Students enjoyed a night of light jazz and cafe refreshments, including a voucher for free a Starbucks coffee or refresher, as they walked through and learned a variety of phrases catered to greetings, traveling, and restaurant orders at Global Hawks’ Language Cafe Night. Languages available for students to learn included French, ASL, Greek, Thai, Polish, Italian, and Spanish.

Organized by Bertine Hess, Vice President of Global Hawks, the Language Cafe had an overwhelming amount of support from students, eager to learn and explore new languages. Students walked around and sat down in front of the language speakers and used the provided notebooks to write down the newly-learned words and phrases as they practiced with the tutors. Themed bingo sheets were handed out for students to fill out and turn in for a raffle entry, for a chance to win prizes including a smartTV, Echo Dot, Amazon giftcard, and Hawk Dollars. In partnership for the Community Bridge Builder Grant, Global Hawks collaborated with the Tutoring Center and director Tracey McDonnell Wysor, a proud supporter of the event, who lent several of her language tutors and donated a raffle prize of Hawk Dollars.

Hess revealed that her idea for a language cafe came to her during International Week hosted last November. Hess reached out to Wysor, planned the event, made themed bingo cards, and asked her coworkers at Starbucks to help assist serving drinks. Hess highlighted the close-knit community of many international students, and hopes more students recognize the international community on campus and learn more about the cultures offered here at RWU.

Global Hawks extends an invitation for any student to come to bi-weekly meetings, every other Wednesday from 5-6pm in GHH 206. Follow @rwu_globalhawks on instagram to find out more about events or meetings.