Our mission states, we create opportunities for students to succeed and empower them to become responsible global citizens. We do this by supporting UVU Faculty as they promote global awareness through their teaching at Utah Valley University.
The Office for Global Engagement has had a long standing connection with the United Nations, starting with being an associate member of the United Nations Department for Global Communications (formally Department of Public Information) and as a member of United Nations Academic Impact. The United Nations celebrates days throughout the year, on various topics. These days are the basis of the activities that faculty can choose to include in their classroom activities.
Events that faculty can do can include:
We invite faculty to highlight particular UN Days during the year, including the summer semester. See a list of past events below.
On June 17, 2026, The Office for Global Engagement collaborated with Kim Reynolds from the UVU GYM to recognize Yoga Day. The UN celebrates the day annually to raise global awareness about the physical, mental, and spiritual benefits of the practice.
The Office for Global Engagement celebrated United Nations Zero Waste Day in the Science Building Atrium with a well attended Free Market and a presentation on reducing food waste.
This year, our office got a jump start on International Women's Day (March 8) commemorative events. On March 5, we hosted a service project in coordination with The Refuge Utah. Throughout the morning students and staff stopped by to help tie blankets for women in crisis. Later that afternoon, Meghana Rawat, director of the UVU Global/Intercultural Program and assistant professor in the Department of Communication, moderated a discussion titled "Women in Business: A Global Lens to Sucess". She was joined by Dr. Rachel Bi, chair of Finance and Economics and director of UVU FinTech and Legogang Monageng-Goad, executive director of Yoga Forward. On March 6, Dr. Susan Merrill from UVU Peace & Justice Studies, gave a presentation " Women and War: From Victims to Victors" where she highlighted several conflicts in Africa and how women empowered themselves to peacefully protest and ultimately, overcome their opressors.
January 27, 1945 was the day the Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated as WWII neared its end. In 2005, the United Nations recognized the significance of this event and the importance of this day and so they designated January 27 as a UN International Day of Remembrance for Victims of the Holocaust. To further the dialogue on human rights, peace & justice, and equality, the Office for Global Engagement had an interactive tabling display to remind, educate and honor this solemn event.
On November 20, the Office for Global Engagement collaborated with the College of Science to celebrate World Science Day for Peace and Development. The event was a showing of the movie "The Martian" in the Science Building Atrium. Throughout the showing of the film, students and faculty shared scientific "facts and myths" about space travel and Mars.
On November 19, the Office for Global Engagement and Michael Shaw, from the Department of Philosophy, highlighted World Philosophy Day. With the focus on Aristotle, Dr. Shaw led the discussion and guided everyone through the great Greek philisopher's thoughts on The Four Causes from his Physics Book II.
On Oct. 29, the Office for Global Engagement celebrated World Clean-Up Day along with a Sustainable Fashion Show and the Really Really Free Market. The theme of this year's event was Textiles and Fashion Waste. All who attended had a great time finding items to take for themselves, enjoying the Fashion Show and learning about Fast Fashion. Models for the fashion show where comprised of students from across campus and members of the Environmental Science Student Association. During the event, we prevented over 100 lbs of clothing from ending up in landfills.
<On Monday October 6, the Office for Global Engagement hosted an event to celebrate World Teachers' Day. From 10am to Noon, staff members hosted a table in the Science Building Atrium and asked students to write a "thank you" note to a teacher that made a difference in their academic journey at UVU. We ended the day with over 200 "thank you" cards which were distributed to the teachers, with a piece of of candy as a show of our appreciation. We would like to thank all the students that participated.
On Wednesday September 24, the Office for Global Engagement and the Reflection Center hosted International Day of Peace. We heard from organizers involved with myHometown Orem, a community non-profit dedicated to strengthening neighborhoods and making them places people want to stay. A local member of the Baha'i faith also spoke, sharing with us wisdom from the Baha'i faith about individual peace. Lizzy Jensen, assistant coordinator of Interfaith Engagement, prepared tips and taught small skills for how to have conversations with people who might disagree with you on matters of deep importance. She shared what she learned from Monica Guzman's book I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations During Dangerously Divided Times. The program ended with remarks by Carlos Alarco, instructor of GEOG 2000, whose class was in attendance. The event was attended by 50 people.
On Tuesday September 23, the Office for Global Engagement and the Department of Languages' American Sign language & Deaf Studies program celebrated International Day of Sign Languages. This event was held in the language lab and was attended by 100, mainly Deaf Studies, students. They watched No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie, played games, ate pizza and enjoyed each others company. A good time was had by all.
On Monday September 9, the Office for Global Engagement along with the School of Education, celebrated UN International Literacy Day. The event was held in the McKay Education building from 9am to 3pm. Students were presented with 3 activies that they could choose from. One was to color in a bookmark and another was adding a book review to a wall display. The third activity was to complete a form that gave the participant a treat if it was completed correctly. Overall, everyone had a great time.
Our first event of the 2025 school year was on August 28th. We gathered in the LA Concourse to commemorate the UN International Day for People of African Descent (August 31). David Ssejinja, founder of the Ssejinja Children's Foundation in Uganda, provided handmade crafts and shared personal experiences with students. We took the opportunity to highlight our office's past interactions with guests from many African countries.
