When thinking about large organizations on campus, the Associated Student Body or Greek organizations might quickly come to mind. It is not often that the Vietnamese American Student Association takes first place, but it should.
With over 100 members, OleVASA is one of the largest social organizations on campus and contributes to the Oxford community through various philanthropic and social events. Each year, OleVASA selects a charity as its fundraising partner, a program that has seen great success.
“I think it’s really important that everyone has a space to belong in. OleVASA is for everybody, but it’s especially important for those who are lost and don’t know there are people like them around,” Thicat Vu, OleVASA club president and senior secondary biology education major, said.
This past year alone, OleVASA raised $7,000 for the Asian American Prisoners Support fund, which sets out to provide support for released Asian and Pacific Islander prisoners and raise awareness about these groups’ increasing rates of deportation. In collaboration with the other VASAs at different universities around the country, over $20,000 was raised for Messengers of Love, an organization that helps fund schools in Vietnam.
Besides large fundraising events, OleVASA members also participate in smaller philanthropic events such as collaborations with Grove Grocery and tree planting with Hill Country Roots.
The club also offers and participates in a wide range of activities. From intramural sports such as volleyball, tennis and bowling to special events like Pho Night, OleVASA’s large member base makes it a welcoming place for everyone, as reflected in their membership statistics. Approximately 66% of OleVASA members are Vietnamese, while the other 44% of members are made up of different ethnicities.
Due to its large membership, the club is split into smaller groups called families. Each family has a leader who plans activities that allow OleVASA members to connect with each other and alleviates some of the pressure that comes with joining such a large club.
“The main goal is, it’s a place for people who are Vietnamese and aren’t Vietnamese to come together and share the culture that we have, to meet new people, and to be able to network with each other,” Chasity Pimentel, junior communications sciences and disorders major and public relations chair and historian for OleVASA, said. “OleVASA, for me, has brought me some of my best friends and given me the opportunity to network with people I would have never been able to network with before.”
