline owned by Kinder Morgan leaked oil in Burrard Inlet, members of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, led by Chief Leah D. George-Wilson, were immediately on the ground for the cleanup.

“My role as Chief was to ensure that the titles and lands of our people are protected, that our voice is heard, and that our concerns and issues are not brushed aside,” explained George-Wilson, who graduates from UBC Law this May.

George-Wilson and members of her band were soon at the negotiating table with Kinder Morgan to discuss a protocol agreement. In response to the 2007 oil spill, Kinder Morgan made a one-time contribution to the Tsleil-Waututh’s Marine Stewardship Program. Implemented by the Tsleil-Waututh, the program funds pollution assessments of Inlet waters and salmon enhancement initiatives.

George-Wilson was the first woman to be elected Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation, a position she held from 2001 and 2003 and again from 2005 and 2009. Prior to this, she worked with the community in various capacities including serving on the BC Treaty Process negotiating team.

Law school was a natural career path for George-Wilson, who had spent the last 18 years finding equitable and constitutional ways to protect the rights of the Tsleil-Waututh within their traditional territory. In 2009, she decided to take an educational leave from her duties and soon joined UBC Law.

“As a mature student, I really tried to help the younger Aboriginal students,” she said. “In many cases, law school is a completely different environment from where they came from. It’s like its own world. I wanted to make sure that other First Nations students didn’t feel alone.”

George-Wilson was an active member of the Indigenous Law Students Association and also sat on the admissions committee.

“I provided feedback on the Aboriginal applications that came through. There was always a lot of discussion around admissions and I brought what I thought was important to consider from an Aboriginal perspective.”

Currently, George-Wilson is articling with the West Vancouver-based law firm Ashcroft and Company where she can continue her work with the First Nations community.

Remembering her time at UBC, she says, “It was an enriching and enlightening experience. I never thought I would say I would miss law school, but I miss it. I don’t miss churning out papers and sweating out exams, but I miss the camaraderie.”

Correction: The print version of this story incorrectly implied that Kinder Morgan has provided ongoing resourcing to the Marine Stewardship Program. The Tsleil-Waututh (TWN) has clarified that there was a one-time contribution made after the 2007 spill and that the Marine Stewardship Program belongs solely to the TWN. Since the agreement pertaining to the 2007 spill, the TWN has had no further discussions with Kinder Morgan, including with regard to its current Kinder Morgan Expansion Project.

Marcio Barros never gave much thought to the violence around him growing up in São Paulo, Brazil, even when his own dental practice was twice broken into and robbed.

That is, until it threatened the safety of his young family.

“When I was single, I was used to all the violence, thinking if I was careful it wouldn’t affect me,” says Barros, who comes from a family of dentists and worked as an orthodontist for 15 years in Brazil. “But after my wife, who was pregnant with our first son, was robbed at gunpoint in 2002, we decided it was time to look for a better place to live.”

The irony isn’t lost on him when, after moving to Canada to pursue an international dental degree, he had to make ends meet by working as a UBC security guard, patrolling campus and monitoring security cameras.

“I needed a job but also time to study,” says Barros, adding that the four-day-on, four-day-off schedule allowed him to prep for entrance exams into UBC’s Faculty of Dentistry while his staff status qualified him for tuition credits.

Fortunately, the most unruly incident he had to deal with during his tenure as a campus cop involved a kidnapped evergreen.

“Some students stole a 12-foot-tall Christmas tree as a prank, and we later found it at a frat house,” recalls Barros, who left the job in 2011 to study full-time and is graduating this month with a Doctorate in Dental Medicine.

“UBC was a great employer and I made great friends at Campus Security. Everybody supported my pursuit for a better life here and cheered me on.”

Although international dentists can now take the National Dental Examining Board of Canada exam to practise in Canada, Barros says he’s grateful for the additional training he received at UBC. The two-year International Dental Degree Completion program is extremely competitive, admitting only a dozen students a year.

“We have a state-of-the-art clinic and were trained in the latest materials and techniques. It was amazing,” says Barros, whose practice in Brazil focused on orthodontics but will now expand to include general dentistry.

With an offer to join private practice, Barros is looking forward to raising his two kids in Kamloops, B.C. (his second son was born shortly after arriving in Vancouver). His Campus Security boss says Barros will be sorely missed.

“We have staff with a variety of backgrounds—bankers, scientists and even a graduate in archival studies,” says Campus Security Associate Director Paul Wong, who was Barros’ manager. “But Marcio was our first dentist.”

For university hockey fans, the Cinderella story of the year was the turnaround season of the UBC women’s hockey team. The Thunderbirds rebounded from the previous season’s last place finish to take the Canada West title and make their first ever appearance at the CIS championships.

“We opened our season with a victory and we got on a roll and just wanted to keep it going,” said defenceman Emily Grainger from Sooke, B.C.

The Tbirds went from a single win in 2011–12 to a 17-7-4 record in the 2012–13 season.

“It may have seemed like a magical story but we fought tooth and nail for it,” says the graduating kinesiology student. “We really wanted to prove that we were better than the results showed the year before.”

The team approached the 2012–13 season with a sense of renewal. They had a new coach, some high profile recruits, and a chance to make a fresh start. Their commitment to improvement extended beyond the ice. They set an academic goal to boost the team’s average GPA and increase the number of Academic All Canadians— a designation given to varsity athletes who maintain an 80 per cent average or higher.

“No one player stepped up and took control. It was everyone trying to be their best at every game and at every practice.”

For Grainger, the highlight of the season was the Canada West championship game. UBC was playing the CIS-defending champions the Calgary Dinos and Canadian hockey hero Hayley Wickenheiser. The team won the deciding game and the title by a score of 5-2.

It was the first championship of any sort for UBC women’s hockey since the team began CIS play in 1997. At the national championships, the Tbirds had one victory and finished fifth overall.

Grainger is optimistic that this year’s success was not a fluke. She says that in the five years she has been playing, the sport has improved across the league—the hockey is faster, there are more international players and the goaltending is much better.

“I think that women’s hockey is poised to become another UBC sport powerhouse,” she said. “It’s something people can look forward to and get excited about.”

With her undergrad and varsity hockey career behind her, Grainger is still figuring out what’s next. She’s hoping to start a master’s of physiotherapy, and she may be playing on the newly formed Canadian Women’s Hockey League.

“After this season, I’m not ready to stop. I feel like I’m just coming into my prime.”

Almost ten years after a tragic motorcycle accident, UBC law student Dustin Paul has become the first quadriplegic hired to article at Bull, Housser & Tupper, one of Canada’s top legal firms.

As he prepares to graduate from UBC’s Faculty of Law, the 28-year-old credits his accident—which took away the use of his legs and hands—for making his achievement possible.

“Of course I wish it hadn’t happened, but at the same time, university just wasn’t on my radar,” says Paul. “I wasn’t a troublemaker, but I was on a different path. School had always been more of a social thing for me. I thought I’d work with my hands.”

That changed, irrevocably, in May 2004 when his motorcycle slid off the road and flipped over on a trip to Whistler with friends.

“Our plan was just to go for a nice ride, grab some dinner, and come back.”

Instead, it was the start of “a very difficult decade,” says Paul, as he adjusted to life with a disability at 19.

After taking criminology at Langara and SFU, where he won the Terry Fox Award for his accomplishments facing adversity, he enrolled in UBC’s Faculty of Law.

“Criminology was interesting, but it was more just something to hold my interest and get me out of the house during a difficult time,” says Paul, who enjoys watching Breaking Bad, listening to R&B, and reading in his downtime. “But law was different. I knew it would be a challenge on a variety of levels, but that it’d also give me the direction and career path that I really needed.”

This fall, Paul will become the first quadriplegic to article with Vancouver law firm Bull, Housser & Tupper. He credits trailblazing lawyers with disabilities such as Joseph Arvay and William Morely, who both practice in B.C., for paving the way.

“Attitudes have come far, but a wheelchair still carries a stigma. It can be a physical or symbolic barrier for some people,” he says. “So I truly appreciate Bull Housser’s willingness to let me show them what I can do.”

Paul has emerged as a gifted litigator at UBC, racking up victories in Allard Hall’s practice courtroom and competitions.

“My ultimate goal is to be in the courtroom,” says Paul.  “I don’t mind being behind a desk, but the courtroom is where my strengths—my legal training and public speaking skills—can have the biggest impact.”

For assignments, Paul uses Dragon Dictation, a voice recognition software, and edits by hand later by tapping his keyboard with a pencil. For texts and emails, he uses a Galaxy smartphone on his lap. Commuting from Burnaby, where he lives independently, he has relied heavily on family and friends to drive an accessible van modified to carry his motorized wheelchair, or takes transit.

Paul is looking ahead to graduation with hope and excitement—a stark difference from 10 years ago.

“Honestly, for the first time in long while—longer than I’d like to admit—I am genuinely excited about life and about my future,” he says, acknowledging his parents unwavering support. “I can’t wait to see the careers of my friends and classmates unfold. Life is trending up for all of us.”

Dustin Paul is one of 176 students graduating from UBC’s Faculty of Law on May 22. Learn more about UBC Law at Allard Hall: www.law.ubc.ca and UBC Access and Diversity at www.students.ubc.ca/access.

A birder, mountaineer and backcountry skier, Spanish-born Carlos Molina is a natural for the West Coast. But it wasn’t the call of the wild that brought him to B.C.—it was Europe’s economic crisis.

In 2008, at the height of the financial meltdown, Molina began looking for a change. He had a degree in forest engineering from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid and was trying to get a job in the industry.

It was a bad time for any young graduate and unfortunately for Molina, the situation didn’t get any better. Unlike Canada, Spain’s economic crisis deepened.

“The government lowered salaries, increased taxes and cut services. Unemployment skyrocketed,” he says.

Most forestry in Spain is government operated. Molina says people were being laid off left and right, and whenever there was a job posting, he was competing with experienced foresters.

“It was just impossible to find a job.  So after four years without any success, I said ‘I’m out of here.’”

Because of his training as a forest professional, Molina was familiar with B.C.’s industry. He also had a friend who had come to UBC’s Faculty of Forestry for a PhD. So when he heard about a new one-year master’s in Sustainable Forest Management, he applied to be part of the inaugural class.

“When I got accepted, I didn’t even think twice,” says the graduate, who packed up and moved to another continent even though it was hard to leave his country, relatives and the familiarity of home to try something new.

On his first day in Vancouver exploring Jericho Beach, Molina saw a bald eagle fly by. For a hobbyist bird watcher from Spain, he was mesmerized watching the eagle dive down and catch its dinner.

“Being outdoors and in nature has been the main drive that took me into forestry in the first place,” he says.

Molina says that finding the right balance between protecting nature and managing forest resources has always been his professional aspiration and is what he appreciated about the master’s program. He’s also come out of the program with the one thing he wanted more than anything else— a job in forestry.

This May, Molina will move to  Prince George to begin a career as a forester in training. His girlfriend Aitana Ortiz de Zarate is moving  from Spain to join him.

For more information about  the program: cbm.forestry.ubc.ca/master-of-sustainable-forest-management-msfm-degree

Ask Tim Krupa how to make a difference and the conversation turns to leadership.

The graduating science student at the Okanagan campus was recently voted mostly likely to change the world in a UBC Reports online campus contest.

Krupa believes changing the world is a team effort. Guiding people along a path where their individual efforts contribute to making a difference is how to effect seismic change, says the 21-year-old from Kelowna.

“That ability to check your ego at the door is the first thing you need to do to be an effective leader,” says Krupa, who expects to graduate with a BSc degree in Biology from the Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences at June’s convocation.

Krupa already has plenty of experience in questioning, informing himself, and helping shape positive change. He has been both a student member of UBC’s Board of Governors and the Okanagan Senate.

“My life at UBC has been an incredible learning experience. I have not only enjoyed a superior academic education, but I now have an idea of how the business of the university functions.”

Krupa’s grasp of the world—and how to change it—also spans the globe.

Wanting to understand what makes children happy, Krupa spent the past two summers in Zambia, developing soccer programs and studying happiness with youth. Supported by both an Irving K. Barber International Education Travel Subsidy in 2011 and an Irving K. Barber Undergraduate Research Award in 2012, Krupa consulted Associate Prof. of Psychology Mark Holder, whose research focuses on the science of happiness.

Deborah Buszard, deputy vice chancellor and principal of UBC’s Okanagan campus, says Krupa embodies the pinnacle of student excellence at UBC and his sense of values set a great example for others.

“We are justifiably proud of Tim Krupa’s accomplishments and contributions at UBC,” says Buszard. “Tim has a brilliant future and we can expect to hear much more from him as he furthers his education and embarks on a career that will no doubt benefit the greater good.”

Asked to project where he will be in five or 10 years, Krupa says it is too early to tell. But he’ll begin by pursuing a master’s degree in political science at UBC’s Vancouver campus this fall.

“I’m a policy wonk,” he says. “My goals are on the horizon. I think leading change and crafting policy on  a Canadian scale would be a dream come true.”

The support of family—his parents, brothers and sister—have contributed to Krupa’s accomplishments and desires.

“All of my family members have had the ability to build upon their successes and they have been my personal inspiration.”

UBC Public Affairs is putting the final touches to a dynamic, integrated UBC NEWS digital portal that will go live in late spring and offer fresh content each week.

Once the UBC NEWS portal is launched, the digital e-mail edition of UBC Reports will become a weekly update of our latest headlines, feature stories, faculty profiles and campus video highlights. This will be the best way to keep up with the university’s news, views and developments.

Be among the first to explore UBC NEWS.  Subscribe ahead of time today at: http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/news/e-services/

Subscribers who sign up before May 24 will be eligible for an early-bird prize draw on May 27 for a free night’s accommodation at UBC’s West Coast Suites, a brunch for two at Point Grill, and complimentary passes to the Museum of Anthropology, the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Nitobe Memorial Garden and UBC Botanical Garden.

Everyone signing up to this new service before August 23 will also be eligible for a post-launch grand prize draw on August 26 of an iPad. What better way to scroll and click through your weekly digital UBC Reports?

We hope you join us on our adventure.  See you online.

The odds may be smaller than winning the lottery, but Weihong Song’s selection to the 12^th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is anything but chance.

Song was one of only 39 invitees from 24 countries – chosen from more than 50 million eligible overseas Chinese expats – to participate in one of China’s most anticipated political gatherings in recent history.

“It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” recalls Song, who is UBC’s Special Advisor to President Stephen Toope on China. “Simply amazing.”

Raised in the southwestern province of Sichuan, the UBC psychiatry professor and Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease was one of the first Chinese nationals to go to medical school after the infamous Cultural Revolution – at age 14. He recently received China’s highest honour for foreign experts – the Friendship Award and was elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Science.

The CPPCC, similar to the upper house or senate in the western system, has approximately 2,200 members from various officially sanctioned political parties, ethnic, religious and other special interest groups. It was held last month in conjunction with the National People’s Congress, which saw the election of the country’s president and premier – an occasion that has only happened once before.

“It was really a changing of the guard,” says Song, who witnessed the election and swearing in of president Xi Jinping and premier Li Keqiang.

There was a palpable atmosphere of change in the air and the message from the top – reduce pollution, minimize waste and close the gap between the rich and the poor – was loud and clear, says Song.

“There were no elaborate flower arrangements, no lavish banquets, no alcohol served. We were given refillable water bottles to use for the duration of the conference.

“It felt like times have changed,” says Song, who emigrated from China 23 years ago.

Seizing the rare opportunity, Song made an appeal for investment in Alzheimer’s research. “There are over 200 million people over the age of 60 in China,” Song told the CPPCC. “Research will not only benefit the Chinese but people around the world.”

Carey Simpson has found that not all things are equal when it comes to stretching.

The fourth-year Human Kinetics student at UBC’s Okanagan School of Health and Exercise Sciences has discovered there are significant differences in male versus female physiology when it comes to pre-exercise routines.

Simpson finished a seven-month study under Assoc. Prof. Jennifer Jakobi that investigated the effects of stretching the calf muscle and Achilles tendon. The findings showed that connective tissue in women’s legs becomes looser with stretching, while the muscles, fibres and tendons in men’s legs were unchanged.

The trouble is that looser tendons can be a precursor to injury during exercise. The slack tissues do not respond to quick movement, pivots and stretching during such activities as running, volleyball, basketball, soccer and field sports.

“Women after stretching displayed significant differences in tendon length change. In men, there was no change,” says Simpson, of Kelowna. “Now something we thought was universal appears beneficial to one sex but not the other.”

Medical literature suggests that high levels of estrogen in girls and young women can be linked to muscle and tendon tautness, says Simpson. She says much further study is required, but it may be that younger women could benefit from changing their stretching routine

However, it could be a different story as women go through stages in life, as estrogen levels decrease significantly with age.

“As a woman ages, she could benefit more from stretching. So studying the effects of life changes would be the next step for my research,” says Simpson. She hopes to conduct follow-up studies while pursuing a master’s degree after graduating.

The study on stretching was done using 10 male and 10 female recreational athletes aged 19 to 30.. Participants performed a maximum toe point, followed by a two-minute static stretch which brought their toes toward their shin, and then a final maximum toe point. Ultrasound was used to measure changes in the muscle fibres of the gastrocnemius and Achilles tendon, otherwise known as the calf muscle.

Simpson presented her findings at the Research Rodeo during the Okanagan campus’s Celebrate Research Week in March. Participants had three minutes to deliver an oral presentation and sway a judging panel and audience. One of three winners in the undergraduate category, Simpson was also named the People’s Choice Winner.

Stretching is one of the great unexplored areas of exercise sciences, says Simpson. While there are numerous valuable studies in such areas as cardiovascular and heart health, stretching has enjoyed little scientific investigation.

“It’s exciting with the techniques we’re developing in the lab right now, says Simpson’s advisor, Assoc. Prof. Jakobi. “This has never been reported in medical literature”

The significance of the findings documenting sex differences could set a new course to understand performance in men and women, and the way athletes train, prepare and perform, says Jakobi.

Simpson plans to publish her research and present an abstract at an international health sciences conference in Barcelona, Spain this summer.

When Alvan Bregman travelled to China in September 2011, he had no idea just how valuable that experience would prove.

At the time, Bregman was the Preservation Librarian at UBC Library, a new job that involved the oversight and care of the Library’s physical collections.

Those collections pose unique preservation challenges. Paper and cardboard degrade. Leather covers dry out. Aging newsprint turns yellow and eventually disintegrates.

“Just about everything that’s made has what conservators call ‘inherent vice’ – that is, some tendency to break down,” says Bregman.

Not one to admit defeat, Bregman has taken many steps to protect and prolong the condition of the Library’s books and other physical objects – including a three-week Asian journey that involved a workshop on the care of rare Chinese books at Beijing’s Peking University (PKU) Library. Bregman wanted to see how these techniques could be applied to materials at UBC’s Asian Library.

Last year, UBC Library and PKU Library agreed to exchange staff and expertise related to cataloguing and conservation, especially for Asian materials.

On his trip, Bregman learned about traditional binding and paper repair, made the kind of wheat paste that is used for mending, and studied the construction of book casings. He discovered how to dye the paper and silk thread that binds many Chinese publications. He repaired items that had been damaged by ravenous insects. “It was an opportunity of a lifetime,” recalls Bregman, now the Head of Technical Services at UBC Library.

Putting new skills to the test

A year later, that trip took on a new significance. Last September, Bregman received news that a mould outbreak, traced to an earlier leak, had occurred in the vault of UBC’s Asian Library.

Luckily, the incident was covered by insurance – but the preservation challenge was daunting. About 400 moldy books, mostly rare Chinese and Japanese items, were stored in freezers to be decontaminated. As a precaution, all books in the Asian Library vault were hand-cleaned and then moved to a new home, the climate-controlled vault at UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC), located at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

“It’s a very intense and complicated project,” notes Bregman. Yet his earlier Chinese exchange had also armed him with knowledge and skills that were perfect for this test. “I was aware of the structure of Chinese rare books,” he says. “I knew what I was dealing with.”

Other experiences also came in handy. Before coming to UBC, for example, Bregman worked at the University of Illinois’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which closed for weeks in 2008 to deal with a mould outbreak.

Still, last September’s ordeal has yielded important benefits, such as the relocation of the Asian Library’s rare materials to the welcoming RBSC vault. Indeed, other special items from various UBC Library branches will move to RBSC throughout 2013. “UBC is following the North American trend of consolidating rare book material within an updated, environmentally sound and world-class facility,” says Jo Anne Newyear Ramirez, Associate University Librarian for Collections Management.

Digital decay

Books may be fragile, but anything digital can also decay. Dizzying changes in formats, software and more make it difficult to keep electronic assets from disappearing into the digital ether.

“The long-term stewardship of materials both digital and analog is one of the cornerstones of libraries,” says Bronwen Sprout, Digital Initiatives Coordinator. “At UBC Library we are creating and managing a large volume of digital material, and we’re responsible for making sure it is still usable into the future, as with our print material.”

The Library has worked with Artefactual Systems, a Lower Mainland company, to implement an open source digital preservation system called Archivematica this spring.  Archivematica will go a long way towards ensuring that University publications, databases, theses, research data sets and other types of digital collections endure.

Digital preservation is a pressing worldwide challenge.  Last September, UBC cooperated with UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) to hold a Vancouver conference  on the preservation of digital heritage. The event attracted more than 500 public and private sector participants from around the world and led to the adoption of an official declaration this past January, whose recommendations aim to bolster an international strategy for digital preservation.

A safer place

Preservation remains the watchword of the B.C. Integrated Research Library, UBC Library’s planned new storage facility on the south campus for low-usage items. The building’s  environment will be carefully controlled for temperature, light, pollutants and humidity, thereby extending the life of print materials by up to seven times compared to regular shelving conditions.

The Library is also about to launch a preservation campaign for its users and staff, in sync with the American Library Association’s Preservation Week from April 21 to 27.

For more on the Library’s efforts, please visit its preservation site.

If you’re new to B.C., Waqar Jan is a good man to know.

Jan works with immigrants to help them settle into life in Canada, connecting them to language and job training and introducing them to the ways of their new home.  He knows the journey well.  Jan came to Vancouver from Peshawar in 2004 and it took him three years to settle into a profession and career path.

A UBC Continuing Studies program was instrumental in helping him find his way.

“I have been in that situation, I know what’s going through their mind,” he says of his path toward a full-time job with the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society. “To help them is the best feeling because I have been through that.”

In Pakistan, Jan worked in international development. He has a master’s degree in social anthropology and spent 12 years working with local communities, community based organizations and non-governmental organizations in remote, mountainous rural areas of Pakistan on issues related to forestry, watershed management, environment and integrated rural development.

When he moved to Canada, he was suddenly in a very different position. He was in a new place and nobody could fully appreciate what he had to offer.

“What I thought I could build on was my experience working with people.”

Jan knew he wanted to work for a non-profit, helping immigrants settle quickly in the country. After much research, he decided to pursue a Certificate in Intercultural Studies and a Certificate in International Development offered by UBC Continuing Studies.

When he started his courses in 2007, Jan had what he calls survival jobs. He drove a cab and worked security.

Like other immigrants, he looked for a way to build his credentials and networks while earning a living. The flexible class schedule and the option to pay course by course allowed him to complete his Certificate in Intercultural Studies.

“It was a big class, lots of different cultures and I learned to engage with the whole class,” he says. “The most important thing I learned was the confidence to communicate with people with other perspectives.”

Now he is a full-time staff member at the Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society, introducing newcomers to the job market and helping them settle and integrate into Canadian society.

Over 13,000 people take Continuing Studies courses every year and more than 1,200 of them sign up for certificate programs to advance their careers.

“Continuing Studies has always been a gateway to campus for adult learners,” says Karen Rolston, a program director in Continuing Studies. “Many of those learners are professionals looking to transition to the next step in their careers.”

More than 250,000 people immigrate to Canada each year – 40,000 of them settle in British Columbia. Rolston says Continuing Studies works with UBC faculties and employers to create programs that meet the ever-changing learning needs of professionals in Canadian workplaces.

“We’re creating more bridging programs for new immigrants to help them transition their experience from their home country to a career in Canada. Ultimately it is Canada that will benefit from having people with their skills and talent.”

Recently celebrating its 75^th anniversary, UBC Continuing Studies is developing new online programs to make learning more flexible and accessible to students. It is also expanding its summer learning programs, offering more than 90 one-week courses on subjects as diverse as Mandarin Chinese, social media and sustainability.

To see more stories of Continuing Studies adult learners, visit: http://stories.cstudies.ubc.ca/