UBC Okanagan is welcoming the community to campus for Homecoming 2022. Along with exhibits, presentations, and varsity athletics games, there are several hands-on activities including screen printing for people to try out.
Each September, UBC Okanagan invites its students, alumni and members of the local communities to connect and celebrate on campus during Homecoming weekend.
“Having conferred more than 20,000 degrees over 17 years, UBC Okanagan is entering a new era and now is the ideal time for our alumni to come home,” says campus Principal Dr. Lesley Cormack. “We have a full agenda of events planned and we encourage our alumni, and the community, to come to campus to participate in Homecoming this weekend. There is so much going on and this is a great opportunity to get reacquainted with old friends, tour some of our buildings and try your hands at something new.”
As part of UBCO’s homecoming celebrations, taking place on both the Okanagan and Vancouver campuses September 23 and 24, UBC invites the community to Think Forward.
The event will feature Dr. Cormack, in person, who will be joined virtually by UBC President Professor Santa Ono—the two will share a screen and a stage simultaneously between the Okanagan and Vancouver. Special guest Shane Koyczan will perform spoken word poetry live and be broadcast to Vancouver and students from the UBC School of Music will perform on stage in Vancouver and be live streamed in the Okanagan concurrently. The event will be emceed by CBC journalist Ian Hanomansing who was awarded a UBC honorary degree in 2019.
“We have a panel of outstanding forward thinkers who will share their vision for the future as we launch UBC’s most ambitious fundraising and alumni engagement campaign in our history,” adds. Dr. Cormack. “You will see how, together, we can move the world forward.”
The weekend is filled with a variety of events including a panel conversation with Kelowna-based entrepreneur and former Dragons’ Den dragon Lane Merrifield with several UBC alumni. This event is hosted by the School of Engineering, with student teams involved with the Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Impact FundThe fund awards start-up capital to develop viable projects that seek to solve real-world problems.
Also taking place Saturday, a panel of alumni from the Faculty of Health and Social Development will host a TED-style talk discussing the importance of equity, especially when it comes to health and wellbeing.
Events on Saturday include UBCO Open Day’s busking concert series, an alumni showcase, student-led booths, games, digital experiences and fine arts experiences including a paint-by-numbers campus mural.
Students and faculty from the Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science will host hands-on science experiments and live demonstrations. Attendees can also participate in an Indigenous beading workshop, screen printing class or head to UBCO’s Makerspace for a hands-on activity.
Other events include a medical school open house, a mini-film festival, a 3D printing workshop, a lesson about artificial intelligence and a presentation called All the Stars We Cannot See—an immersive installation where people view a virtual sky where they can watch in real time at more than 25,000 satellites as they fly overhead.
All of these events are free and open to the public with registration required for some.
For a complete list of homecoming events and details including time, location and registration links, visit: alumni.ubc.ca/ubc-homecoming-okanagan
