Rooted in our community

SFU may have been born on a mountaintop, but we have always been rooted in the local community. And each year, our roots grow deeper. We now have three active campuses that reach into Burnaby, Vancouver and Surrey, touching the community in so many ways. We host lectures, dialogues and conferences that explore important and timely issues, many open to the public.

Our state-of-the art research facilities welcome local technology businesses, and our athletic facilities host summer camps, training programs and competitions.

Our outreach programs provide unique educational opportunities throughout the Lower Mainland. And, the international partnerships we have established open up new possibilities for students and businesses.

Learn about some of the exciting new opportunities you can get involved with at SFU.

Entrepreneurial hub

Coast Capital Savings has joined forces with Western Economic Diversification, NRC-IRAP and the B.C. Innovation Council to support Venture Connection, Simon Fraser University’s new interdisciplinary hub for entrepreneurial activity, located at its Surrey campus. The program aims to increase the number of spin-off companies started by SFU faculty and students and to accelerate the rate of growth of early stage businesses. It brings SFU’s academic, research and commercialization experts together with business leaders in the community to provide support and educational programs for student, faculty and community entrepreneurs.

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Art in process

SFU will soon open its new School for the Contemporary Arts in the Woodward's development in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. It will bring an exciting slate of performances in dance, film, music, theatre and visual arts into the heart of the city's creative district. Students, faculty and staff from around the world will learn, perform and participate in this vibrant neighbourhood every day.

More: sfuwoodwards.ca

Centres attract spiritual innovator

SFU’s Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures and the School of International Studies co-sponsored a mind-opening public lecture this year. Swiss Muslim intellectual and renowned Islamic reformer, Tariq Ramadan has been dubbed one of the world’s top “spiritual innovators” by Time magazine and praised by the New York Times for his “reasoned but traditionalist approach to Islam (that) offers values that are as universal as those of the European Enlightenment.” He presented his views on how Muslims can more fully participate in the civic life of secular western countries.

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India partnership

A new program, supported by $1 million from each of the B.C. and Indian governments, will fund collaborative research and development projects between companies in B.C. and India and support internships for students and researchers in life sciences and environmental technology.

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Climate change conference

Simon Fraser University’s Adaptation to Climate Change Team (ACT) partnered with BC’s Ministry of Environment on a two-day conference entitled Extreme Events: Municipalities Adapting to Climate Change. The conference brought together community leaders, First Nations, governments, industry, researchers and NGOs, to consult municipalities that must actively implement adaptation planning, and explore the opportunities and constraints they face.

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South Korea collaboration

Simon Fraser University and South Korea’s Yonsei University established a formal relationship to advance collaborative research in the areas of materials science and medicinal chemistry. Professors, researchers and students will have the opportunity to work together to forward the development of hydrogen technologies as well as nanomedical technologies and diagnostics. The agreements support the provincial government's Asia Pacific Initiative, a long-term strategy to diversify B.C.'s economic ties with the Asia Pacific.

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Biotech incubator

Western Economic Diversification Canada provided SFU with more than $1.9 million to establish MedChem — an environment for researchers who are working to develop, test and commercialize promising new therapeutic drug compounds. The facility will include an incubator for early stage biotechnology companies and house the SFU node of the Centre for Drug Research and Development. Together with the existing analytical, synthetic and compound evaluation capabilities already in place at SFU, it will become a driver for expansion of the biotechnology industry in B.C. and within Canada.

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Our digital history

Simon Fraser University Library is now home to a collection of 300 photographs and a number of taped interviews that provide a glimpse into the lives of the Indo-Canadian pioneers who came to B.C. from 1900–1950. The collection, donated by Rajinder Kohaly, gives scholars and the general public access to a rich new source of information about Canada’s multicultural history. The tapes have been digitized and will become available as mp3 files through the Internet as part of Multicultural Canada, a multi-stakeholder project led by SFU, which aims to preserve the history and heritage of Canada’s minority groups by collecting and digitizing multicultural collections of newspapers, magazines, audio tapes, photographs, local histories, speeches, letters and oral histories that currently reside in a variety of locations.

Full story: [ 1 ]  /  multiculturalcanada.ca

SFU is not only a great place to learn, it is also one of the best places to work and live.

As a place to work: SFU was the recipient of the 2008 YWCA Vancouver’s innovative workplace of the year award. We were also selected as one of British Columbia's Top 50 Employers, and Maclean’s ranked the university as one of Canada’s Top 100 employers in 2008.

As a place to live: UniverCity, the residential village on the Burnaby campus, has received several awards, including the inaugural National Planning Excellence Award for Innovation in Green Community Planning from the American Planning Association, a 2008 Best Practices in Affordable Housing award from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and a Gold Award for Sustainable Projects at the 2008 LivCom Awards, a UN-backed international competition for liveable communities. SFU also became the first post-secondary institution in North America to achieve Go Green certification from the international Building and Owner Managers Association.

Surrey counselling services

Surrey students and their parents now have access to a range of counselling services through a unique initiative involving SFU’s Faculty of Education and the Surrey school district. At a clinic in an L.A. Matheson secondary school classroom, SFU’s qualified staff and graduate students who are conducting their practicum will provide counselling services aimed at promoting the mental health of individuals and families. These include services for a range of personal issues, such as parenting, bereavement, depression, anxiety, bullying and sexual orientation.

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The future of B.C.

SFU’s Wosk Centre for Dialogue hosted one hundred and fifty creative thinkers and leaders from throughout British Columbia for a final Imagine BC summit meeting to explore what “Big Ideas” matter most when it comes to shaping a resilient future for the province. Emerging and established leaders from First Nations, business, the universities and the environmental and community sectors spent the day challenging each other to identify and champion a direction for the province that will contribute to citizens’ health, habitat and livelihood — now and into the future. Funding for the project came from the North Growth Foundation, the Vancouver Foundation, Western Economic Diversification and SFU.

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Dual-degree goes down under

SFU and Monash University in Melbourne are teaming up to offer a double undergrad program that trades on Whistler’s attraction for students down under. SFU’s proximity to the ski resort has made it one of Canada’s top-drawing universities in Australia. The new partnership between SFU’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Monash’s Faculty of Arts promises to boost SFU’s appeal even further. Graduates will complete two degrees concurrently in Canada and Australia.

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$250K for French scholarship

In an effort to encourage students to pursue their post-secondary studies in B.C. in both of Canada’s official languages, the B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education establish a $250,000 scholarship endowment with SFU’s Office of Francophone and Francophile Affairs for students taking degree programs in French. The endowment will fund awards for students enrolled in the Program in Public Administration and Community Services, also known as the French Cohort Program — a multidisciplinary program in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences focusing on political science and French.

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Science in action

SFU faculty members in biological sciences, chemistry, molecular biology and biochemistry and physics have joined forces to create one efficient, coherent and effective science outreach program for students in Grades 6 though 12. Science in Action at SFU fills a need that teachers say is not available anywhere else in the province: a university-based program delivered at no cost to BC schools, which successfully enriches the science curriculum and encourages interest in the sciences.

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New sports academy in Burnaby

SFU’s athletics and recreation department and the Burnaby School District signed an historic agreement for a joint sport academy housed at the Burnaby campus. Secondary students at the new academy will get course credit for participating. The program will be open to students in Grades 8–12 at four of the city’s secondary schools — Burnaby Mountain, Burnaby North, Alpha and Cariboo Hill — and will run over the first two blocks of the school day on alternating days. Swimming/diving and softball will be the first two sports housed there.

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