Virtual International Coffee Hour Connected FSU’s Global Community Through Pandemic

The CGE’s Virtual International Coffee Hour has showcased more than 45 unique recipes from around the world with multicultural Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) and international students, serving approximately 2,000 participants this past year.

CGE transitioned the program to a virtual space in March 2020 to provide the FSU community with an opportunity to continue to learn and engage during COVID-19. More than 20 multicultural RSOs and departments, as well as more than a dozen individual international students, shared their cultures with the FSU community.

International Coffee Hour, which usually draws crowds of 250 to 300 members of the FSU community during the fall and spring semesters, has always provided a way for domestic and international students, scholars, faculty, and staff to learn about a featured country or culture each week while trying an international snack and engaging in conversation with people from around the world.

Since going virtual, the program has highlighted recipes from more than 30 different countries and areas, including China, India, Brazil, Venezuela, and Italy to name a few. Each week on Wednesday, CGE shares a new recipe on its Facebook page so participants can gather ingredients and follow along with the program on Friday.

Then every Friday at 5 p.m., Virtual International Coffee Hour starts with co-hosting students presenting about their home country and culture, CGE’s Chef Jesse provides a live cooking demonstration, and then participants are divided into breakout rooms for conversation.

“Making food for International Coffee Hour each week has been the highlight of my career,” said Jesse O’Reilly, The Globe Building Manager and professional chef. “When everything closed in Spring 2020 it was hard to think we wouldn’t be able to continue our events. Luckily, I had a lot of cooking demonstration experience, but the key ingredient to making it a success was the enthusiasm and commitment from all of our wonderful co-hosts. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be a part of the program. I learned so much working with each group, and now we have an extensive portfolio of novel recipes for CGE to carry on.”

Virtual International Coffee Hour will continue from 5–6:30 p.m. on Zoom each Friday until April 16, 2021. To receive the weekly email with Zoom login information, visit bit.ly/CGEcoffeehour.

"International Coffee Hour was the first event we were determined to create a virtual space for since we knew so much of our campus community relied on it each week to connect and decompress," said CGE Programs Coordinator Laura Dean. "I couldn't have asked for a better outcome in terms of its success, and we are so thankful to all of the participating student organizations as well as international students for making each week a unique and fun event. While we will be sunsetting our Virtual International Coffee Hour this semester, with April 16 being our last, we are looking forward to providing a safe in-person experience again this summer. We look forward to sharing those details with our community soon as soon as they’re available."

This Friday, April 2, the Venezuelan Students Association (VenSA) will co-host International Coffee Hour. Following VenSA’s presentation, CGE’s Chef Jesse will demonstrate how to make Chicha, a delicious Venezuelan rice drink.

“Venezuela is a country known for its diverse group of people, scenic beauty, and home to the best Arepas in the world,” said Nicole Cinquino, VenSA President FSU junior studying exercise physiology. “We hope to share our culture through an easy at-home recipe that students can make and share with their friends! Our intention for this International Coffee Hour is for people to have something to remember us [and] can continue to share about Venezuela … in conversation.”

Visit cge.fsu.edu/vch for past recipes and videos from Virtual International Coffee Hour.