Pace setters: Graduate profiles
Karen Mountifield knew UBC was going to be her alma mater long before graduating from high school in Toronto.
She and an older sister had visited Point Grey a year earlier and Mountifield fell in love with the campus and its surrounding beauty. While most of her friends chose Queen's or McGill, Mountifield wanted something different.
"It changes your life when you go somewhere and don't know anybody at all," she says.
UBC did change her life and Mountifield has likewise left an indelible mark during four years in the School of Human Kinetics.
A Wesbrook Scholar, Mountifield was recipient of both the Harry Logan Memorial Scholarship and Harold B. and Nellie Boyes Memorial Scholarship. The awards recognize academic excellence and an ability to serve, work with and lead others.
As president of the Human Kinetics Undergraduate Society, Mountifield wanted to get students more involved in their program and in thinking about what lay ahead after UBC. To this end, she initiated an orientation retreat which has since grown from an on-campus event with 20 participants to a weekend at Whistler attended by three-quarters of the 700 undergraduate students in the program.
Outside the school, Mountifield acted as communication manager at UBC Intramural Sports and Recreation, a job which had her overseeing the operation of four communication departments and 15 staff.
Her remaining free time was spent volunteering as an event and program coordinator for the Lion's Society of British Columbia and the Sports Medicine Council of B.C.
When asked what drives her to work so hard Mountifield says that "as a student, I think you have to get involved in university life and the community to fully enjoy the experience."
The extracurricular experience at UBC certainly comes in handy with her current summer job arranging health activities, seminars and workshops for 8,000 City of Vancouver employees.
Mountifield says law school is a possibility in the long run. Then again, taking a year off to unwind is a distinct possibility too.