Paula Ceroni probably knows how to say “hello” and “welcome” in more languages than just about anyone else on campus. That’s one of the perks of her job in the English Language Centre, managing UVic’s homestay program. Each year the program places over 1,600 students from as many as 30 countries into 600 host families (and they are always looking for more hosts).

Art Napoleon was already a national figure when his TV show, Moosemeat & Marmalade, premiered on APTN in January 2015. He had performed at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, opened for Buffy Sainte-Marie and been interviewed by veteran correspondent Tom Hawthorn for the Globe and Mail in September 2010 for the release of his album Creeland Covers, sung almost exclusively in Cree.

On a hot summer evening in front of Cadboro Commons, the smell of barbecued meat is still hanging in the air as Kumbia, a local salsa band, hits the first notes of a signature Santana tune, Oye Como Va. The audience is a group of close to 150 international students from more than a dozen countries who are attending UVic’s summer English Language and Culture program.