UH West Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Tokai International College gather for International Coffee Hour.
Following the success of the UH West Oʻahu International Coffee Hour, the group plans on expanding its activities in the hopes of reaching out to a larger audience.
Students from UH West Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi Tokai International Campus (HTIC) meet for two hours to “socialize, practice new languages, and make new friends,” according to UHWO senior Erika Bareng, the UHWO International Coffee Hour Coordinator. “Another purpose of the coffee hour is to make HTIC international students familiar with other students from Hawaiʻi in order to make them feel more comfortable in America and teach them more about Hawaiʻi’s culture and English.”
The main goal is to internationalize both campuses, and teach Hawaiʻi and international students about each others’ languages and cultures. Last year, the group had conversation groups and tutoring sessions, and also took independent trips around Oʻahu.
This year, they plan to continue those activities and hopefully add movie nights and more English language practice games.
Interested students can email Erika at ebbareng@hawaii.edu. Look out for digital signage around campus and social media posts notifying the campus about upcoming dates and times for fall 2015.