Kellie Dinh

(she/her/hers)

Candidate for Internal Vice president

General Questions

What is your strategy to promote and maintain leadership within the Gulf Coast through your position? 

In order to maintain and promote leadership in the Gulf Coast, I hope to lead by example during my term. Leadership is a quality that can be taught, observed, and learned! The quality can be found in anyone. Oftentimes, individuals aren't confident in their ability to lead and it can cause them to believe that they don't have the quality. However, I know that everyone is capable and sometimes it just takes the right situation to allow that quality to shine. During my term, I hope to enhance and increase the opportunities that people within GC have in order to shine and show this quality. From leadership camps for the future eboards to personally going to other VSAs to possibly hold small workshops, I hope to create more opportunities/events where a person's leadership can shine. Additionally, I'd be promoting different events such as Gulf Coast Camp Delta, Summit, and Gulf Coast Cabinet internally and external events that general members may be interested in going to like Camp Legacy and South Summit that are external.

Since our staff demographics consist of mostly college students, what are your techniques to ensure the prevention of burning out yourself, your E-Board, and the young leaders that you work alongside with?

My main technique to prevent burnout during school and other widespread VSA activities is to make sure to reflect on myself. Sometimes we go through a lot as college students and stop to take a second and check in with ourselves on if we're okay physically, mentally and socially. I've noticed that a lot of individuals push themselves and forget to take a break. Some may see it as a sign of weakness or as something irresponsible to do but it's very important to make sure you're in good condition. In order to help others, you truly have to help yourself! Being burnout is something I've definitely felt before, but whenever it happens I make sure to talk to the people around me about what's happening and give myself time to be myself and find that passion again. It's never hard to find and it helps me grow as a person and be more aware as to how I'm changing as a person within the space I've grown to love so much.

As a current ICC, you have spent nearly a year working with the IVP and other ICCs. What are one or more changes/improvements you would make as IVP in regards to your work with the ICC?

My primary goal as IVP would be to connect with the schools and help them however I can with my own personal experiences. I'd like to visit each school within the semester and talk about the region and spark more passion for GC as well. My potential predecessor did a wonderful job at getting the current generation of GC involved and really helped ICC transition from Spring Date Auction to Fall Talent Auction. As the head of ICC, I would hope to continue the work ethic and help make DA/TA successful for the next year. I believe the only aspect I'd change for the next ICC is to possibly bond and plan over the summer if it's decided that we hold the event again in the fall. I'd also like to promote having another event run by ICC or involving ICC for the semster not occupied by DA/TA. This would hopefully create a year round passion for VSA within the region and help promote a stronger sense of school pride within each individual VSA.

How do you plan on getting all members of ICC involved during meetings?

Over the summer I hope to organize a bonding activity/day where we can become more familiar with one another and strengthen everyone's ability to openly speak their opinions in future ICC meetings. During the actual meeting I plan on having a catch up period to talk about our current lives and how we're feeling as well as how our eboards' are doing. Throughout the meetings I plan on guiding them with the agenda but allowing for space and time for them to voice their own opinions and ideas. I don't plan to call anybody out but I will try my best to get feedback from everyone in ICC, especially with generating ideas and such.

How are you with delegation and organization?

I'd say I delegate and organize well! I'm often flipping through 4 different emails: school, personal, work, and VSA, and I've also held many different positions during the same period and I've successfully been able to juggle them. By holding so many positions at the same time, I've found ways to communicate efficiently and make sure I'm on top of my tasks and being able to spread the workload. I was also in charge of VSA-LSU's Talent Auction and by holding that position, I was able to see how to delegate tasks to the choreographers and the videographer in order to get everything situated on time. Being able to organize all the information needed by those involved in Talent Auction is something I'm very proud of. They were able to have videos of practices, general updates, and important announcements all while I was enrolled in 19 credits. I would say my experience running entertainment for the Baton Rouge Night Market is also a great example of how well I can delegate and organize tasks.

Over the years, ICCs have been gaining more and more duties and responsibilities. Thus, making ICCs an important part of UVSAGC operations. How do you plan on instilling the importance and passion in their roles? 

I plan on instilling passion and the importance of their roles by showing them the efforts of past ICCs as well as helping them to envision their own efforts. ICC can require a lot of a person but the pay off is insanely rewarding. I hope to exude that passion and always let them know how much their role means to me and to others. Their own experiences in their local VSAs and within the GC region are reminders of why we continue to do the events we do and why we will continue to work towards these goals. I plan to express how their role in the background gives way to the future of many other leaders within GC and how their actions help shape the experiences of those around them. I hope to create a vision in which they can be proud of and want to continue their involvement with VSA. I'll also encourage them to travel to other GC events, being on eboard can be taxing and can cause burnout, but by being around a safe and welcoming community where you don't have to be in charge and worrying about anything, they can find the passion that may have been buried in worries or stresses that currently overpower them.

If the selected CPP for the year was not an ideal foundation to donate money to among the ICCs, how would you compromise on raising funds for the CPP?

If the selected CPP for the year was not an ideal foundation to donate money to among the ICCs, I'd have an open discussion with them as to why and see where they're coming from. I'd do my due diligence to research the CPP, contact CORR for more information, and help them understand why the CPP may have been chosen. Then I'd discuss with them how they would ultimately feel about raising funds for the CPP if they still do not want to after hearing the CPP's mission, goal, and why they were chosen. Afterwards, I'd talk to the rest of my eboard and the BOD to see what they have to say based on the ICC's voiced opinions. Then I'd raise the idea in the conversation with ICC & GC of possibly splitting the raised funds with GC or a currently underfunded VSA. If they still feel like they do not want to contribute any of their raised funds to the CPP, then I'd talk more with the CORR and see about if we could possible raise funds for a different philanthropy project that the GC ICC better connects with and entrusts the funds with or if they'd like to just raise funds for GC. All of this would have to happen earlier on, hopefully months prior to DA/TA as I'd like GC to be as transparent as possible with where funds raised by auctionees and EVPs will be given to after the fundraising period.