UNBC is on the lookout for an adventurous student willing to take university life to a new level and share those experiences with the rest of the Cranbrook Hill campus.
The Northern Exposure Award contest will create UNBC's first campus correspondent.
Through weekly blogs, monthly videos and instantaneous social media updates, the successful applicant will shed light on some of the unique aspects of student life at Canada's Green University.
Whether that means accompanying a group of geology students crawling through the narrow corridors of Fang Cave in the McGregor Mountains, discovering the joys of carving fluffy champagne powder at Purden Ski Village, or sampling the beer menu with fellow students at the Thirsty Moose Pub, UNBC's student reporter will have no shortage of northern experiences from which to choose.
The winning candidate will be encouraged to work with agencies like Tourism Prince George to participate in recreational activities in and around the city. There will be opportunities to participate in research projects with UNBC faculties in classroom settings, talk about their own academic experiences and report on social events.
In return for filing those reports, the student correspondent will receive a $12,000 package that includes free UNBC tuition and lodging at student residence for the 2013-14 year, including a $2,000 credit for the campus bookstore and food services.
UNBC plans to use the student dispatches to help sell the university to prospective students. Although UNBC continually ranks in the top five in the Maclean's magazine poll and was listed in November as the country's second-ranked small university, there's plenty of competition from other schools to recruit students.
"From a management side of things, students are our best marketers and our best sales reps," said Bill Owen, UNBC's acting dean of student success and enrollment management. "Every faculty and staff member has heard stories from students about the value of UNBC and part of this is to capture the student voice and how this institution is valuable to them.
"We'll have our own local news reporter sending out stories about what it means to be a UNBC student on campus. The ability to have their stories and have them talk to students to about what makes UNBC the institution that's the best fit for them, we couldn't do that job ourselves."
Open to current and prospective UNBC students, each contestant is required to submit a two-minute video that explains their plans to fill the position and why they want the job. UNBC is looking for someone with an energetic outgoing personality, strong sense of community, positive nature, well-developed social leadership skills, solid moral grounding and high academic standing.
"Other universities have these social media campaigns out but is the first one in the country to look at having the student continually telling the UNBC story as part of the award package," said Owen.
"We think that's really good value for what the student will provide us. We will help them to produce high-quality stories that can be used not just for next year but in future years as well."
The correspondent will be given all the tools they need for information gathering and will also have the support of UNBC staff from the communications and the student success offices.
The deadline for submissions is March 1 and the winner will be selected sometime in April. Contest details are available at http://www.unbc.ca/northernexposure/the-award.html. Posted on the web on Dec. 18, the site has already received 30,000 hits.
