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If you’ve walked across the ��֦��Ƶ's main campus after a fresh snowfall, you may have spotted them — small, perfectly formed snow ducks tucked along ledges, stairs and pathways. Easy to smile at. Easy to overlook. Hard to forget.

What started as a simple attempt to brighten a friend’s day quickly snowballed into something much bigger: a campus-wide movement rooted in joy, connection and, unexpectedly, mental health.

Behind it all is Jason Ngu, a computer science student graduating with the Class of 2026 this spring — though most know him by another name: the “Duck Guy.” As he nears convocation, Ngu is reflecting on how a simple snow-day idea grew into a campus-wide movement — and what it means to leave it behind as he graduates.

Starting his flock

Ngu first took on the mantle of “Duck Guy” on Jan. 16, 2024, in the middle of a warm winter that had suddenly flipped to snowy — a typical 180-degree move for ��֦��Ƶ that often for some brings on seasonal depression. While trying to make one of his friends feel better, Ngu remembered he had plastic snow duck makers at home. 

The rest is history. Ngu and his friend made around 30 snow ducks and, by the next day, they were already catching attention across campus and beyond, with people sharing how something so small was making a real difference in how they felt. 

The more ducks that were made and spread around campus, the more attention the movement started to receive. To Ngu, it seemed like, for once, there was a positive, uplifting story being covered. 

Two years later, he’s retroactively termed this the first phase of the movement “Catch Me if You Can.”

Making a movement

Following that 2024 winter, Ngu himself was struggling with mental health. After many nights talking to the and months of therapy, he started to focus more on the impact of mental health and align it to his Snow Duck movement.

He calls this second phase of this movement, “Don't Forget to Love the World!” It involved going through official channels in line with U��֦��Ƶ’s Community Mental Health and Well-being Strategy, as well as releasing official Duck Guy merchandise at the U��֦��Ƶ Bookstore, selling out each release wave, with proceeds going towards the Students’ Greatest Needs Fund. 

"I’m just a dude ... If I can do it, you, of course, can do it probably way better than me." This phase culminated with a event featuring the Duck Guy. “I had the opportunity to speak to a lot of people about their own mental health challenges and how the ducks meant things to them. And it meant a lot to me,” Ngu says. 

“Duck Guy is a part of me, but it's not the whole me. I’m just a dude. Maybe a little weird and crazy by making all these ducks, I know, but I'm just some random guy.

"I have my own mental health journey I've gone through, and that makes me who I am," Ngu adds. "That (UFlourish event) was sort of designed to inspire people. Like, if I can do it, you, of course, can do it probably way better than me.”

For you, because it mattered to me

Now, in Ngu’s last semester, he’s hoping the third phase of the movement, “For You, Because It Mattered to Me,” will allow the spirit of Duck Guy to live on long after he graduates. 

“This is something that became a part of the university’s culture,” he says. “We want to try and find a way to make it long-lasting.”

Amidst UFlourish wellness events like “Adopt-a-Rubber-Duck," the keynote event of this phase was a mental health performance and arts collaboration involving 12 groups across campus, including the Office of Institutional Commitments, , Ancillary Services and various student clubs. 

Ngu has had discussions about potentially continuing to be involved as Duck Guy in an alumni capacity for campus mental health movements. 

“If, years from now, (this movement) is no longer snow ducks, but snow penguins or snow dinos, or nothing with snow at all, that doesn’t matter," he says. "Having that grassroots movement of students supporting students is the main mission.”  

Moving on

Reflecting on his university career, Ngu feels he’s grown as a person from being introverted to far more extroverted and involved in campus life. 

“It’s sort of that story of the stereotypical ��֦��Ƶ commuter student who came to class and immediately left, never to be seen again until he has to come back to the next class that he physically does have to show up to — then he became this guy who made all these snow ducks and made all these initiatives happen,” Ngu says.

Ngu hopes the legacy of Duck Guy is to drive people to make the change they want to have in the world. 

“Don’t be scared to try things is my main takeaway with my university experience,” he says. 

Ngu continues to emphasize the importance of mental health in his capacity on the university’s , which meets once a month to improve and develop student mental health resources. 

“You may feel very alone sometimes. I’ve definitely felt very alone. But, eventually, it will get better. You just need to make sure that you're working towards it,” he says.

Ngu encourages students or anyone struggling with their mental health to use resources like the free counselling offered by the Student Wellness Centre. 

“Eventually, you start to rediscover your own voice, rediscover your own self, rediscover who you are, who you want to be, and how you can get to the places you want to be, if you take that first step,” he says. 

The things Ngu learned as Duck Guy have been applicable to his time with campus clubs like the and his current work in the computer science realm, where he continues to champion the Snow Duck legacy. 

His very first time making the snow ducks, Ngu said he felt like he’d tapped into his inner child. That earnest joy and whimsy is something he hopes he’s inspired in others, and will keep even as he leaves U��֦��Ƶ.