On February 4, the Vietnamese Student Association’s (VSA) GroupMe became visible to Stevens students. It wouldn’t be until April 8 that they held their first event: Ham Choi Game Night! During this event, they introduced their mainly non-Vietnamese general body to a variety of different games, including bầu cua cá cọp, a gambling game that uses three dice on a mat featuring a fish, a prawn, a crab, a cock, a calabash, and a stag (or a tiger). Another game was Choi Chuyen, which is similar to Gonggi, a traditional Korean game, where you time your moves by throwing one object in the air, grabbing another, and catching the one in the air.
For a general body meeting, the turnout was terrific. All different parts of student life were present, and that small room on Babbio’s third floor ended up being very loud and lively once the games started.
To get more insight, The Stute spoke with VSA’s president, Jane Vu, a 2/4 Quantitative Finance major, to find out more about how the club came into existence, what it did for its most recent event, and what the future looks like.
During her first semester of freshman year, Vu felt down because there weren’t many Vietnamese students she knew. After attending so many cultural clubs around campus, she felt that one was missing. Then, while talking to friends, one of them suggested she start her own VSA. After a conversation with Keenan Yates, a senior at the time who also wanted to start a VSA and co-found it with her, the idea began to take shape. But after she graduated, the torch to start the club ended up in Vu’s hands. “It felt super overwhelming at first—I had no idea what I was doing—but I started to treat it like my own little baby. I put my heart into it, and I think that made all the difference.”
When she saw that there were more Vietnamese students in the incoming freshman class, she took the opportunity to make sure that what she went through—feelings of isolation, lack of representation, and being new—didn’t happen to them. So, with the help of her vice president, Karley Phan, a 2/4 Business and Technology major, they held weekly three-hour meetings working on presentations for the SGA, writing up the constitution, and figuring out the e-board structure. As a result, VSA was built.
After spending two weeks planning their first event, they wanted to start with something fun and welcoming—something where people could connect without feeling awkward or out of place. They weren’t expecting 60 people to show up for their GBM. It might sound like a small number, but even the largest organizations at Stevens typically see only a quarter of that at their GBMs. Vu deemed this event a success.
As for the future of the club, they have a Vietnamese Coffee Workshop on April 23 from 2 to 5 p.m.. The idea of the event is to “teach people how to make traditional Vietnamese coffee using a phin filter, while also giving everyone a cozy space to hang out, sip coffee, maybe get some work done, and learn a bit about the culture. It’s meant to be low-pressure, chill, and of course, delicious.”
Moreover, to keep the club growing and increase their budget, they’re aiming for bigger and more fun events. One thing they’ve noticed is that people love food, so they’re going to try and incorporate that into future events. Overall, the entire E-board wants to expose the student body to “more food, more culture, and more chances for people to connect. [Vu] just [wants] to keep building a space where people feel excited to show up, learn something new, and feel like they belong.”
