MOST OUTSTANDING ORGANIZATION NOMINEE
ole miss vietnamese american student association
What are the purpose and goal(s) of your organization, and how has it met or exceeded those goals?
The purpose of Ole VASA is to promote an appreciation, awareness, and greater understanding of the Vietnamese community and the culture. By developing and executing programs to support the interests of the university student bodies, providing opportunities for greater expression of Vietnamese culture, and collaborating with the university to ensure our organization maintains and spreads its fundamental values, we aim to achieve our purpose.
Address how your organization was outstanding in the following areas: recruitment, marketing, outreach to campus community, use of resources, officer training and event planning.
Recruitment – This year, we had about 50 new members. Most were freshmen, but we also had some transfer students too. We tabled a lot with other organizations when we got the chance, and we do really well with recruiting by word-of-mouth. Marketing – We did our usual marketing by posting on Facebook and Instagram, but one thing we did differently was we reached out to other organizations on campus and we shared each other’s graphics and used the university’s given hashtags to reach a wider audience. Outreach – This year, we leaned into our community by holding more events in collaboration with local asian-owned businesses like Hotbox Hibachi, Kabuki Hibachi and Sushi Restaurant, Rice and Spice Thai Restaurant, and Mi & Tea Vietnamese Cuisine. By collaborating with these businesses, we fortified stronger relationships with our Asian community within Oxford, which extends beyond the university. Resources – Ole Miss has a lot of resources available for student organizations. This year, we tapped more into those resources by planning ahead when ever we could, filled out all the necessary forms, and provided all necessary documents needed to receive school funding for our events and merchandise. Knowing we would be supported by our university allowed E-Board the peace of mind that we could host the events we dreamed of and fulfill our duty of promoting appreciation and awareness of our organization across campus. Officer Training – Not only does Ole Miss require officers of clubs to attend finance orientations, event monitor orientations, safety trainings, etc. each semester, but Ole VASA itself has a tradition of having its senior advisors host a V-Day leadership workshop day/weekend for our E-Board to grow closer as leaders and as friends in order to better fulfill our duties.
How did the organization work together to maximize strengths and overcome weaknesses?
Our E-Board worked together to deliver fun events, but we also aim to involve our general members in some decisions about what we do. We regularly post Google Forms and polls in our GroupMe for merch design decisions, availability for what dates would be best to host events, gauge interest in certain activities, nominate and vote for new E-Board, etc. Each year, we also usually have committees that members can join to help set up with decorations for Formal, participants for Date Auction, and Culture Show.
Provide specific examples of how the student group demonstrated growth and development in the 2021-2022 academic year.
Our organization demonstrated growth by reestablishing our relationships with our alumni, bringing back old traditions and events that were lost due to covid, and emphasizing authentic connections between our members by grouping friends into families. This year, our alumni tailgate welcomed a large number of alumni because we reached out to them much more that we have in previous years. We had so much fun with them, and ever since then, they’ve been more active in commenting on our social media too! Also, we brought back Culture Show which was lost for 3-4 years due to covid and other complicated circumstances that prevented us from hosting it. This was our opportunity to establish a connection with our community and asian-owned businesses, and we accomplished our goals. We welcomed people from the campus and community to play games, eat, and enjoy cultural performances. I think our own members grew closer to each other when practicing and performing together too! Lastly, from the beginning of this term, we wanted to improve member retention and emphasize that the connections and relationships between members are the backbone of our organization. Because of this, we carefully watched people's interactions throughout ACE Week and grouped people in families based on who they were already friends and comfortable with (instead of following the precedent of grouping people with who they didn’t know but have similar personalities). This proved to work much better and our family leaders seemed to enjoy and appreciate getting a say in who would be in their families.