Espaces francophones Team 2022-2023; Carl Ruest, Aradhita Arora, Francis Langevin, launch event, September 2022.
This story was originally posted on Espaces francophone
A joint initiative between the Okanagan School of Education (French Pathways) and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (French programs), Espaces francophones’ mission is to cultivate a sense of belonging among Francophones (first language or other) at UBCO.
On September 23, more than one hundred people gathered to officially launch the Espaces francophones for the 2022-23 school year. The program offers various opportunities for students, professors and staff of UBCO to connect and exchange in French.
“When entering university, finding your community is often a crucial step, and for Francophones in a minority setting, it is even more important,” says Francis Langevin, French professor and cofounder of Espaces francophones.
“With more than 1,000 French speakers on campus, we offer socio-cultural activities to encourage the development of a French-speaking community,” says Carl Ruest, cofounder of Espaces francophones and Okanagan School of Education (OSE) Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) French Pathways Coordinator.
Espaces francophones organized more than 20 activities for the UBCO French community. Movie nights were offered every week and presented different French-speaking cultures, from Quebec to Morocco, including Acadia and, of course, France. On March 20, to celebrate Journée Internationale de La Francophonie, three documentary films were presented. Each one depicting, from various perspectives, the French cultural reality in Canada.
According to Francis Langevin, “Espaces francophones brings together the social and cultural activities that take place in French on our campus. Films, conversation, conferences, the outdoors: everything that makes the Okanagan campus vibrant, but in French! We try to forge links with the French school network and with organizations such as the Centre culturel francophone de l’Okanagan.”
Read the full story, in French or English, at espacesfrancophones.ok.ubc.ca