Faculty International Office launches Virtual Global Lounge to help students stay connected

In October 2019, the Faculty International Office opened the Global Lounge in Building 54 Room 2001 for International students to use to study and relax between lectures. This room is a space for students to use to work, unwind, and socialise.

Following the onset of the pandemic and the UK Government's decision to lockdown the country, Southampton staff and students have had to adjust to working from home. During this period, the Global Lounge itself has also evolved into a virtual meeting place.

Recently, we hosted events focusing on celebrating Easter, Holi, and Ramadan. These timely festivals are a great opportunity for our student community to exchange experiences and gain insight into varying traditions that we may be more or less familiar with.

During our Easter event, Ms Katie Bizley, Faculty International Officer for Social Sciences, ran fun Vevox interactive quizzes on Easter and Holi. We also really enjoyed hearing our students share their Hungarian and Nigerian traditions with us. We would like to thank the students who took part for sharing their experiences. We hope that this event was helpful for them to expand their public speaking experience.

Our Ramadan event was supported by the Islamic society, who offered a Q&A to improve our knowledge this festival and how it is celebrated. They received many requests for how and where the audience can order Iftar food to sample (this is the meal for breaking the fast in the evenings). They also guided us on how we can better support our coursemates and colleagues during Ramadan fasting. We offer a big thank you to the Islamic society for participating and making this event a success!

We are pleased to announce that June will bring more exciting developments. The Ignite internship programme offers our student community new opportunities to lead the development of this virtual and physical space with the support of the FIO team.