Vietnamese Student Association
Encyclopedia : V : VI : VIE : Vietnamese Student Association
The Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) refer to campus-based not-for-profit student groups located all over the world in areas where communities of overseas Vietnamese exist. It is also known as Hội Sinh Viên Việt Nam (postsecondary) or Hội Học Sinh Việt Nam (secondary) in Vietnamese.
Each VSA operates independently, therefore the structure, mission, membership requirements and activities may vary from school-to-school. Because of these variations, some organizations operate under different names, such as Vietnamese Student Union (VSU), Vietnamese American Student Organization (VASO), etc. The majority of organizations, however, use Vietnamese Student Association as its name. The earliest documented establishment of a Vietnamese Student Association is 1968 at San Diego State University. Following the end of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975, which brought about a massive exodus of refugees up until the early 1990s, many new VSAs were established to deal with the cultural transition for the refugees entering college.
In general, VSAs exist to preserve the Vietnamese culture and heritage. VSAs are often affiliated with postsecondary schools, although a notable number are also affiliated with secondary schools. Most VSAs are structured to be run by a board of elected officers including, at minimum: president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. Other elected positions may include public relations, historian, webmaster, etc.
Uniting the VSAs
Beginning in the early 1980s, regional coalitions of these VSAs began to form, such as the Union of Vietnamese Student Associations of Southern California (UVSA) in 1982, and the Vietnamese Students Association of Victoria, Australia in 1983. In January 1999, the Federal Vietnamese Students Association of Australia (FVSAA) collaborated and hosted the first International Vietnamese Youth Conference inviting Vietnamese youth from around the world. The result of that conference formed the Len Duong International Vietnamese Youth Network. From thereon, a movement followed to strengthen the network.
North America
In April 2003, students of the University of Cincinnati VSA in Ohio organized the first VIA-1 Conference, or Vietnamese Interacting As One, aiming to unite VSAs from around the country, although successive conferences remained in the Midwestern United States.
In 2002, there was an attempt to create a continental structure of VSAs. It was not until May 2004, in which the first Vietnamese American National Gala (VANG) event took place, that student leaders from across the nation gathered and had an informal meeting that eventually sparked interest in creating this network. In response to that interest, a conference was held in Boston, Massachusetts in July 2004 by the New England Intercollegiate Vietnamese Student Associations (IVSA) to determine a continental structure of VSAs. The result of this was an organization called the North American Vietnamese Student Associations (NAVSA). In the following year, NAVSA was renamed to the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations (uNAVSA) and began its first Collective Philanthropy Project (CPP), essentially a continental campaign of a social issue students took interest in, and served as a unifying project for all VSAs to work on. In this case, the beneficiary they chose was the Vietnamese Alliance to Combat Trafficking (VietACT).
In July 2003, UVSA Southern California co-organized the third International Vietnamese Youth Conference which was held in San Diego, California. Inspired by this conference, in March 2005, Vietnamese students in Texas organized the first annual national Vietnamese American Student Conference (VASCON), with Kym Pham as executive director, and sponsored by the Vietnamese Professionals Society (VPS). The conference's purpose is to unite Vietnamese American students nationally, and thus plays a pivotal role in gathering VSAs from across the nation, especially from Texas.
The fourth International Vietnamese Youth Conference was held in Sydney in December 2005, and produced a group of North American delegates who attended. After the conference, many of these delegates remained in contact with each other to discuss how to build support for the Len Duong International Vietnamese Youth Network throughout North America.
Northern California
The State of California has records of an existence of a Union of Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California which formed in the early 1980s and lasted until the mid-1990s. In 1990, the Association of Universities and Colleges of the Bay Area formed, but did not survive very long.
Following the first International Vietnamese Youth Conference in 1999, Northern California saw the creation of Light Up Our Faith Vietnamese Youth Network of Northern California (MLNT). Although there is no evidence to suggest that MLNT formed as a result of the international conference, another factor that prompted its creation was the Hi-Tek Video Incident, where in February 1999, a Vietnamese American named Truong Van Tran hung a photograph of Ho Chi Minh and a communist Vietnamese flag in his Hi-Tek Video store in the middle of Little Saigon in Orange County, California. Mr. Tran's actions provoked dramatic and unprecedented demonstrations among Vietnamese Americans of all generations that reverberated in Orange County and throughout the other Vietnamese American communities across the North American continent. The demonstration in San Jose, California was organized by MLNT in April 1999.
Eventually MLNT collapsed within a few months of its founding, spawning two coalitions in fall of that year: Bay Area Vietnamese Student Association (BAVSA) and Vietnamese Student Associations Link (VSAL). BAVSA was founded by Tien Vo from Fremont High School in Oakland, California, and the coalition consists of high school VSAs from the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area). VSAL was a coalition of collegiate VSAs throughout Northern California, and saw many productive years with collaborative activities with its member schools. An unprecedented statewide collegiate VSA leadership camp was held jointly between VSAL and UVSA Southern California in August 2002. But while BAVSA continues to exist, VSAL had its last event in late 2003, and no new officers were elected for 2004, bringing an end to the coalition.
Meanwhile in fall of 2002, community activists brought together 25 high school VSAs (essentially including BAVSA) around the San Francisco Bay Area, and helped form the United Vietnamese Student Organization (UVSO). Michelle Phuong Tu became its first interim president. Tu led a delegation to the third International Vietnamese Youth Conference in San Diego. In January 2004, the executive board restructured UVSO and ratified a new constitution, changing their name to United Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California (UVSA), not to be confused with the early-1980s organization with the same acronym and geographic focus. Additionally, the new UVSA allowed for membership with both high school and collegiate VSAs. Although its scope is all of Northern California, for the first few years, most of the members were high school VSAs around San Jose.
In fall 2003, members of the California State University, Sacramento VSA brought together VSAs within their area and formed the Vietnamese Student Association Union of Sacramento (VSAU) with Hai Nguyen as its first elected president. In fall of 2005, Be Nguyen of San Joaquin Delta College VSA initiated a proposed Vietnamese Student Association United of Stockon (VSAU), although the organization does not yet have a charter. In February 2006, An Le of San Jose City College VSA created an alliance of 5 community college VSAs in Santa Clara Valley called the Vietnamese Student Union, although the alliance also does not yet have a charter.
In July 2005, at the joint VIA-1 / NAVSA Conference, a Northern California delegation consisting of members of UVSA Northern California and San Jose State University VSA made a bid to have the next conference of 2006 in San Jose.
External links
- [Ý Thức Maps] shows a map of VSAs around North America.
- [VIA-1 Conference] Vietnamese Interacting As One
- [VASCON2] Vietnamese American Student Conference
- [Len Duong International Vietnamese Youth Network]
- [Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations]
- [United Vietnamese Student Associations of Northern California]
- [Union of Vietnamese Student Associations in Southern California]
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