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My leadership journey through VSA has been a major part of my collegiate experience. During the second semester of my freshman year, I became an intern in VSA and learned more about how the leadership operated and how I could contribute to the VSA, as well as the APIDA community. In my sophomore year, I assisted the leadership in planning activities as the Co-Sports Chair, and was also fortunate to attend a Union of Vietnamese Student Associations event. This UVSA event inspired me to run for Vice President External in my junior year in order to keep the connections I made with other VSA’s alive and strong. Throughout my journey of leadership in VSA at TAMU, I have always found myself wanting to take on the next challenge, and I hope to transition that desire into my career and the rest of my life. 

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My culture and upbringing has always been a strong part of my personality, and my life. From an early age, I had a very grounded sense of who I was in terms of my heritage, and through participation in various cultural events, that understanding of my heritage would be strengthened. From the Lunar New Year festival to eating Bun Rieu with my family, and even attending the temple during festivals and cultural events, Vietnamese culture has percolated much of my life.

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Although I already was a participant in Vietnamese culture throughout my life, VSA opened my eyes to being an organizer and communicator of my culture to the wider TAMU community. I was able to participate and assist in choreographing a fashion show displaying classical Vietnamese clothing, as well as being a part of a dance program. Beyond my leadership positions, I have been fortunate enough to impact the APIDA community through being a family leader at multiple VSA conferences, organizing TAMU’s own Lunar New Year festival, leading cultural lessons, and working on putting together a booth for the Brazos World Festival. As a family leader, I inspired peers to apply and play a greater role as leaders in their respective VSA’s. 

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Although I have a limited amount of time left here at TAMU, I would like to enhance the links between various APIDA organizations, develop links with other university organizations across Texas, work to increase TAMU VSA’s role in the Union of North American Vietnamese Student Associations. In the future, I want to continue to be involved in the conferences and have an executive level leadership position at a national level to lead the next generation of VSA students.