Vietnamese Students Move Student Org from Marquette to UW-Milwaukee

Raffles, free food, music, and a crowd of over 30 students, staff and alumni filled a classroom in Bolton hall March 4 for the Vietnamese Student Association’s first general meeting of the semester as the student organization has switched from Marquette to the UW-Milwaukee campus.

UWM sophomore Tommy Nguyen, who is also VSA’s current president, recently revived the formerly defunct student organization here at UWM, along with his board of students, ranging from freshmen to juniors.

“VSA was originally a Marquette thing; recently it died out there,” said Nguyen. “I wanted to bring it to UWM. I see that there are a lot of people who would be interested here. I know I could build a stronger foundation here at UWM than when it was at Marquette.”

VSA-Milwaukee is the third such campus organization in the state of Wisconsin; there is one in Lacrosse, and UW-Madison has the largest chapter of the three.

“Our first meeting is really just an introduction and informative meeting,” said President Nguyen. “It’s really just a fun and good meeting we want to hold to tell our general members we’re ready.”

Some students attending the meeting were also of different ethnicities and backgrounds, including Laotian, Hmong, and Chinese. When attendees gave introductions, these students expressed their desire to know more about Vietnamese culture.

The alumni attending the meeting had all been a part of the VSA in the past at UWM and were pleased to see the student organization start up again. The alumni as well as the staff present offered support to VSA, and encouraged the students of the org to reach out to them and use them as resources on campus.

Nancy Nguyen, who is a UWM alumni, and former VSA member, felt that UWM needed more cultural opportunities for Vietnamese students.

“I want to see more cultural stuff at UWM especially for Vietnamese students,” Nguyen said.

Nguyen was excited to see the student org return to UWM, and felt that since most of the board are freshmen and sophomores, they had the drive and energy to take VSA in the right direction.

“I’m very excited to see where VSA goes, because VSA is much bigger than just UWM, it’s a whole nation,” said VSA vice president Henry Tran.

Also during the meeting, there was a raffle where anyone participating could win a current and previous VSA t-shirt. The student org also announced upcoming events and conferences that students would be able to attend.

One of the upcoming conferences included the Vietnam Health Project which is held in Madison from March 6-8. Also on April 22, VSA along with Hmong Student Association, and Asian Student Union students will be attending a conference called MASU, which stands for Midwest Asian American Student Union.

The VSA president, even though eager to take on the challenge of running this org and up-coming events, also had many concerns.

“Because being a part of VSA when it failed the first time, I’m scared it will fail again under my presidency,” President Nguyen said.

Nguyen expressed his trust in his executive board, but also fears that when he graduates that VSA might die as an org once again. But the president hopes that the foundation that is being built now can sustain the org for future members to be a part of.

Once the meeting finished, everyone walked to the Union Station were the VSA board provided all attendees with free pizza and drinks.

Most of the students at the meeting stayed for the food and continued to converse and network with other students and alumni.