UBCSUO Student Leadership Awards
Terry Zhang
First year is the best time to try things outside of academics. Join that club, go on that ski trip with VOCO/Mountain riders, go to conferences with Eng Soc or MSA. Just from my own experiences and other anecdotal experience from hundreds of people I know, trying things in your upper years is generally tougher than just trying it in your first year where you have more free time (surprisingly), energy, and motivation. Living on campus in first year is also extremely helpful with balancing school work and your social/leadership/extracurricular life, which is necessary in your university degree.
What advice would you give to a first-year student on how to be more involved on campus?
The biggest thing I've learned is the ability to understand situations from all perspectives of stakeholders. By hosting events, going to conferences, voting on important university matters, I realized that the decisions you make will rarely ever make every single person happy, and there will always be aspects that people will dislike or complain about. It's vital to do your due diligence by understanding what these are and try and work your way around it to make sure everyone is harmonious and go home happy.
What lessons have you learned from your involvement on campus?
Terry Zhang is a fourth-year Applied Science student at UBC’s Okanagan campus, majoring in Civil Engineering with co-op status.
Terry has served two years on the UBC Board of Governors (BoG) as the Student Representative for the Okanagan Campus. BoG is responsible for the management, administration and control of the property, revenue, business and affairs of the University, and is the highest governance body of UBC. Major items that BoG have been responsible for include UBC sexual assault policy revisions, increases in domestic and international student tuition, and the development of our new library expansion as well as several new infrastructure developments on our campus.
Terry consecutively served as Vice-President Finance and Vice-President External of the UBC Okanagan Engineering Society. As the Vice-President Finance, Terry supported a successful referendum to propose an annual student fee for engineering students which brought $60,000 to the annual operating budget of the Society. During his tenure as a Vice-President External, Terry handled a conference budget of $26,000 while acting as head delegate to represent UBC’s Okanagan campus at conferences hosted by regional and federal engineering student societies and chaired the 6th annual Okanagan Engineering Competition.
Additionally, Terry was a Senator-at-Large for the UBC Okanagan Student Senate Caucus, and an engineering student orientation leader. During his tenure as a fundraising chair for Sigma Phi Delta fraternity, he raised $900 for Breast Cancer Society of Canada and Movember Foundation.
Originally from Shenyang, China, Terry lived in Niagara Falls, Ontario before moving to Nanaimo, B.C.
Who is Terry Zhang?
Recognized for:
Outstanding role as Students' Representative on Board of Governors, UBC