{"id":222,"date":"2013-12-23T21:44:46","date_gmt":"2013-12-23T21:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/?p=222"},"modified":"2013-12-23T21:44:46","modified_gmt":"2013-12-23T21:44:46","slug":"young-distinguished-alumni-winner-evan-wiens-exhibits-altruism-through-dentistry-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/2013\/12\/23\/young-distinguished-alumni-winner-evan-wiens-exhibits-altruism-through-dentistry-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Distinguished Alumni winner Evan Wiens exhibits altruism through dentistry (2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Archived from UFV Today, October 11 2013.\u00a0 <\/a>Original post by Darren Macdonald.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"blog-Giving-Thanks-2013-10\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Evan Wiens<\/strong> hasn\u2019t been a dentist for very long, but he\u2019s already packed a lot of professional experience, leadership, and community service into his career.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s winner of the Distinguished Young Alumni award at the University of the Fraser Valley \u2014 reserved for a high achiever under the age of 35 \u2014 has been making an impact at every stage of his education and career.\u00a0 Even before graduating with his Bachelor of Science degree with a major in biology and minor in kinesiology from UFV in 2006 he was beginning to make his mark.<\/p>\n

Wiens, just turning 30 this month, has led volunteer dentistry projects in the Downtown Eastside, in Abbotsford, and in rural Aboriginal communities. He serves on the editorial board for the BC Dental Association Journal.<\/p>\n

He was actively involved in several aspects of the dental program at UBC, where he completed dental school in 2012. He has sat on boards to help select future dental students while still a student himself, mentored third-year students while in fourth year, and served as clinic chief for UBC\u2019s community dental clinics.<\/p>\n

Professionally, he continues to learn. Just into his second year of practice as a dentist, he is enhancing his education by taking part in a program covering the latest in esthetic, implant, and restorative dentistry.<\/p>\n

While at UFV as an undergraduate he made the dean\u2019s list every year, won the award for highest achievement in fourth-year biology, volunteered in local classrooms, taught Sunday school, and helped at his church with music and audiovisual production. He also worked several jobs, including shifts at his dad\u2019s mill and a long stint as a Keg waiter.<\/p>\n

While a UBC dental student he won multiple awards including the BC Dental Association\u2019s award for high academic standing, leadership, and community service, and he was a finalist for an award for outstanding leadership from the American College of Dentists.<\/p>\n

And he has new and happy responsibilities to juggle as a husband, and a father to newborn baby boy Holden as his family establishes themselves in Kelowna.<\/p>\n

Many people would struggle with simply meeting the academic challenges of university or professional school, or establishing oneself in professional practice, but giving and altruism has always been an important part of Wiens\u2019 life.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelping people and giving to the community is kind of an addiction for me,\u201d he says, crediting his wife Jennifer for providing moral support for his many volunteer projects. \u201cWhen you\u2019re doing something to help people just because you want to, not for money, they really appreciate it, and the good feeling you get from doing it is infectious. Students often feel they should volunteer because it will look good on a resume or application, but they should just do the kind of volunteering they feel drawn to and find joy in it. If they do it for the right reasons then soon they\u2019ll be wondering when they can volunteer again!\u201d<\/p>\n

Like a lot of undergraduate students, Wiens wasn\u2019t exactly sure what he wanted to do professionally when he was in his first few years of university.<\/p>\n

Dentistry eventually drew him in because he liked the hands-on aspect of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew I liked health sciences, but what I was really drawn to was the idea of using my hands to do something useful every day. Practising dentistry isn\u2019t usually a life-or-death type of career, but you are improving peoples\u2019 lives through your efforts,\u201d he says. \u201cThey may not like what we do while we\u2019re doing it, but they like the results.\u201d<\/p>\n

He credits Darren Francis<\/strong>, currently deputy registrar at UFV but science advisor when Wiens was there, with helping him to narrow down his options.<\/p>\n

\u201cDarren was very helpful in planning and guiding me towards strategies to make it all happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wiens also valued the small class sizes and teaching focus of UFV.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what UFV is known for and what it should hang on to,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat makes it a great school is the ability really focus on learning \u2013 in my case the basic sciences \u2013 and the personal attention. I spent many hours in professors\u2019 offices getting help and guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several people supported Wiens\u2019 nomination for the Distinguished Young Alumni award.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvan\u2019s real strength is as a leader,\u201d said Dr. William Brymer<\/strong>, a UBC professor of dentistry. \u201cWe at UBC are extremely proud of Evan\u2019s achievements within the dental profession.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Evan\u2019s first days in dental school it was obvious that he would be a special person who would give tirelessly to his profession and community,\u201d said Dr. Ian Leitch<\/strong>, a mentor to Wiens and now a colleague in Kelowna.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are few young people who are as academically exceptional as Evan, who also exemplify leadership, and are driven by an honest compassion to give back to their communities,\u201d said Nancy Armitage<\/strong>, manager of alumni engagement at UFV. \u201cEvan is a remarkable young man who definitely meets and exceeds the criteria of this award.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Archived from UFV Today, October 11 2013.\u00a0 Original post by Darren Macdonald. Evan Wiens hasn\u2019t been a dentist for very long, but he\u2019s already packed a lot of professional experience, leadership, and community service into his career. This year\u2019s winner of the Distinguished Young Alumni award at the University of the Fraser Valley \u2014 reserved … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,7],"tags":[51,50],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bachelor-of-science","category-biology","category-deans-office","tag-distinguished-young-alumni-award","tag-ufv-alumini"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ufv.ca\/science\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}