Picture curtesy of UVic's Iranian Student Associaton

Caption: Members of UVic's Iranian Student Association at Yalda night in 2019

The University of Victoria’s Iranian Student Association is staying active and getting creative with ways to engage community members despite Covid-19 restrictions.

Alireza Seyfollahi, the Vice-President of the association reflects on the initial reaction to the lockdown. Like many clubs, after the lockdown in march, the club went dormant. It was especially difficult as it was right before Persian new year. “I went to myself in fairly shock mode. We were thinking what we should do, what could be our response to the pandemic. So after like a month or two in the lockdown, we decided to think about ways that we can engage our members and the community, our target community.” said Seyfollahi.

The Iranian Student Association is now holding online gaming nights, general meetings and other events virtually. Previously, the Iranian Student Association held these activities in person to foster community and encourage curiosity towards the Persian culture. Seyfollahi emphasized that this welcome extends to people outside the Persian culture too.

“Our last event, Yalda night, last year, we had about two to three hundred guests, which many of them were not Persians, and were not Iranians, but they were just interested in the culture. So we always welcome other nationalities who are interested in Persian culture, or if they want to just join the community, we always welcome them. And we've considered them as our members.” said Seyfollahi

Avishan Alimardani, Treasurer of the association said that the wellbeing of international students was one of the main reasons they started to reactive the club. “We are trying to put ourselves in their position, especially the newcomers to Canada, there are pretty alone and they feel alone. And they can be while trying to communicate with them. Because we know it's pretty hard when you come for the beginning. And so we were trying to have a few online meetings to introduce all around the university and all around the city.” Said Alimardani.

Apart from recreation activities, members of the association also help guide students through pivotal university experiences like Coop. Alimardani mentioned that the meeting held to advise students on the process “was really helpful for students because before graduation they really want to find a job and coop is a really good experience, job experience for them. So we had the online meeting and then we were trying to introduce all about the Co-op, how to apply for it. And as I mentioned, all of the pandemic, it has been trying to make them feel they are not alone. We are all together in this pandemic. And we know they have all come from the same country and we love each other. These are another reasons that I think it helped us and it motivated us to keep the club alive.”. said Alimardani.