Madonna Trinh

(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? 

Try my best to promote all the leadership events and professional development opportunities to everyone. (Summit, Camp Delta, Leadership Retreat) Create graphics and constantly post on social media. Provide more incentive. Best way to branch out is through word of mouth. Even as an EVP from my local VSA, I’ve visited 8 out of 10 schools within the region, and I’d like to continue to make my rounds around the Gulf Coast area to promote those leadership opportunities. 

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?

I am a huge advocate for health. I believe what prevents burnout is what happens physiologically. I would endorse the idea that everyone get the right amount of sleep, nutrients, and physical activity daily. Student burnout is a very common issue that can’t be resolved without the initiative and discipline that the individual must put on themselves. For example, the individual would have to have the drive to continue a class assignment or job task. Simply, all I can do and provide is advice to aid those in their journey of preventing burn out. As for younger leaders, I would remind them that it is okay to reach out to others for help. Not everyone has the same form of stress relief, so suggesting types of stress relief that each individual could try would be best. I would strongly advise others to put themselves first. Their physical and mental well-being is extremely important and of high priority. Remind them to take time for themselves, and to let family, peers, and E-board know. Encourage them to communicate their struggles. Know that it’s okay to not be okay. How I personally deal with burnout is by taking a break, and reminding myself to take one task at a time. When I am lost or confused, I remind myself of my personal goals, achievements, and help that I’ve received from friends and family to get to this point of my life.  For E-board, at each meeting, we can not only give role updates, but also mental updates. In each meeting, we could also mention small goals that we can all celebrate. If a current E-board member is burnt out, then the rest of the E-board members could possibly work on alleviating the stress load of the burnt out E-board member. 

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?

Something that I would personally preferred is a timeline and schedule. Ensure a future schedule to better organize into everyone’s time. For the first ICC meeting, I would do a workshop to make sure everyone knows how to use Google calendar and Discord. This two platforms are extremely useful when it comes to communication and planning. I would send constant weekly reminders and monthly announcements of the description of each ICC meeting. I will require reactions to discord messages to know that ICC members have added the discord events to their google calendar. As most meetings are held at night, I would sent an 8 hour notice of . As EVP of VSA-LSU, I had to manage 60+ people when it came to dance practices, skit meetings, choreographer meetings, and auctionee meet-ups. I had to make several announcements to each groupme and made sure that I informed everyone of everything to avoid confusion. These reminders would be helpful for those who aren’t as organized (like me). With these announcements and reminders, Executive Vice Presidents from each VSA would be able to update their local E-board meetings about ICC meetings. For example, they Executive Vice President would be able to say “ICC and I are about to have our 10th meeting next Tuesday to discuss Date Auction auctionees.” When it comes to Date Auction planning, I would also have a timeline and goal that each school should reach regarding choreographers, auctionee, and skit. As a past DA25 auctionee, I would also suggest fundraising ideas that each local board could do like Dare Lives, baked or savory goods (would even include recipes), and raffles. 

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

With meetings being on Zoom, there is a slight disconnect from getting to know the other members of ICC well. However, I would create an amiable, non-judgmental, and accepting atmosphere by providing clear communication, ice breakers, and a section of the meeting to celebrate personal goals. I would constantly remind ICC members that it is a safe space. I would keep meetings organized and professional, yet fun given my goofy nature. I would encourage every idea. If an idea doesn’t concede, it will be taken into consideration with other projects. I would love to organize an in-person ICC meet up at least once every Fall and Spring semester. I would try my best to organize an in-person trip to New Orleans, go to Sky Zone, an Escape Room, eat out at a restaurant, and/or possibly organize a weekend camping trip to further the bonds and connections for members of ICC.

How are you with delegation and organization?

I am very well with organization. I made sure to communicate to the choreographers about costumes, dances, scheduling. I like to have a consistent, organized schedule when it comes to reminders and announcements. During Date Auction planning, I had to manage over 50 people when it came to dancers, skit actors, and auctionees. As for the skit team, I made sure to organize weekly Zoom meetings at an appropriate time for others to attend the meetings so that their creative ideas and inputs can be considered. . I had three group chats and kept each group reminded with updates and ensured that they knew what they needed to do. In cases like this, clarity is very important. When delegating roles and responsibilities to others, it is important to not be too demanding. With Date Auction, I simply didn’t want it to be a role that I partook on my own, but shared with others too. For announcements, I utilize the Notes App on both my laptop and iPhone. It keeps my notes/thoughts organized. 

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? 

As mentioned previously, organization is key. When there is confusion, then ICCs would not be as willing to put in their efforts. Remind them of the importance of Date Auction. Emphasize that this is an annual charity event where we give back to the CPP and to the VSA communities who have given a home and acceptance to others. Date Auction is a huge event that brings unity to all 10 schools within the Gulf Coast region. 

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?

Talk to individual(s) about their concerns. If they are valid concerns and are strongly against the CPP then I would discuss with the UVSA-GC Executive Board to find a resolution. I would be willing to change the CPP if an ICC member was against it because there would be no point in fundraising for a cause that ICC wouldn’t want to endorse. After further discussion with UVSA-GC E-board, we would then propose the new idea or suggestion to UNAVSA to choose a different CPP to fundraise for.