Fifth-year setter Abigail Dueck may be graduating this year, but she certainly isn't leaving UBC Okanagan without leaving her mark.

Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dueck was initially drawn to UBC Okanagan for its volleyball program, as well as its family connections: "Growing up I would always come visit Kelowna because my mom actually has two sisters that are out here, and we'd make the effort to come out at least once a year just to visit family, so I was already familiar with it in that sense," she said. But, second to academics, "it was volleyball that was the decision maker."

As a student-athlete, Dueck recognizes the importance of having a strong support system, especially while attending university far from home. "My dad actually used to play against Steve [Manuel], who is my coach, so they already had that connection… B.C. is quite far away but I have so much support here that it didn't really feel that far. It was kind of like that second home."

Similarly, Dueck credits much of her success on the volleyball court to her team's support and collaborative efforts. The setter enjoyed an impressive career at UBCO, finishing her time with the Heat ranked second in team history for career assists with 1794. "When I first joined the team I had no idea what my involvement would look like… I knew that it was a goal of mine to be able to work towards those types of statistics… [and] it's nice, it's a good feeling, but it's also a testament to my teammates."

Like many driven athletes, Dueck has been involved in coaching her sport since very early on. Her coaching career began in middle school, where she would help out with the younger teams. But it was her time with the Heat that led her to opportunities farther afield. In 2022, Dueck was asked to become an assistant coach with Volleyball Nunavut, an experience that she remembers fondly. "[They] needed an assistant coach for their women's team that was going to the Canada Summer Games," she said. "I had never coached in that capacity before, it's mostly been in different camps and those types of opportunities, but that was a cool experience to go through the coaching training and be certified."

"As part of our training for the games, we went to Club Nationals in May, the first time ever that a team from Nunavut went to Club Nationals… this was something that had taken ten years of development for Volleyball Nunavut, creating those opportunities and training. The ten-year goal was to make it to this. It's not to win or anything, but to make it there, and same thing with that same summer of going to the Canada Summer Games. 2022 [was the] first year ever that there was an indoor volleyball team from Nunavut representing. And we won a game, which was really fun!"

However, the volleyball team isn't the only campus organization that Dueck is involved with. She is also a member of the leadership team for the Heat Athlete Council (HAC), a committee led by student-athlete representatives. Along with Derek Como, the Heat's Student-Athlete Success & Compliance Advisor, the HAC organizes community events and volunteer opportunities for all of the Heat teams.

This year, UBCO's athletes collaborated with a local food bank and participated in The Coldest Night of the Year, an annual walking event that "brings in more awareness about people who are experiencing homelessness," as Dueck explained. "That's an initiative that we promote to our team so we can get people out there benefiting our teams but then also showing our collaboration with the community."

Dueck's involvement in the UBCO community has had a big impact. Over two years ago, Dueck and her former teammate Sadie Taylor-Parks kick-started UBC Okanagan's very first Pride Night. "We didn't have [Pride Night] in my first year [and] that [was] kind of surprising," Dueck said. "Growing up [I] was able to identify how various intersectionalities have limited opportunities for people, for my friends and different family members, and so knowing that our institution isn't doing or wasn't doing something clear [to promote] inclusivity, and then specifically within the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, I felt as if okay… we've got to do something… I [said] okay, we're going to make it happen."

Although the first iteration of Pride Night was "very makeshift," the event was able to raise money for Etcetera Youth, a group that provides support to 2SLGBTQIA+ youth in the community through various programs. The event has only grown in scale since then, especially since Dueck and the Athletics & Recreation Department worked together to locate more funding for the initiative: "I made a [grant] proposal… with a breakdown of different costs that we were anticipating and then we actually received the full amount requested for this year which was really exciting, because I kind of didn't really limit [the budget]. But it was like we're going to get this, and then we need this, and so they gave us a really healthy budget which was great."

Dueck's work on Pride Night is indicative of her overall mission to promote diversity and inclusion, both within the athletic space and otherwise. "My passion is within health equity," she said. "To me the university is a reflection of the community. Not a complete reflection… but the more that we can push the university, it will translate into the community, which then impacts more people."

After graduating from the Human Kinetics program, Dueck plans to continue her efforts to promote diversity and inclusion, this time on a larger scale. "I am for sure wanting to go to grad school, but not next year right away. My interest is within, like I mentioned, health equity, but specifically within public health and applying population level interventions, so I'm wanting to learn more about the existing systems and learn about health equity from that perspective."

As for volleyball, Dueck is taking a casual approach, but for her, the opportunity to continue playing at the post-secondary level would be an exciting bonus: "My priority would be the grad program and the grad school specifically, but if there's an opportunity to play on a team and if it works out in that sense, I wouldn't say no!"