Hey IPP!
This is the slideshow video that was played at the IPP Formal. It is a compilation of photos taken at all the IPP events throughout the year. We hope all of you are leaving this year with wonderful memories of IPP. For those of you who are returning, see you next year!
[SKYS]
Bicycles 101 aims to provide students with the knowledge and incentive to buy a bicycle, ride it safely and perform basic maintenance. These goals will be met through engaging students in a two-hour interactive workshop in the Global Lounge facilitated by knowledgeable cycling experts. The workshop will give students an introduction to the basics of cycling in Vancouver, including a list of resources where students can learn more about all of the topics that are touched on during the presentation. Through providing this information, we can encourage students to explore UBC and Vancouver via bicycle and reduce their carbon footprint while enjoying the convenience and health benefits of cycling.
To sign up, please visit: https://secure.students.ubc.ca/workshops/health.cfm#2306
Japanese Emergency Support Team (JEST) – UBC
Notice of Support Group Meeting
for Japanese Students Affected by Recent Disaster in Japan
An informal and supportive meeting will be held in Japanese and facilitated by Japanese-speaking professional counsellors and counsellors-in-training at UBC who are volunteering their time and expertise. There will be a short information session followed by a group discussion.
• Wed., March 23, 2011 (5pm – 7pm)
• Room 310 in Scarfe Building (3rd floor, Education Building), 2125 Main Mall (west of University Bookstore), 10-min. walk from UBC Bus Terminal
• Cost: Free
• Open to all (max. 24 participants)
If interested, please let us know by contacting us in English or Japanese at <ubcsupport@hotmail.co.jp>.
Offered by: Japanese Emergency Support Team (JEST) – UBC
Leader-in-Charge: Dr. Ishu Ishiyama, associate professor of counselling psychology, Faculty of Education, UBC
[Announcement in Japanese]
Japanese Emergency Support Team (JEST) – UBC
第1回 災害後ミーティング（日本語）の開催のお知らせ
このたびの東北関東大震災で、ご家族、ご友人をお亡くしになられた方々へ心より御悔み申し上げます。
この地震と津波の大災害で、海外在住の方々は多大なるショックと不安を覚えておられることと思います。この状況に際して、日本人留学生の心のケア・援助をするために、微力ながらUBC大学院レベルで臨床カウンセリングの専門教育を受けたボランティアグループがJapanese Emergency Support Team (JEST) – UBCを立ち上げました。被災地の方々の心の痛みや、ご家族やご親戚、友達を亡くされた方の悲痛な思いには及ばないかもしれませんが、こちらにいる留学生の中にも大変心配されたり、悲しみ、無力感、絶望感、ストレス、焦燥感、やり場のない怒り、学業への集中力低下など、メンタル的な苦しみを体験しておられる方も数多くいらっしゃると思います。JEST-UBCとしてはそのような方々に対して精神的な援助を提供することを目的としております。サポートグループ(精神的な相互支援）の会合の開催、グループカウンセリング、そして希望者に対する短期の個人カウンセリングを無料にて行います。まず初めに第１回災害後ミーティングを日本人留学生を対象として開催いたします。以下詳細まで。
• 第１回 災害後ミーティング（日本語）
• 日時：３月２３日 夕方５時―７時
• 場所：UBC 教育学部スカーフビルディング(Scarfe Building)３階（Room310）（UBCバス停より徒歩約１０分：UBC Bookstore方面）
参加をご希望の方は ubcsupport@hotmail.co.jp までご連絡ください。
支援チーム責任者・UBC教育学部カウンセリング心理学講座准教授・石山一舟博士
Hey IPP,
We know a lot of you are currently looking for accommodation for the next academic year off-campus and will likely need to share your accommodation with roommates. Finding a roommate can be a stressful undertaking given the time involved and competing priorities. Also, as for many of us this may be our first time renting a house or apartment off-campus this can be a bit of a stressful undertaking. But don’t worry! Help is available!
To support you with your efforts, on March 9, 2011 UBC Residence Life is partnering with Speed Renting Canada, to provide you with an opportunity to meet potential roommates.
The UBC Roommate Meet-Up will be a fun opportunity to socialize with other UBC students who are looking for a place to live. The price of admission is $8, which will include free food and refreshments. In addition, all attendees will be entered into a draw for the chance to win great prizes courtesy of Skullcandy, one of the world’s top headphone companies.
The event will take place at the Marine Drive Commons block ballroom and will run from 5:30-7pm.
To register for this event, you can visit www.speedrenting.ca/ubc
For more information, please contact info@speedrenting.ca
Looking for more info? Check out the Speed Renting Poster: SpeedRenting_FINAL
The most important thing I learned in Costa Rica was ‘Pura Vida’. It was more than just an expression or a friendly greeting, it was a mindset and a lifestyle. Every morning, my host family greeted me with a smile and a cheerful ‘Pura Vida’, no matter how hard it was raining and how gloomy it was outside.
On the second day at my host families’ home, I lost the key to my room. I was absolutely horrified as I did not know any Spanish, and had no idea how to explain this to my host family. I went to the Señora and attempted to explain it to her using French words as I found they were pretty similar, and a whole lot of body language. I guess my message somehow got across to her, as she went to get the jar of spare keys, and together we tried every key until we found the right one. It took a while, and when we finally found the spare key to my room, we laughed together and she warned me not to lose it again, but with a smile on her face. I apologized for losing the key, and she simply said ‘Pura Vida’, and told me to come down for dinner soon. That seemed to be her answer to everything, in such a wonderful way. The constant smile on her face comforted me when I was feeling slightly homesick. However, it wasn’t just the Señora.
Señor Sosa, the owner of our host home and one of the Señora’s 8 children, was an incredibly friendly person, although he seemed quiet at first. After we attempted to communicate a couple of times, he sat with us and told us about his wife and his children. He even ate dinner with us on our last night at our host families’ home. I was touched by our host family, especially when they packed us little coconut sweet treats for our day trip to Cahuita National Park. Everything they did for us was thoughtful and gracious. They helped make my Costa Rican experience the amazing adventure that it was, and is.
Grace Lee, Group Leader, IPP
Hola,
Mi nombre es Joe. For those who don’t know me, I am a senior peer from the Dunbar group and one of the IPP members, along with Craig, Grace, Janet and Silvere, to travel to Costa Rica this reading break for a Go Global ISL project. I am sorry that I couldn’t blog about my feelings before the trip because I had some unfinished business to do (aka midterms) the Thursday night before my trip. To tell you the truth, I didn’t start packing until late night before my flight at 7:30 a.m in the morning. I didn’t sleep that night, worried that I would sleep in and miss my flight. So I was up all night figuring whether if I had missed any important items to bring.
My travel to San Jose, Costa Rica was a 3 hour plane ride to Phoenix and then 5 hours from Phoenix to Costa Rica. Transiting through U.S customs, the officer asked me why I was going to Costa Rica. So, I showed him my paper stating it was on an educational tour for a week. Then he asked more questions, ” What are you learning?”. I paused and replied, “Sustainability… ya sustainability (trying to sound smart)”. The broad answer of “sustainability” seem to impressed him to let me pass through customs, but actually I didn’t know what I was talking about. I didn’t even know what I was going to do in Costa Rica nor do I know what sustainability means. My honest answer would have been, ” I don’t know but I will tell you when I come home!”
We knew that we would be settling in Gandoca, a village at the very south Carribbean coast of Costa Rica close to the border to Panama but we didn’t know it would be another 5 hours drive. The road to Gandoca was a fun ride mixed with sleep and Spanish songs. Ignacio, our biologist/interpreter, tried his best to keep us awake, telling us about facts or issues about different sceneries as we drove by them. Upon arrival to Gandoca we split into host families, where we lived and ate. For me, due to some unexpected circumstances to my surprise, I had the previlage to switch to three different host families. Everyone of them were very nice and everyone of them had different type of meals. Out of that, I got to taste Costa Rican food from three different families. This made my experience in Gandoca even better. What I also learned about these people is that they live a simple life. By simple, I mean they have their basic necessities (water, electricity, food, appliances to cook their food) but nothing more (no computer, rarely any TVs, iPODs, cell phones, or any other electronics that spoil us today in developed cities). And because of this you can feel a sense of belonging to a community in Gandoca. For example, most of the locals would come out to the field to play soccer, something that we wouldn’t have the chance to do in Vancouver either due to weather or other distractions going on in life! It seems that our society today is lacking this closeness and sense of community. Ironically, technology is bringing us apart, and not any closer. This is something we can learn from the locals in Gandoca.
Although service was not our main priority on this trip, learning and learning to critcally think were heavily stressed. Our topic on sustainability was one of the broader topics we discussed. According to an online dictionary, sustainability means” to keep existence, or to maintain”. However, we would like to slightly change that definition a bit. Upon endless discussion with Ignacio and the rest of the members through different perspectives and comparisons, we realized that sustainablility is more like a juggling act of balls if you can imagine it as a metaphor. The “balls” or topics cycling are: Environmental, Social, and Economical issues attached to sustainability. To be sustainable, each ball, which is interconnected with each other, must be maintained or “juggled” in balance. What I am saying is that when we focus on environmental issues, we must also take in consideration of the social and economical aspects of the community, and vice versa. When we think like this, we see the bigger picture in the background, which we normally wouldn’t see if we focused on our own perspective or narrowed ourselves to one view. If we can maintain and balance this juggling act, then sustainability can be achieved.
To sum up my journey to Costa Rica, here are my top 10 moments from this trip…. [ drum roll please…..]
#10. Forgetting about school and midterms or all the distractions in my life
#9. The long five hour ride to Gondaca, with “Bem, Bem, Maria” as our ride music.
#8. Drinking out of a coconut
#7. Beach Patrol and Beach Cleanup
#6. The natural alarm clock: monkeys and rooster waking you up in the morning
#5. Soccer game with the locals
#4. Living in three different host families and tasting their meals.
#3. Our trip to Cahuita National Park: looking at poisonous snakes and being chased by angry/hungry monkeys!
#2. The many nights of card games and “Mafia”
and #1. My memories on this trip with everyone….Memories without Borders!
Pura Vida!
Joe Ho, Senior Peer, IPP
Reading Week has just gone by too quickly- don’t you agree?
This Reading Week, a group of IPP students went to Captain Cook Elementary in Vancouver to do a project called TOTEM (Teaching Others to Enjoy Math)! Sometimes Math can be a difficult subject for kids (and I have to admit that Math has never been my favorite subject), so this project was all about showing the elementary school kids how much fun Math can be!
Our group of 20 IPP-UBC students spent 3 days of our reading break doing this project at Cook Elementary. Having left elementary school around 15 years ago, we all admitted that being there made us feel like we were kids again! We went outside to play with the kids during recess, sat with them at their tiny tables during class activity time, and lined up with them to go back into their classrooms after lunch time. At the end of the 3 days, we were definitely sad to leave the school and all the wonderful kids we got to know. Many of us admitted that if we had not signed up for the project, we probably wouldn’t have been doing anything productive at home anyway. So next reading break, if you’re not going anywhere special, definitely join the Reading Week Projects! You won’t regret it- No one in our group did.
Wondering exactly how we actually made Math a lot of fun? Here are a couple of the activities we did with the kids!
-making color-patterned froot loop necklaces with kindergarten kids- to demonstrate how patterns of numbers can be used in crafts!
-playing Math Bingo- instead of the caller calling out numbers like “N-24”, we had the caller call out math equations and the kids would have to figure out which number on their bingo sheet was the answer to the equation that was called out
-marshmallow structures competition- we had kids build marshmallow structures only made out of cubes- the team that build the most creative/interesting structures won!
-Math trivia game- for the older students (who love some friendly competition), we made a Math Trivia game for them to play. It was designed to be a little bit like jeopardy, where each question was worth a certain number of points. but unlike jeopardy, every group got to answer a question. I have to admit. Some of the questions were HARD! Some of our UBC students didn’t even know the answers!
Are you smarter than a 5th grader?
What is the sum of all the interior angles of a triangle?
I have 3 faces and 2 edges. What shape am I?
Name all the prime numbers from 1-100.
The 5th graders got these questions correct. The question is- can you?
[skys]
Are you a first or fourth-year student who wants to make a difference?
Fill out this survey on student engagement
UBC is participating in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and wants to hear about your experiences as an undergraduate student. By completing the survey, you have a chance to make your voice heard and improve educational programming and activities at UBC.
Try your luck
NSSE reports on the experiences of first- and fourth-year students. If you’re in one of these groups and you complete the survey, you can be entered into a draw for one of several fantastic prizes. (One entry per student.)
Find out more
You should already have received an email invitation to participate in the survey. It only takes 20 minutes to complete and closes on March 28. For details, check out the Centre for Student Involvement website.
Thanks for helping shape the future of UBC!
Hi everybody,
Since I couldn’t post an important pdf from REC on the blog, please click here to find out some really important information on our Wiki.
See you on Thursday!
Cheryl
Hola, lovely Bloggees and Bloggettes!
My name is Grace, and I am one of Knight’s charming group leaders. Today, I am here to blog about the IPP Go Global Costa Rica International Service Learning trip that is happening during the upcoming reading break!
First off, we will be working with our community partner, ASVO (Asociación de Voluntarios para el Servicio en Áreas Protegidas), a self-managed, non-government, non-profit organization that focuses on conservation projects in Costa Rica’s National Park system, as well as in coastal-marine areas. ASVO is dedicated to protecting endangered speicies and biodiversity, and to decreasing the negative effects that tourism can have on the environment. You can find out more about ASVO by visiting their website at http://www.asvocr.org/.
I, personally, am not very familiar with Costa Rica, the country itself. So to prepare myself for the trip, I searched up some facts about it!
-The official language is Spanish, and the capital is San José.
-It has a population estimated at about 4,253,897, almost the same as BC (4,510,858), although it’s about 1/18 the size of BC.
-The national bird is the clay-colored robin (Turdus grayi), and the Guanacaste (Enterolobium cyclocarpum) is the national tree.
-The national flower is the guaria morada (Cattleya skinneri), an orchid.
-The national flag is red, white and blue.
-Costa Ricans refer to themselves as Ticos (guys) or Ticas (girls).
-Americans and Canadians are often called Gringos/Gringas.
-Costa Rica hosts more than 5% of the world’s biodiversity even though its landmass only takes up .03% of the planet’s surface.
-More than 25% of Costa Rica’s land is dedicated to national parks, reserves and wildlife refuges. There are more than 100 different protected areas to visit.
The more I research about Costa Rica, the more excited I am about this trip! Apparently it’s tropical all year around, so I will either be nicely tanned or burnt and red when I return from this trip. Yesterday, I went to the travel clinic and got 4 shots: 2 in each arm, but most of them were shots that I had to get because I’m old now and I need them anyways. Nonetheless they hurt, and now my arms are all sore. But I believe this trip is worth that pain.
Anyways, I’m afraid I don’t know much about the contents of the trip itself, but I will be able to fill you in when I return from the trip. I will try my best to help ASVO’s active conservation as well as I can while I’m there. Please pray I meet a good looking Costa Rican Tico! 🙂
Adiós for now,
Grace
Knight Group Leader
