Vietnamese American Student Association at UCF

l e a d e r s h i p : : i n t e g r i t y : : f r i e n d s h i p
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By Ricky Ly Senior Consultant of VASA | Published Oct 2007

Founded in December of 1982, VASA is the fi rst Asian American cultural organization at the University of Central Florida. VASA is devoted to promote and expand Vietnamese-American cultural awareness to UCF students and the community. VASA values *leadership* for the community, *integrity*for the Vietnamese culture, and fostering *friendship* and goodwill. Beginning with five dedicated and determined leaders, VASA has now expanded to over 150 members. VASA strives to continue and inform the community about the Vietnamese traditions and legacies through various events and cultural shows. VASA hopes to not only educate the community about the Vietnamese traditions, but to also build and create new and stronger foundations.

At fi rst, VASA served as a meeting place for their Vietnamese refugee forefathers who had only recently left their homelands and families behind in order to escape the Communist oppression across the Pacific seas after the fall of Saigon. VASA served to unite fellow UCF students in their pursuit of knowledge/happiness/ equality and allowed members to strike new friendships and start new beginnings. From 1982 - 1999 VASA at UCF was one of the largest Vietnamese Student organizations in the south east, participating in state-wide Vietnamese camping retreats, Vietnamese cultural music concerts and dances, and even a large bonfi re held at UCF’s Lake Claire. Today many of these alumni members have grown up and became accomplished career professionals from dentists, to engineers, to businessmen, to real estate agents, to doctors and much more and continue to give back to their community.

In the past few years, VASA drew thousands in audience for their cultural showcases and was featured on the front page of the UCF Future newspaper, participated in the 30th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon Vietnam Freedom March in Washington, DC, successfully outbidded the University of Miami to host the OCA APIA U Leadership 101 conference at UCF, comemmorated for the fi rst time the Black April event with Vietnam War Veteran guest speakers, participated at the South East Regional Conference for Asian American Leaders at UF, and fought against inequalities of the UCF Multicultural Student Center thus setting the stage for the creation of the UCF Asian Pacifi c American Coalition. VASA was also heavily involved as one of the founders of the Orlando Asian Students Union (OASU) which served to network and unite the high school and college Asian American student organizations in the greater Central Florida area.

This growth is due to a strong dedication and the continuing belief in the importance and signifi cance of Vietnamese American culture and life at UCF.

It is often said that we stand on the shoulders of giants in order for us to look into the horizons. They continue the journey to define the Vietnamese merican cultural identity and to make an impact on the community here in Central Florida.

Last year the Vietnamese American Student Association, under the strong new leadership, have undergone several campaigns to bring about awareness of issues affecting the Vietnamese American community. They successfully petitioned over 400 signatures to help bring Orlando activist Thuong Cuc Foshee back home to Central Florida after she was detained for over a year in communist Vietnam without any charges. She was released and returned back to the States thankfully. Also, a memorial was created in honor of Nhat Anh Tran, a member of VASA who was brutally murdered at her home, in hopes to bring awareness against domestic violence and domestic abuse. At the International Fair, VASA placed fi rst in best cuisine out of all the cultural organizations for the fi rst time in over 5 years.

In February, they will be hosting their Annual TET cultural show “Tet Nugyen Dan” at UCF.