By Patty Wellborn

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.

By Paul Marck 

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.

By Daniel Presnell 

Adrienne Montgomery was working on the Stats Canada Census of Agriculture when she noticed something troubling: the biggest issue affecting rural people was poor access to health care. Montgomery, who holds a UBC agriculture degree, wondered what more she could do to help.

“I walked past a poster one day saying that we need more rural doctors, and I thought: ‘isn’t that interesting?’” says Montgomery. “So I quit my job, moved back to B.C., and applied to medical school.”

Creative writing students at UBC’s Okanagan campus link literature, art and science in a novel, collaborative study.

Call it sowing the seeds of a new idea. Budding writers in the Department of Creative Studies at UBC’s Okanagan campus are blending plant metaphors with plant science to discover their emerging literary voice. 

By Heather Amos

From Guyana to Vancouver, Janette Bulkan has built a career on protecting indigenous land rights and access to resources. Her involvement with social issues in forestry began after she noticed more and more chainsaws in indigenous communities in her homeland of Guyana. The men from  these communities were getting into logging.

Adriana Velazquez completed her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering in Mexico City but was always intrigued by sustainability and “green” power. After researching various master’s programs and universities — and running a marathon in Vancouver — she fell in love with the Master of Clean Energy Engineering program at UBC, and the city of Vancouver. 

Students in UBC’s Totem Park and Place Vanier residences are ready to Do It in the Dark from November 5 – 23rd. UBC’s 3rd annual energy and water conservation competition will see each residence house compete for bragging rights and prizes by achieving the greatest energy savings or highest participation points.

For the week of October 15–19, the SUB will be transformed into a gallery of sustainability. Every day the main floor will house the New SUB Sustainability Art Showcase, an exhibition of four working prototypes designed to engage UBC students in thinking about sustainability.