Volunteering, working, studying to be a doctor, Co-Founder of a fundraising organization, religious and yet still has time to be a social butterfly! Adam Stich is the ideal example of a balanced guy. Studying Animal Biology in his third year at the University of British Columbia as one can imagine can be time consuming enough as it is, but that has never stopped Adam. From being a Residence Community Advisor at Simon Fraser University and jumping straight into the role as Residence Advisor at UBC, he has kept himself quite busy not only helping himself but helping others as well!

Helping others and taking initiative in his surrounding community was something embedded into his life early on. Being an avid church attendee at the age of 15, he was exposed to youth group while volunteer opportunities began to present themselves. For example, during his years in high school, Adam could be found at different locations throughout Greater Vancouver volunteering in homeless shelters, hospitals, and various church events. Further to that, from high school he carried in to university his passion to play and coach volleyball through volunteering his time in Vancouver high schools’ volleyball programs. So it is clear to see that volunteering and Adam Stich go hand in hand.

Now, studying to be a doctor, wanting to continue volunteering, and still having a job can be considered very difficult aspects to balance in life. But, Adam has never let that be a barrier. In fact, two summers ago, he decided to go abroad to Nepal for an internship where he could volunteer in a hospital and learn hands on to gain the experience required to prepare him for his future career. But where Adam goes, a passion to help follows not too far behind. Being abroad that summer and deciding to make local friends, he was found spending more and more of his days and weeks with his new local friend. While sharing in his friend’s cultures and traditions, he was also exposed to the heartbreaking educational circumstances. This little village in Nepal, being primarily an agriculture industry, required that children only stay in school to a certain point, and then leave their studies to partake in the ‘family business’ of farming so to speak. With this came a clear epiphany for Adam in which he realized he needed to team up with his friends and start making some changes. This is where they both co-founded the “Khokana Project” that they started alongside a team of eight individuals. He wanted this project to give him the ability to go home and fundraise for the education of these children, and that he did! Since that epiphany two summers ago, Adam has returned again to oversee and partake in Khokana Project initiatives. So here stands an ordinary guy, with extraordinary dreams! A guy who likes to spend his spare time hiking and travelling, also turned his passion of helping people on a smaller scale to a large scale project!

When asked what advice he would provide to others, Adam said he wanted the youth to know that yes he started out with the small scale volunteering as many of us do but he reminds us that “the small things have shaped [him] into who [he] is” giving him the ability to step forward and begin a larger scale project.

You can volunteer, you can work, you can study, you just have to find balance. Adam did and so he shows us all that so can we!