UAB Women in Tech hosts free movie night to build campus connections

Women in Tech at the University of Alabama at Birmingham turned a simple comedy screening into a low-pressure way for students to find one another. Movie Night with WIT: The Internship gave current students a free evening in University Hall, room 1008, built around a familiar title and an easygoing social setting instead of a formal lecture or niche film event.

The calendar listing put the screening in front of students on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The movie, The Internship, is Shawn Levy’s 2013 comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. Its premise, about two salesmen whose careers have been upended by the digital age and who land at Google alongside younger, tech-savvy applicants, fit neatly with a group that supports students interested in computer science and technology-related careers.

That alignment mattered. Women in Tech at UAB says it offers professional development workshops, academic support, and opportunities to connect with peers and the wider Birmingham technology and innovation scene. The group page showed only 3 people following the organization, a small number that makes a free movie night feel less like a side event and more like an open door. For students who might never show up for a panel, networking hour, or specialty screening, a popular studio comedy lowers the pressure and gives them a reason to stay in the room.

UAB’s scale helps explain why that kind of programming matters. The university says it is home to approximately 455 student organizations, and its student involvement guidance says registered student organizations are meant to foster valuable co-curricular experiences while giving students access to campus resources. In that setting, a campus screening is not just entertainment. It is a piece of social infrastructure, the kind that can turn a first-time attendee into a regular face at future events, whether those happen in a classroom, a student org meeting, or a local screening room off campus.

The larger arts picture points the same way. The Alys Stephens Center, at 1200 10th Avenue South, describes itself as a bridge to the arts for the community and says it hosts more than 300 diverse events annually. Women in Tech’s movie night worked from the same basic idea: build habits through accessibility, keep the barrier to entry at zero, and let a shared screening do the work of bringing people into the room together.