Junior Christina Nguyen, Treasurer of VSA
El Estoque: When did you first hear about the club and what intrigued you to join?
Christina Nguyen: “So I actually didn’t know the club existed freshman year, I tried to join but I didn’t see any awareness about it. I did hear about it through some relatives and my own sibling and I guess I felt more compelled to join it because it’s about Vietnamese people. It brought more awareness to my own culture and so like wanting to be like more in touch with my own culture.”
EE: What do you think makes this club really unique?
CN: “I think the fact that it’s not only based on Vietnamese culture but anyone can join, and it’s really fun because we do a lot of kinds of food type stuff. Like you don’t really think of Vietnamese people or the culture itself but a lot of times people think I’m a different ethnicity like Chinese or Japanese so bringing more into that concept or more awareness to it.”
EE: Why did you think the club was made?
CN: “I think it was maybe to represent the symbol [of a minority nationality] more because it’s no longer a group of people with the same ethnicity cause anyone can join now.”
Senior Elizabeth Ngo, Co-president of VSA
El Estoque: When did you first hear about the club?
Elizabeth Ngo: “I first heard about of the club my freshman year, but joined my sophomore year.”
EE: What intrigued you to join?
EN: “What intrigued me was because I am Vietnamese so that’s why I really wanted to join this club because they’re quite [a] small population of Vietnamese students. So I thought it was just a place to come in and see how what it’s like, to talk about the heritage.”
EE: What makes it unique?
EN: “We are not here to educate the people, we are [here] to show a slice of life of Vietnamese lifestyle. It’s not about just ‘Hey, you need to be like us’, it’s more of like take what you have learned about Vietnam and its culture and just appreciate it.”
EE: In your own opinion, what was the reason was created in the first place?
EN: “I’m personally think from what our club is, [it’s] not really just exclusive to only Vietnamese people but more about spreading the love of specific things Vietnam, especially food, so that’s why a lot of [what] our meetings talked about is food. I feel also in our culture it brings people together, so that’s why the main point of the club is to really spread the love of food and also the love of people.”
EE: Was fundraising for the club not necessary in your case?
EN: “I think this year was just because we only have three officers and its very limited and the other two officers, they are doing great it’s just they have other clubs to take care of. So if I were to do it, it would only be by myself. And also our club doesn’t really require a lot of money in the first place so I don’t think we need to really sell anything.”
Senior Hannah Phan, Co-president of VSA
El Estoque: When did you first join the club?
Hannah Phan: “My sister was in the club when she was a senior [and] I was a sophomore. She was an officer then and I was coming here and there to meetings because she told me to come so I came. I became co-president after she left during junior year, and I just stayed that position till senior year.”
EE: Were you personally interested in the club yourself or was it just your sister that wanted you to join?
HP: “It’s was kind of both. She kind of made it interesting for me to come to the meetings so like that how is kinda happen. They also did a lot of food tutorials and brought that kind of food and I was like,‘Oh, food and my nationality so why not?’”
EE: What do you think makes the club unique?
HP: “It’s kind of like those other clubs like Korean Student Association and French Honors, basically different cultures like coming together, I guess like the Vietnamese Student Association. Vietnamese [people are ] very under-populated in MVHS, so it’s just making the club and finding these new people that are Vietnamese, even though you don’t have to be Vietnamese to join the club. It’s kind of like the funniest thing, and you kind of just connect through this mutual nationality.”
EE: Why was the club created in the first place?
HP: “I think it was people who wanted to bond through nationality, could come join this club or like if you wanted to know about Vietnam and their culture and you can also join the club.”
EE: Was fundraising for the club not necessary in your case?
HP: “The officers of VSA are upperclassmen and we are all super busy but we are also trying to get like go for the next club grub day. No we have not [had any meetings].”
EE: If you are going to promote your club, what strategies will you take?
HP: “Me and my other partner Elizabeth, we usually post and change our profile picture on Facebook and that’s how to get people in, especially when we put food on that post then people are more likely to come.”
