April 9, 2024
The Canadian Institute of Planners has let SCARP know they have awarded SCARP student Maya Korbynn with their Outstanding Graduating Student Award!
Celebrating these achievements is the happiest occasion SCARP to announce.
About CIP and the award
The Canadian Institute of Planners is a member-based organization which advocates for planners nationally and internationally, and provides a number of membership services.
Being a student in SCARP, an accredited planning program, makes you more eligible to join in on many of these services!
The CIP-PSTF Outstanding Graduating Student Award is bestowed upon one graduating student from each accredited planning program (undergraduate and postgraduate) in Canada, who has demonstrated an outstanding contribution to their future profession.
Meet Maya Korbynn
Maya is a soon-to-graduate student of SCARP's accredited Master of Community and Regional Planning program. During her time here she has meant a great deal to the SCARP community, from community-building to student advocacy to program development. She's a member of the Planning Student Association at SCARP. Most recently, she co-presented her Planning Studio report for a rural First Nation with whom they partnered, entitled "Creating a Roadmap for Growth and Climate Change".
More about Maya
Maya has been working in sustainability, housing, and city planning for the last 10 years in a variety of roles including, but not limited to, a Parks Asset Management Technologist, Civil Engineering Technologist, Sustainability Coordinator, researcher, and Planning Analyst. Her work has consistently reflected her values for increasing sustainability, resilience, affordability, and dignity among all residents in the city. While at SCARP, she has completed research on improving tenants' rights to energy efficient, climate resilient, and safe housing, and research on commercial rental affordability for the Activate DTES initiative. She is also the UBC Planning Student Association (PSA) representative on the PIBC Board. Maya regularly attends meetings outside of school, advocates for students, and reports back to us with news of grants, events, and opportunities. As a student, she participates consistently in every class and incites meaningful and at times difficult conversations that make all of us better planners. She's also actively involved in having re-launched the SCARP Symposium. She is thorough, principled, dedicated, and overwhelmingly humble about all of her accomplishments so far.
On winning the award, Maya describes:
I am so honoured to be nominated for this award! One of my overarching professional goals is to contribute positively to the field of planning by expanding our horizons on what is possible to create a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient communities. I am very thankful for the opportunities I have had at UBC to conduct and publish research that supports this goal, and for the opportunity to be involved in PIBC’s Strategic Planning process. I am also thankful to my peers, who have supported my ideas to enrich students’ education, professional development, and social life.