Core Area
Education
Strategic Area
Sustained focus on recruitment and services to attract and support an outstanding and diverse student population
Goal Status
In Progress
Objectives
- Run third iteration of Verna Kirkness program (2025).
- UPROOT and Indigenous Student Collegium to implement Indigenous student mentor program (2024–2026).
- Update eMentoring curriculum to have a more Indigenous focus (2025).
- Continue to offer ReMBC eMentoring Directed Studies project to better understand how to more effectively outreach to rural students (2025).
Achieved Goals
- Participated in the Verna Kirkness Foundation program for Indigenous High School students to participate in pharmaceutical science experiences (2 students in May 2023; 4 students in July 2024).
- Dr. Jarvis-Selinger's e-mentoring program (Rural eMentoring BC, ReMBC) funded ongoing. The team was funded $249,350 through the UBC Indigenous Strategic Initiatives Fund, Stream 2: Transformative Projects. 2023–2026, for the project "Bridging the gap to UBC: transforming an online mentoring program to meet the needs of rural Indigenous youth" (July 2023). E-mentoring plans included more cross-Faculty activities including an early mentoring project with the Office of Student Services (OSS) with pharmacy mentors (in 2023, 120 high school students came on the program; including some E2P students as outreach ambassadors). By 2025, the program had mentored more than 1400 rural youth from grades 7–12 with more than 600 mentors across 20 rural communities and 39 secondary schools.
- ReMBC partnered with the Office of Student Services on a Directed Studies project, where two PharmD students presented to 5 rural high schools about pathways to pharmacy careers, and prepared a report on barriers to healthcare careers faced by rural students (2024).
- Re-established the Faculty-Student mentorship program for E2P PharmD students, and extended to BPSc students (Sep 2024).
- UPROOT and Indigenous Student Collegium worked to implement Indigenous mentorship program for E2P PharmD students (2024–25).
- UPROOT team held annual partner gathering event to share collective work, projects and future perspectives with community partners, partner organizations, students, faculty and artists (2024, 2025).