I am grateful that once again this award has stimulated the sharing of practices adopted at UBC Engineering that can be used in any organization to foster inclusion and belonging in the engineering profession and beyond. These award-winning ideas are posted at lokhorstgroup.com; keep them coming! Congratulations to Juliana for winning the 2025 student Inclusion and Belonging Award.

From the UBC Award Selection Committee:

Hello Katherina,

I wanted to share the good news that the Inclusion and Belonging Award was recently awarded to Juliana Angel, a fourth-year Engineering Physics student. Juliana truly stood out among the applicants and her efforts align beautifully with the values and purpose of this award.

Through her outstanding leadership, Juliana has advanced structural change by creating safe and inclusive spaces for women and gender-diverse individuals in engineering. Her efforts span mentoring younger students, initiating community-building events, and collaborating with program leadership to improve curriculum. Juliana’s leadership has not only transformed the culture within Engineering Physics but has also inspired change across departments. For example, Juliana played a leading role in developing the Women in Engineering Physics First-Year Info Night model, which has since been adopted more broadly to foster early engagement and inclusion.

As always, we are thankful for your support – not only does it recognize the work of students [faculty and staff] like Juliana, but it also encourages them to continue fostering inclusion and belonging in engineering education.