More than 500 student volunteers – the largest number of university students ever mobilized for volunteer service in Canada during a university Reading Week study break – are working with children in 16 Vancouver elementary schools with support from SAP employees, providing an example of a different kind of corporate partnership for the Games.
The partnership, the largest and most unique of its kind in Canada, has SAP providing funding for UBC’s student volunteer program as well as staff to work with students, with benefits for everyone: school children gain mentors; university students learn about community issues; and corporate employee-volunteers gain leadership skills.
The global corporation SAP has 1,200 employees in Vancouver. With its leadership and management skills, and UBC’s army of energetic students, the two organizations are going out into Vancouver schools such as Queen Alexandra Elementary to lead UBC extended Reading Week community service learning projects that focus on a variety of themes, including the Olympics, science and math, arts literacy and sustainability.
SAP staff act as team leaders for groups of UBC students, some of whom are seeing the aspects of inner-city community life for the first time. This is SAP’s third year partnering with UBC in the program.
If you are interested in this project, UBC can provide access to the project team working at Queen Alexandra Elementary School from February 23-25. More than 200 Queen Alexandra students will participate in a range of activities around arts and literacy with the help of SAP employees and 35 UBC students. School children will engage in storytelling, skits, writing and crafts.
To organize a visit to the school, to interview UBC students or UBC Learning Exchange director Margo Fryer, contact Randy Schimdt, UBC Public Affairs, at 604.828.0787, or randy.schmidt@ubc.ca.
For interviews with SAP and staff participants, contact Dorit Shackleton, SAP Global Media Relations, at 604.889.7841 or dorit.shackleton@sap.com.
For more information on the UBC Learning Exchange, which runs the largest student community service learning programs in Canada, visit: www.learningexchange.ubc.ca.