UBC nwPlus, originally StartupStorm, is a club for aspiring programmers and designers at the University of British Columbia. Their mission is to foster an environment full of innovation and creativity within the tech world. Their goal is to provide their members with the resources, experiences, and mentorship outside of the classroom. Following their three main pillars, the club works to bridge connections, empower skill-building, and approach tech as a tool. nwPlus continues to stretch the boundaries of their organization, currently hosting three separate events each year: nwHacks, UBC Local Hack Day, and cmd-f.  Zoe Fox (left), Anita Tse (right), Allison Chiang (middle), and Lauren Tonello (not pictured) are four amazing women behind the movement taking place at nwPlus.  

nwHacks was created in 2015 as a hackathon for 300 people. It has since grown to 700 people. While they have hosted various events, nwHacks was the event they were most well-known for.  

Zoe Fox, the previous President of nwPlus and the previous director of nwHacks, started out as a volunteer internal coordinator during the hackathon’s second year.  It’s also when she fell in love with the event. It was during her third year when she served as the Hackathon Director, working to expand the size of the event and the scope of students attending. She pushed for students outside of the CS and engineering sphere to attend. Her marketing changes resulted in a steady increase in applicants, resulting in a 600-person event. 

Anita Tse, another member of the nwHacks organizer team, took over as Director the following year in 2018. During her time as Director, she continued to expand the breadth of students in attendance at nwHacks, resulting in a rise in numbers yet again to ~700. Following in the footsteps of Zoe, Anita also went on to become co-president of the organization where she and her co-president Rebecca work to empower hackers on campus and throughout Canada.

Meanwhile, Zoe had been elected as President of StartupStorm.  In an effort to make nwPlus the hub for all things related to student hacking at their university, she rebranded the group from StartupStorm to nwPlus and brought a Local Hack Day organizer, Allison Chiang, onto the team to be included under their events. Since then, Zoe has also created cmd-f, Vancouver’s first all-female and gender non-binary hackathon. In its first year, with only a little over a month to plan, the event had over 150 attendees and is now pushing for growth going into its second year.

Allison Chiang was brought onto the team to help with UCB Local Hack Day and was an invaluable asset to the team. She understood the messaging for each event and helped wherever she was needed. Through this, she created unity in the team and took over as Local Hack Day organizer. This year, she has worked to organize not one but three Local Hack Days, each of which is one of the largest in the North American region. She has worked to amplify the mission of nwPlus through her work.

Working in tandem with the other organizers, Lauren Tonello has been doing the marketing for nwPlus for the last four years. She uses various strategies such as Medium articles to help share the stories and projects of hackers and sponsors with their community. These range from interviews to project spotlights to hacker experience stories. 

Together, these women are working to create more inclusive events and atmospheres for people of all backgrounds, skill levels, and gender identities.