Katie Jeanes, co-organizer of Storm the Wall, is a top intramural player and won the first-ever Outstanding Student Award – photo by Martin Dee
UBC Reports | Vol. 55 | No. 5 | May
7, 2009
By Sean Sullivan
Ask Katie Jeanes about her greatest accomplishment during her time at UBC, and she’s quick to answer.
“Storm the Wall,” the graduating Human Kinetics student says. “It was like nothing I’ll ever experience again.”
This year Jeanes, along with UBC REC staff member Warren Scheske, organized North America’s largest intramural event, which involves upwards of 10,000 participants and spectators over six days. The event is a team relay race around campus that involves a swim, sprint, road bike course, a one kilometre run and culminates with scaling a 12-foot wall.
“Being able to see the impact we had on campus and having thousands of people take part — it was incredible,” she says.
The event caps off a long list of accomplishments in her time at UBC, which include playing a part in the coordination of GALA, the international student orientation program, a term as vice-president of the Human Kinetics Undergraduate Society and coordinating volunteers for the 2008 Student Leadership Conference.
As an avid basketball, volleyball and soccer player, it’s little surprise that Jeanes received the 2007 Earl Award for being the top female intramural participant at UBC. This year, she was the first recipient of the UBC Outstanding Student Award, presented annually to a student who has made exceptional volunteer contributions.
As she graduates this May with a degree in Kinesiology and Health Science, with a minor in Commerce, Jeanes says her volunteer work was key in shaping her degree.
“Through being involved in UBC REC I saw how I could use my degree in sport and event management,” she says.
Jeanes climbed the ranks of the UBC REC program, which oversees sports and events as wide-ranging as basketball, dodgeball and even inner-tube water polo, in her four years at UBC. This year she was one of six event directors, after terms as a director of Nitobe Basketball, Handley Cup Soccer & SRC Futsal and Todd Ice Hockey.
Jeanes also re-launched UBC REC’s ice hockey league after a one-year hiatus, leading a campus-wide promotional blitz that filled the program on the first day of registration.
Not bad for someone who admits to being a little afraid of ice.
“I can’t skate and I don’t know how to play hockey, but I know how to organize,” she laughs.
Jeanes also took advantage of UBC’s Go Global program, spending a semester at the University of Queensland in Australia studying human kinetics and sciences.
“It’s one of the best things I’ve done with my time at UBC,” she says.
As she readies to graduate, Jeanes has one suggestion for new students eager to add an extra dimension to their university career.
“Just get involved,” she says. “Try everything until you find something you’re really passionate about, and stick with it.”
“I’ve met people on their first day at UBC, and it’s obvious that they are terrified. But they figure, ‘I’m here, so I might as well throw myself into the fire and see what happens.’ I think that’s a great approach to take.”
