Congratulations to Durga Dhaliwal, Dip ’09, for his Keeping in Touch submission to the Fall issue of Skookum. You too can enter to win, simply by contacting us and letting us know what you’ve been up to since graduation. Submit your short update for the next issue and be entered to win! Dana Boogerd, BA…

Once upon a time in the early-2000s, a beautiful young accountant met a handsome, gregarious, athletic, intelligent military man. They fell in love fairly quickly, and knew they wanted to build a life together. Before too long, that life included sharing a home, welcoming a baby daughter, and making plans to marry. But first, the…

Under a special memorandum of understanding signed recently, the District of Mission will secure $500,000 in seed funding to establish the UFV Mission campus as the primary site for the delivery of the UFV Graphic and Digital Design diploma program. “The District of Mission is very committed to forging partnerships with the University of the…

Golf tournaments and fundraising: the two go hand in hand. So when UFV golf coach Chris Bertram was looking for a way to boost funding for the UFV Cascades golf team, going the golf tourney route was an easy decision. He even had the framework for a successful event in place. Former PGA player Ray…

The UFV roots go deep for Scott Bate. He grew up in with Fraser Valley College, moving to Chilliwack from Calgary as an 11-year-old in 1975 when his father Dick was hired to be the first Dean of Instruction. “Dad came out first, and then at spring break the rest of us joined him. I…

By Christiane Hodson UFV Interim Director of Development Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.   Margaret Mead (1901–1978) At UFV, Mead’s words resonate. In fact, the university owes its very existence to the vision and perseverance of the citizens…

Beth Maenpaa, BA CYC ’09 — completed her degree in child and youth care and was immediately hired as a supported child development consultant with the Mission Association for Community Living. The education and experience she received in this particular degree program played a major role in gaining employment with this organization. With great appreciation…

Shirzad Ahmed knows what it’s like to be a refugee — stateless and far away from family and friends. At the age of 18 he was a political exile from Kurdistan, an area of northeast Iraq that suffered great oppression under the regime of Saddam Hussein and continues to be mired in poverty today. He…

An opinion piece by Carl Peters, who teaches English, visual arts, and art history at UFV. University Without Condition [1] or the University of Disaster:[2] Radical Pedagogy and the Scholar as Artist The pressures on us to turn classrooms into writing labs, semiotics, response theory, myth or enclaves of National Literature are symptomatic of the…

By Patty Wellborn Dr. John Lennox has an “Everest attitude” when it comes to learning. A few years back, while in his mid-sixties, and after a lengthy medical career, much of it working overseas teaching pediatrics with his wife Dr. Ruth Lennox, he decided to go back to school. It wasn’t because he needed to.…

  July 5, 2011 marked the 20-year anniversary of Fraser Valley College becoming the University College of the Fraser Valley, after a long and hard-fought community campaign. As there would be no UFV without there first having been a UCFV, serving as a transition from two-year college to university, we thought we’d share the history…

Craig Toews sees Abbotsford as a university town. And he’s looking forward to a future when the connection between town and gown is even closer. “We want to bring the city to the university and the university to the city,” says UFV’s director of campus planning. To do that, UFV has two major strategies: create…