Phyllis Poon's quarter century at UBC

Photo of Phyllis Poon smiling in front of a UBC 100 flag

As UBC prepares to celebrate 100 years, the handful of faculty and staff who are in the exclusive 25, 35 and 40 Year Clubs will be reflecting on that time knowingly.

Phyllis Poon is among them. During the 26 years she’s been at UBC, she has helped enroll thousands of graduate students to the university, has seen UBC evolve into one of the top 40 universities globally, and watched her oldest daughter go from being an undergraduate Arts student to a qualified teacher.

UBC welcomed Phyllis in 1989. It was the year the Berlin Wall fell, the year loonies replaced the one-dollar bill and the year George Bush Sr. became President of the United States.

Phyllis was new to Canada back then. She had left Hong Kong the year previous with her husband and not-yet two-year-old daughter, although the move to Vancouver wasn’t supposed to be a permanent one.

“We had heard from friends about how great it was here, but we weren’t quite prepared for the clean air, blue sky and white clouds you could see when you looked up,” she explains. “It was so unlike the concrete forest of Hong Kong. We had space to breathe. We had planned to spend only three years in Vancouver, but once we had settled in, it never occurred to us to leave.”

A year into her new life, Phyllis came to a four-way stop sign, so to speak, with three very different job offers, one of which was from UBC. “It was the beautiful campus that drew me in, and the opportunity to work in the academic field, which was completely different from anything I’d ever done before,” she says.

Her role was admissions secretary in the Faculty of Graduate Studies (now Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies), back in the days when the Faculty shared a floor with Enrolment Services in the General Services Administration building (which was demolished earlier this summer).

Phyllis has spent the 26 years since working with the Faculty. While her role hasn’t changed dramatically during that time, her responsibilities have, with the introduction of new technologies that have replaced many of the tasks she and the team used to manage manually.

What has kept her at UBC all these years, you may ask? Phyllis explains: “On Sunday evenings, I actually look forward to coming to work on Monday! This is truly my second home, and every day I walk to my office from the bus loop, when I pass the flagpole, I take a moment to contemplate how fortunate I am to be in Canada, and at UBC.”

“I’ve also had the privilege of working with some truly wonderful people over the years whose hard work and devotion inspire me. They have shown me what’s possible and I’ve learned from them the value of encouraging my children to choose their own paths and follow their passions.”

UBC has changed a lot over the last quarter-century. Phyllis noticed the biggest changes during Martha Piper’s tenure as President and Vice-Chancellor of UBC (1997-2006). She adds: “I noticed a lot of growth at UBC during Martha’s time, and the development of some world-class buildings and beautiful landscaping on campus, which was further realized during the tenure of Professor Toope.”

One of the highlights of Phyllis’ year is the annual Chinese New Year celebration she hosts for her Faculty. Here she is Susan Porter, Dean and Vice-Provost, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies

One of the highlights of Phyllis’ year is the annual Chinese New Year celebration she’s been hosting for the Faculty for the past ten years. Her colleagues enjoy the event as much as Phyllis does, and get the opportunity to learn about what the New Year represents, and its associated traditions.

As UBC approaches its centennial, Phyllis reflects on what a quarter-century at UBC means to her. She concludes: “I feel so grateful to be part of this community. Although I don’t like to think about the day I leave UBC, I hope that when it comes, my colleagues remember me for being cheerful, working hard and making the best of situations. I truly believe and try to live by UBC’s motto, ‘tuum est’. It’s up to us to make our own happiness.”

Written by Megan Czerpak, UBC Internal Communications