As a first year commuter student, the thought of making friends seemed to be impossible. I tried to have the naive thought of, “I will just study 24/7.”

However, it came soon to be that this was not a good idea. I joined the Collegia space in my first year and found a sense of community. The space provided a comforting atmosphere and the cliché theme of, ‘home.”

Indeed, it was home for me. I was living on my own during my first semester, so the definition of home was theoretical. Because of this space, it allowed me to interact with the Collegia Advisors – who were role models on their own, due to the vast amount of experiences they entailed. The advisors were my support system in my first year and the friends and people I got to see every day sculpted my belonging in the UBC community.

My Collegia Advisors said they made most of their friends and gained life changing non-academic experiences through their involvement at UBC. Their advice, along with my own interests and the motto #ApplyForEverything, led me from one experience to another. With the motivation provided by the UBC Collegia Advisors, I decided be a committee member of SUS Sports in my first year, since I played sports throughout high school and wanted to interact with other science students who did the same. With this experience, even though it was tough managing at times, was one of my highlights of my first year since I met my best friend currently through that experience. With that, it led me to meet another group of friends whom are now my core group of friends.

I went from a student who thought of himself as carter the coyote, embarking on the undergraduate journey with my head down on Main Mall; to someone who feels confident about my place here on campus – through giving back.