The Global Lounge (B223) hosts a game night every Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Games found at the event range from common North American games like Uno or Monopoly to international games, like Mahjong.
The coordinator of global engagement, Sarah Gabor-Martinez, supervises the weekly event. She is the self-declared “crazy lady” of the office. “I think sometimes our job titles don’t really translate to what we do, and so what I essentially do in this office is I promote internationalization programs and I create a lot of engagement and focus on globalization and internationalization,” she explained.
Gabor-Martinez described the board game nights as a “fun and easy program where it’s an opportunity for us to gather without a schedule required. We put the games out and we have some games from around the world.” She goes on to say how students are able to just drop in, even if it is only for a half hour, and meet other students to make connections.
The regular weekly event has spawned some regular attendants and Gabor-Martinez noted that it feels more like a family game night. “There’s a lot of regulars and they sometimes will come over and go ‘I brought another person to games night’ and I’m like, ‘yeah!’ It’s like it’s become a family atmosphere in so many ways.”
The Global Lounge offers other programs, all of which are open to both international and domestic students. Gabor-Martinez hopes to make the Global Lounge into a place students feel comfortable just hanging out in as “there’s not a lot of places on campus for students to just gather and truly relax.”
One of the programs offered at the Global Lounge is the monthly “En Route” program. En Route allows students to travel around the Greater Fraser Valley area each month. The upcoming trip will be to a laser tag arena on Nov. 25. Students can go through the iCent app to sign up.
“All our events and our programs are open to all. Programs like ‘Friends [Without] Borders’ or ‘STEP Café’ which you can join if you’re a domestic [student], though STEP Café is more geared towards transition information for international students, but domestic students can also benefit from some of the information because sometimes there’s like a focus relevant to them, which is why we don’t like [to] discriminate,” Gabor-Martinez explained.
Gabor-Martinez talked about how it can be difficult finding the first step in seeking out a sense of community in a new environment. “I feel like if you’re just looking for community and you don’t know where to start. I believe it’s sometimes hard to find that starting spot, so coming to game nights is the best way to get involved, or if they just want to message me on Instagram which is @sarah.ufv. More than anything, I want to help students find community,” she continued, “If it’s helping them connect with a club, that’s something I’m more than happy to do, to make those connections happen.”
Gabor-Martinez explains, “I guess for me that’s my biggest truth. Helping create that sense of community because it’s hard when you come from different countries and this is definitely more geared to international students, but even myself, I was a domestic student at UFV. I related more with the international student story when I was a student here. As a BIPOC person, growing up as a first generation immigrant kid, I always had struggles with that difference and trying to find my people. Finding your people, especially in this day and age, it’s harder than it seems. If I can help facilitate that connection piece and help any individual who comes to games night, or any of our programs, find a sense of community. To me, that’s my passion.”
Emmaline is working on her BA and ambitions to become an English teacher. They always say, those who cannot do, teach. She spends her free time buying, reading, and hoarding books with the hope that one day she will have no furniture and instead only have piles of books.
