UBtheChange
UBtheChange is a student-led program that supports UBC students in taking their first steps as changemakers for social and environmental issues during their university career.
Through UBtheChange, students can:
- Connect with other passionate peers and community organizations across Metro Vancouver.
- Participate in fun and engaging events that support broader social and environmental movements.
- Learn about further opportunities to get involved pro-social action in pressing local and global issues.
- Collaborate with and directly impact community organizations that work with diverse populations.
- Put learning into practice and develop career skills.
UBtheChange sessions happen on campus through student events, or off campus as Community Action Days, which are short-term projects with schools and nonprofit organizations across Metro Vancouver. All sessions are organized by two peer leadership cohort known as the UBtheChange Activators.
Become a UBtheChange Activator
UBtheChange Activators plan and provide peer support for UBtheChange events and projects.
As a UBtheChange Activator, you can connect your interests, lived experience, and leadership skills to broader social movements through one of the following roles:
UBtheChange Student Activators
Develop fun, low-barrier events for students to engage with social issues, such as pop-up cafés, social media campaigns, peer advising, and more.
UBtheChange Community Activators
Work with diverse stakeholders to plan and carry out short-term projects, such as Community Action Days, that directly benefit local communities and create meaningful learning experiences for UBC students.
Applications to join the 2025-2026 UBtheChange Student and Community Activator cohorts will open in Winter Term 2.
Attend On-campus Events
UBtheChange events and pop-up sessions happen throughout the academic year. The topics and format of on-campus sessions change each year based on the planning by UBtheChange Student Activators.
Some on-campus sessions held in the past include:
Climate Justice Paint Night
Students made paintings and protest signs based on the theme of climate justice. During the event, students also discussed local climate issues and learned about the most effective collective action approaches available to organizers working towards climate justice with a UBC professor.
E.A.T (Engage and Taste)
Activators invited students to play games that raised awareness on food affordability and access, created a recipe book with affordable, culturally relevant recipes, and generated ideas on how to build sustainable and community-led affordable grocery programs on campus.
Coffee chats and booths
Activators led on-campus booths where students could talk about social and environmental issues, learn about ways to take action, grab treats, and win prizes.
Join a Community Action Days Project
Community Action Days provides UBC students and local community organizations the opportunity to collaborate on diverse short-term, community-based projects that respond to a community need. Community Action Days enable students to collaborate with, learn from, and directly impact community organizations that work with diverse populations while putting their learning into practice and developing new career skills.
Some Community Action Days projects held in the past include:
Britannia Elementary School Build and Battle
In this 3-day project over Reading Week, the UBC student volunteers led small groups of grade 6/7 Britannia Elementary students to design and build self-propelled cars out of school-based items. This project helped elementary school students practice creativity, innovation, and resiliency in light of “failure”.
Marpole Intergenerational Community Wellness Day
Based on the request of Marpole community members, UBC student volunteers from across different disciplines, including Psychology, Kinesiology, and Food Nutrition and Health, design and lead youth to seniors in wellness activities to promote physical, mental, and nutritional health in collaboration with Marpole Neighbourhood House.
For Our Kids Climate Walk Facilitators
UBC student volunteers were trained on how to facilitate a climate walk and strategies to assess the climate resiliency of a neighbourhood. They then led elementary students at Brentwood Park Elementary School on a climate walk to understand climate impacts and mitigation strategies relevant to their local community.
If you have questions
For more information regarding UBtheChange or Community Action Days, please email Sydney Kroes at sydney.kroes@ubc.ca.