A new form of currency is sweeping across Humber Polytechnic and is building community and engagement with the Humber Hawks varsity sports teams.
Hawk Coins are the brainchild of Matvii Bezuhlyi - an event, promotion and student engagement coordinator with Humber Athletics. Bezuhlyi, who graduated from the Sport Management program, wanted to create a concept that would ignite enthusiasm and drive participation in Hawk pride.
What Bezuhlyi came up with is Hawk Coins, which are designed exclusively for the Humber community. The coins are earned by students through various activities that are linked to supporting the Humber varsity sports teams. Students can then exchange the Hawk Coin tokens for exclusive Hawks swag and merchandise.
"The Hawk Coins are helping build an even greater and more engaged community for the Humber Hawks," said Bezuhlyi. "They're enhancing student involvement by offering them a fun way to participate in campus culture."
He said the Hawk Coins have become a hit with students and is making supporting the Humber Hawks teams even more exciting.
Bezuhlyi says they're already starting to see the effects of the Hawk Coins in terms of attendance for varsity games. For example, they're averaging about 700 spectators a game for basketball and sometimes pack the gym with more than 1,000 people.
On game days, the Life at Humber team will be on campus to offer Hawk Coins and tell the community more about the program.
So, how do students earn coins? If they come out and support a Hawks varsity team at home, they receive five coins. If they make a social media post and mention Hawks Nation, they earn five coins. It's the same if the follow Hawks Nation on Instagram. They would then show the post or follow to Hawks Nation staff to receive the coins. These are just a few examples.
The coins can then be traded in for swag at booths that are set up at on-campus events. Hawk Coins have been available to be earned by the Humber community since September.
"We've had a great response from students and the Humber community," said Bezuhlyi. "Everyone seems to be excited about the coins and it's really helping boost engagement and building a positive campus culture."
Other Humber departments have also been given Hawk Coins to distribute to help build engagement with their activities.
Those interested in finding out more about Hawk Coins can follow Hawks Nation on Instagram.
