The African Diaspora Initiative and Multicultural Student Services work with several student-led and community organizations and assists in connecting African and Black students to each other across campus.
Expect the Great (ETG) is a Utah System of Higher Education (USHE) free college and career awareness and readiness event for African, African American, and Black students and communities in Utah.
Our Organization's mission, goals,
and partnerships:
The Black Student Union (BSU) at Utah Valley University will strive to foster a sense of community for Black students. It will provide an opportunity for students to express their views concerning current events, academics, culture, arts, and campus life. We envision the Black Student Union to be more than just a club, but a family. Being away from home and family is never easy, so we hope that Black student union can give students an outlet for anything they’re dealing with while away in college. Our main focus is on providing a safe space for all Black students of the diaspora.
Although we’re starting small, we envision great things for the future. In order to promote a better atmosphere for Black students, we, the Black students of Utah Valley University, have created this organization to serve the overall well-being of the black student body in the UVU community. We aim to serve as a voice for Black students and to establish a sense of identity, community, and pride. Black Student Union will focus on bringing our diverse culture to the campus, allowing all students to be exposed to our way of life.
UVU’s Black Student Union existed long before the African Diaspora Initiative. In tradition with the Black Campus Movement (Rogers), it was the BSU student leaders, in partnership with UVU faculty, staff, and administrative mentors, who worked to bring the African Diaspora Initiative to fruition.
We continue this partnership by co-hosting the weekly socials (Thursdays), as well as larger events (Proud to Be African, BHM Roller Skating, African Diaspora Graduation).
We also provide the student club leadership with mentors, food vouchers, letters of recommendation, scholarship opportunities, and a spring leadership transition retreat.
Find us on Instagram for current news and events.
Cultural Envoy is a UVU-sponsored leadership program that validates students’ cultures and supports their pathway to completion. As a student in the Cultural Envoy Program, you will learn to navigate and negotiate your experience at UVU, your community, and other critical spaces that you may celebrate as important.
The program is open to all students who want to understand and refine facets of their culture, identity, and lived experiences to facilitate their development as scholars, change agents, and stewards of a globally interdependent community.
As our students create, perform, view, and interpret dance as a socio-cultural phenomenon at UVU they will be engaged in transforming their ideas from a classroom setting to dance floor. In learning about dance forms of diverse cultures, we come to appreciate the cultural stories of people, in the past and in the present time, and validate the student experience outside of the classroom.
