Tag Archives: Thunderbird Arena

Kinesiology Co-op

Hello, friends!

For the past month, I’ve been busy working full time at UBC Athletics and Recreation as a summer co-op student. Specifically, I’m the Events and Services assistant at the Doug Mitchell Centre aka Thunderbird Arena. Three cheers for my first big girl job!

My role is to help out with a variety of things. I’ve done some work on the recreation.ubc.ca page, looked up history for all of UBC’s sports facilities, sat on the employer side at a job fair (which evoked all kinds of amusement and second-hand embarrassment), and more! I’m also heavily involved in the facility set-up of the big events that are happening at Thunderbird Arena this summer, like the 2014 National Special Olympics.

It’s been quite the experience—I learn new things every day! They’re not exactly technical skills, but rather soft skills like talking on the phone without crying from embarrassment. I don’t know why, but I honestly get super nervous about communicating with people over the phone or email. How am I supposed to disguise my ineptitude with charisma if they can’t see my face??

What’s nice is that I’m on campus basically all the time. It’s like I’m going to school! Except there’s not really any homework*, and pretty much everyone is older than me.

*Technically, I do have homework. It’s just documentation for the Kin Co-op Office that is required every work term, but keeping on top of them has actually been the hardest part. Time management is still a thing I’m working on (it’s one of my learning objectives, in fact!).

In any case, my point here is that I feel like grown adult with responsibilities—and it both frightening and exhilarating.