Donors
Your support creates infinite ways of representing diversity and creativity in our society and beyond. Imagine what we could do together.
We have a number of donor-funded awards that support our student in various ways including graduate work, excellence in writing, excellence in fine arts, entrance scholarships, and graduating student scholarships.
Alumni
Graduates of our programs are our best ambassadors. Keeping in connection with them is important to us.
Find out what students, faculty, and alumni have to say about their time at UBC Okanagan.
Graduates of our undergraduate, Masters and Doctoral programs have gone on to many prestigious programs, have had successes in publications, exhibitions and career opportunities.
See our student profiles and accomplishments below.
Undergraduate Alumni
The elegant simplicity of her style lends itself to typography, logo and publication design, photo collages, magazine and cookbook layouts, and more. Her minimalistic drawing work is typified by muted colours or restrained palettes, and a focus on everyday things such as rocks, moss, plants, people, animals, houses, and ice.
Green graduated in 2014 and has been on the road ever since. The Kelowna resident recently completed an artist residency in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland took a few months to travel Europe, and is back in the Okanagan working as a freelance artist.
Graduate student Cole Mash is living out his dream, and adding new marvels to the mix, as well.
“In writing and books, I’m fulfilling my passion to an extent I never thought possible,” he says.
Cole completed a double major in English and Creative Writing in the spring of 2014, started a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies the following September, and is now working on his PhD at Simon Fraser University, which he started in the fall 2018.
It took a trip out east over the Rocky Mountains and a random encounter with a discarded brochure to convince Emmy Chahal that her future lay at UBC Okanagan.
Chahal remembers the day clearly. She was on an Air Canada flight, returning from a whirlwind tour of Canadian universities, when the clouds cleared and the Rockies thundered into view.
“I suddenly realized I couldn’t leave the mountains,” she says.
When she arrived home to find an unread UBC Okanagan brochure calling to her from a shelf, she decided to listen. Soon she was touring the campus.
Stay Connected
We encourage and welcome Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies graduates to become alumni volunteers. Our goal is to cultivate relationships with alumni, our students, and to involve you in the energy of the Faculty and the UBC community. By becoming a volunteer, you can meet new friends, network, or simply enjoy the satisfaction that comes from helping others.
Stay connected with the alumni office at the Okanagan campus to find out about events and other opportunities.
Graduate Alumni Accomplishments
Jordan Bennett is a multi-disciplinary visual artist of Mi’kmaq decent. He completed his MFA in Visual Arts in 2016. Jordan was the Venice Biennale rep for Newfoundland/Labrador in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award for 2018. Jordan has an extensive exhibition history with his work being shown both nationally and internationally in venues such as the National Museum of the American Indian, New York, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
Max Dickeson completed an Honours BA in English in 2012 and an MA in English in 2014, both at UBC Okanagan. His Masters thesis examines destabilizations of gender and race in feminist science fiction. Max is currently undertaking doctoral research in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta on the sociocultural implications of fantasy storytelling in role-playing video games.
Lindsay Balfour completed her BA in Cultural Studies in 2009, MA IGS in 2011 and PhD in 2015. After completing her PhD, she received the Andrew W. Mellow Post Doctoral Fellow at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in New York. During her time there, she worked on examining the museum pieces and their relationship to a philosophy of hospitality in a time of terror. Lindsay is now teaching at Concordia University.
Ashley Little completed her MFA with a specialization in Creative Writing in 2014. Her most recent book, Confessions of a Teenage Leper, was published by Penguin Randomhouse. This is the fifth novel that Ashley has written and published. She is the recipient of a number of awards for her novels including the Ethel Wilson fiction Prize for her third novel, Anatomy of a Girl Gang (Arsenal Pulp, 2013) and the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize for The New Normal (Orca, 2013)
- Alison Kloosterman (MA ENGL 2022) | PhD student at Trent University
- Olivia Abram (MA ENGL 2022) | PhD student at the University of Saskatchewan
- Leah Wafler (MA ENGL 2022) | Academic Integrity Facilitator, UBCO
- Dana Penney (MA ENGL 2022) | Sessional Lecturer English, UBCO
- Deserae Gogel (MA ENGL 2021) | Exam Coordinator, DRC, UBCO
- Kholbey Ozipko (MA ENGL 2021) | Blog writer, Little Feminist Movement
- Rachel Stubbs (MA ENGL 2020) | Sessional Lecturer English, UBCO, 2021
- Caitlin Voth (MA ENGL 2019) | Graduate Awards & Projects Officer, UBCO
- Rebecca Jane Francis (MA ENGL 2018) | Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at Newcastle University, England
- Francesca Gimson (MA ENGL 2017) | Student in the Faculty of Law of the University of Alberta, fall 2018
- Mark Buchanan (MA ENGL 2016) | Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English at York University, Toronto
- David Laird (MA ENGL 2016) | Co-authored a podcast titled the Great Concavity, devoted to all things relating to American writer David Foster Wallace (1962-2008); board member on the International David Foster Wallace Society; will soon be releasing its first peer-reviewed publication, under the name The Journal for David Foster Wallace Studies; a revised portion of his master thesis will appear in an anthology, The Religious Worlds of David Foster Wallace: Both Fiction and Not, in the summer of 2019 on Bloomsbury press.
- Angela Froese (MA ENGL 2015) | Instructor, University of the Fraser Valley
- Max Dickeson (MA ENGL 2014) | Ph.D. candidate in the Department of English and Film Studies at The University of Alberta, Edmonton; Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Master’s Scholarship; Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship (doctoral level)
- Gracie Cleveland (MA ENGL 2014) | Faculty of Law, University of Alberta (2018); practicing lawyer with Cleveland Doan
- Natalie Ingram (MA ENGL 2013) | Administrative Assistant to the Director, Campus Operations and Risk Management, UBC Okanagan
- Jill Sinotte (MA ENGL 2011) Reference and Instruction Librarian, Okanagan College
- William Harrison (MA ENGL 2011) | President of the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon
- Brittni Mackenzie-Dale (MA 2018) | Ph.D. candidate in Creative Writing at University of New Brunswick, fall 2018
- Cole Mash (MA 2017) | Ph.D. candidate at Simon Fraser University, fall 2018
- Ellen Campbell (MA 2017) | Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, fall 2018
- Katerina Trapara (MA 2017) | Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Studies, York University
- Jamie Isaac (MA IGS 2016) | Contemporary Curator, Winnipeg Art Gallery
- Carrie Karsgaard (MA 2015) | Ph.D. candidate in Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta, recipient of a Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship 2018-21
- Shandell Houlden (Ma 2014) | Ph.D. candidate, McMaster University
- Taylor Scanlon (MA 2013) | Ph.D candidate in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, Edmonton
- Mina Rajabi Paak (MA 2012) | Ph.D. candidate in the Humanities program at York University, Toronto
- Miriam Huxley (MFA CRWR 2018) | Ph.D. candidate in Creative Writing at the Edinburgh University
- Clayton McCann (MFA CRWR 2017) | non-fiction memoir accepted for publication by Caitlin Press
- Jorden Bennett (MFA VISA 2016) | Shortlisted for the 2018 Sobey Art Award
- Ashley Little (MFA CRWR 2014) | has published 5 novels; Ethel Wilson fiction Prize for her third novel, Anatomy of a girl Gang (Arsenal Pulp, 2013) and the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize for The New Normal (Orca, 2013)
- Dania Tomlinson (MFA CRWR 2014) | first novel published, Our Animal Hearts, Penguin Random House, spring 2018
- Emily Nilsen (MFA CRWR 2013) | 2018 recipient of the League of Canadian Poets Gerald Lampert Memorial award
- David Kadish (MFA IGS 2013) | currently attending Robotics, Evolution and Art Lab Ph.D. Scholarship, Copenhagen
- Rosa Park (MFA IGS 2013) | Instructor, School of Communication & Multimedia Studies (SCMS) at Florida Atlantic University; Best MFA Thesis Project Award, Digital + Media, Rhode Island School of Design 2016; Best MFA Written Thesis Award, Digital + Media, Rhode Island School of Design, 2016.
- Portia Priegert (MFA IGS 2012) | Editor, Galleries West Magazine
- Lindsay Diehl (Ph.D. 2018) | Sessional Instructor in English, Department of English and Cultural Studies, UBC Okanagan
- Jannik Eikenaar (Ph.D. 2015) | Tenure Track Instructor in English, School of Engineering at UBC Okanagan
- Lindsay Balfour (Ph.D. 2015) | Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, 9/11 Memorial Museum, New York; Assistant Professor, Communications Studies, Concordia University
- Stan Chung (Ph.D. 2015) | Vice President Academic and Applied Research, College of the Rockies
- Kelly Doyle (Ph.D. 2015) | Instructor, Department of English, Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Surrey Campus)
- Shona Harrison (Ph.D. 2014) | Instructor, Department of English, Okanagan College
- Nastasha Rebry (Ph.D. 2013) | Instructor (Tenure-stream), Academic Writing Program, University of Lethbridge
- Fresia Sanchez (Ph.D. 2012) | Senior instructor (Tenured), School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures, University of Calgary
UBC Okanagan Public Art Collection
The Public Art Collection provides a compelling and distinctive collection of art of national and international significance that works to educate and inspire, engage and stimulate, and enrich the campus experience for the university community, alumni, and our many visitors.
The collection strategy of the Public Art Collection is to preserve, display and research contemporary and historical artworks. Our collection is diverse, and contains both international and local artworks, from emerging and established artists. Proposals for donations to the collection are reviewed on a semi-annual basis by the Public Art Advisory Committee (PAAC).