The UFV Hub Club is one of over 40 official clubs and associations on campus. The club started during the Fall 2021 semester. The main purpose of the club is to bring together students from different disciplines and backgrounds through fun and interesting activities.
There are plenty of activity or interest-based clubs on campus, like the Japanese Culture Club or the gaming club. The Hub Club stands out as different due to the focus being less on a specific interest or hobby. According to Andrew Vilan, one of the founders and outgoing president of the club, the point of the club is to “give all students a chance to meet with each other…and to just make friends.”
The club describes itself as a group that “aims to create exciting opportunities by hosting events for UFV members to connect and collaborate with each other and other organizations! UFV Hub Club will strive to bring UFV members from diverse backgrounds, and to unite them together by creating a vibrant and fun community for students to feel safe and excited!”
Vilan states, “I started the club on my own in September [2021]… just trying to build a community during the pandemic.” Vilan is graduating this year and is presently residing in the club as an advisory figure helping the next club president, Lucy Park, take over and lead the club.
To date, the club has hosted an array of events. The first non-official event hosted by the club was a paintball event held in late October 2021. It wasn’t long after this event that the club officially became the Hub Club and started to host more events. In December, for example, the club hosted a series of online and in-person holiday movie nights.
Entering into the Winter 2022 semester, the club began expanding in size and doing joint club activities. In February, they hosted a bowling night to help in raising funds for the Abbotsford Disaster Relief Fund. This was shortly followed up by a joint club activity hike with the Student Leisure Outdoor and Wilderness (SLOW) club. The last official event of the club before the summer semester was another paintball event that was jointly hosted with the SLOW club. According to Vilan, it is also common for members of the club to get together sporadically at parks in and around the Abbotsford area.
Plans are still in the making for summer events, but students can expect to hear more about upcoming activities on the Hub Club’s Discord and Instagram page. Vilan mentioned that there may be a beach party/potluck on the horizon. The event will mainly be targeted at this year’s graduating class, but will be open to all, including incoming students.
As part of the intentions of the club is building the UFV community, the club is also a great place to discover other clubs at UFV. On the Hub Club Discord channel, there is a section dedicated to connecting members with other UFV clubs and associations. As the summer semester continues, the UFV community can expect to see more activities and opportunities to make new friendships as the Hub Club charges ahead.
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.
