Most Improved VSA
This award recognizes the organization that demonstrated the most improvement overall in its operations, membership, development, and overall success within the last academic year compared to previous.
Emory University
How did your organization improve compared to previous years?
The Emory representation is something that I am super proud of. Bringing a whooping 8 people to SELC and also having an Emory Olympics team of around 21 people shows how much we growing and having that presence. Our social media has improved with a new logo, flyers and you could follow us (EmoryVSA on insta and facebook) to see our history. We spearheaded using Tea Top as a fundraiser which sparked other clubs to follow and learn from us. We held our first ever exec board application and interview process. We are excited to release our new Eboard by Saturday and excited to see what will happen next. I believe that the next year Eboard will be the strongest one yet with people dedicated in improving VSA internally and externally. As in creating a community within Emory where our members are proud to be part of the family (making a new group chat where we can talk to one another) while throwing and initiating more outgoing events for not just Emory VSA but the region like our PCB trip.
Describe one new event your organization hosted this year or any new changes to an old event that was made this year – how was it successful?
One event would be bringing in Wong Fu Productions to Emory. We thank our Asian Student Organization for allowing us to collaborate with them. This was a very serious event that tested our capabilities in internal with planning with sound and envisioning the layout of the room, external with publicity and flyers, admin with booking the rooms and making sure Emory is giving us the thumbs up and ticketing, and then finances with paying that big bill and fundraising. I will be extra and include new changes to an old event. This would be our GBMs. It used to be just come here for free food and listen to us for an hour. Now we want to include fun activities and ways to encourage a community at Emory through icebreakers and socializing. We are thankful to have inspiration and mentorship from UGA and GT VSA as they taught us and gave us advice. We also thank UVSASE for watching out and accommodating small chapters like us and also just helping us make VSA even more attractive.
Florida State University
How did your organization improve compared to previous years?
About two years ago, the Vietnamese Student Association was going to disband at the Florida State University because there a lack of interest for the organization. However, we had a few leaders who were not ready to see their own organization that promotes their heritage die out because it is important that we educate and promote our culture in our community. After attending UNAVSA, we were inspired and motivated to strive to better our VSA. By doing so, we started from scratch and had a fresh start by bringing in new ideas and fixing past mistakes the VSA had done. There were 10-15 active members two years and now we increased our member retention to an active 40-50 members. We have been hosting not only educational but bonding activities that members can enjoy at general body meetings to get to know one another. We have been doing a great job bringing in diversity, external connections, and raised over about $2000 in the past two years. We were voted best organization at FSU.
Describe one new event your organization hosted this year or any new changes to an old event that was made this year – how was it successful?
Every year, the Vietnamese Student Association hosted an annual banquet where we thank and appreciate our e-board and active members. This year, we added a theme to our banquet called Ignite because we noticed positive changes within the organization. We wanted to appreciate and recognize our alumni this year. Without them, VSA would not have been here at FSU. Changes to the event were to add in a Vietnamese cultural performance, served authentic Vietnamese food, and a fashion show. This year’s banquet stood out from the rest because we had the opportunity to show everyone our appreciation for our culture, alumni, and acceptance of everyone from different backgrounds. We were also able to invite other people from UCF, UF, and UWF as well as AASU members from Tennessee. We made sure the event was catered to all of the executive board member’s goals.
University of Central Florida
How did your organization improve compared to previous years?
One of our goals in VASA this year was to reconnect with our VASA Alumni and our Vietnamese Central Florida Community. To help strengthen our relationship with our VASA alumni, we have an alumni Facebook group and that way we can communicate and stay in touch with them. This year, the first ever VASA Alumni Reunion banquet happened where all the alumni from 1982 and onwards came out and enjoyed a night of memories with each other. The Vietnamese Central Florida Community consists of all of the Vietnamese locals in the community. We, as VASA, branched out this year by attending their Black April Commemoration along with partaking in Vietnamese Central Florida New Year Festival. We even had our very own VASA Cultural Dance Group perform at their Miss Vietnam Florida pageant and our President being one of the judges for the pageant that day. With the outreach this year with the community, we wanted to break the generational gap with us and the older generation.
Describe one new event your organization hosted this year or any new changes to an old event that was made this year – how was it successful?
Over the past year, VASA has shown many efforts to raise philanthropy funds with the most efforts going towards VASA’s biggest philanthropy events of the year, Ham Chơi (Play Hard) For A Good Cause and Care to Dare as we wanted to emphasize more this year with strengthening our CPP numbers. Ham Chơi (Play Hard) For A Good Cause was our newest event that we added this year and was a field day event that was full of sports, teamwork, and fun for our members with 100% of the proceeds for this event went straight to our CPP. We had a lot of support for this event that it was to the point where we had to cap registration because we did not expect the amount of interest that went towards the event. It was our first time having this event this year and a very successful and fun event we hope on keeping for years to come.
