Welcome to the VSS Candidates Page for the 2015-2016 Executive Team!
After another successful year of VSS events, we are very proud to bring to you the candidates running for the upcoming year! The positions the candidates are running for are in brackets in the order of (first choice, second choice). Good luck! May the odds be ever in your favour.
The online voting page can be found here.
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Vicky Mai (President)
Why do you want to be part of the VSS executive team?
In the last year that I have been part of the exec team, I have gotten to contribute so much to the growth and community of VSS. I believe we have the potential to do so much more – to expand and get involved and to further the lasting friendships that have been formed here. I would love to have another opportunity to be a part of this and nurture an open atmosphere for all our members, while also strengthening our organization.
What skills and qualifications can you bring to the table?
As the current President and a Gloubal Lounge Officer the year before, I have experience working with our teams, as well as knowledge about our club dynamics and our values. Experience in various other leadership positions off-campus have also allowed me to build on on my strengths and reflect on my weaknesses, which I can apply to VSS in the future.
If you were to have a goal for VSS in the upcoming year, what would it be?
I would love to expand our club in terms of members, as well as the variety of events that we host every year! I believe we can really strengthen our organization by exploring more options, providing a ‘home away from home’ for our members and immersing others (both of Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese descent ) in our culture as well.
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Minh Pham (VP Administration, President)
Why do you want to be part of the VSS executive team?
I’ve been involved with VSS since last year and I must say I really find my passion and values align the our club. I want to put my effort in promoting UBC to other Vietnamese students out there that want to apply to UBC but need support and information. I want to be able to connect the members of our group by bringing and introducing our unique Vietnamese culture and cuisine. I also want to enhance my budgeting and administration skills, and I believe that being VP will help me achieve that.
What skills and qualifications can you bring to the table?
I have extensive experience with VSS, from our team’s dynamic, to how our members connect. I also have strong leadership and negotiating skills, proven by my previous role as event coordinator. I cherish working in a team, which makes me strive to be a team player at all time while maintaining my opinion and respect other’s ideas. I manage my time well and very well organized.
If you were to have a goal for VSS in the upcoming year, what would it be?
I would love to see VSS expand more and more to our student community, both within UBC and Vancouver. I see potential in collaborating with other VSA in our area such as SFU, or UNAVSA that could bring awesome opportunity for us to learn and to grow. And I want VSS to be a place where Vietnamese or UBC can get together and become family.
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Anne Van (VP Administration, Event Coordinator)
Why do you want to be part of the VSS executive team?
As a Canadian-born Vietnamese, I oftentimes wish that I was in Vietnam to live and experience their culture. In the few times that I’ve visited, the culture and country was quite different from what I am used to and incredibly fascinating. Being a member of VSS for the two years has allowed me to re-experience Vietnam through its events. Throughout the years, I have come to love this club and I would truly like to contribute to its ongoing success by helping create more events to provide an atmosphere where others can also feel the same; all while meet incredible people. Together we can experience and learn about the Vietnamese culture!
What skills and qualifications can you bring to the table?
I am a very cheerful and energetic person that would like to bring an even more positive attitude to the club. I am also a very adaptable person who is committed to doing all my tasks to the best of my abilities whether it is by myself or with hundreds of other people. Through my experiences as a manager of my high school dragonboat team for two years and continued participation in the running of my adult dragonboat club, I learned to be very efficient in my tasks. This includes running meetings, handling funds and organizing practices – all while I was a paddler myself. As a manager of my dragonboat team and after working five years as a games attendant at Playland, I have become very responsible and efficient at handling money. I am also in a position of trust as I am now a supervisor at my job. Organization comes easy to me as I am usually someone who prefers to have plans ahead of time. Yet this does not detract from my ability to complete a task that suddenly pops up. I am a hardworking person who is extroverted but also approachable. I love meeting new people and am always willing to learn new things, no matter how trivial it may seem.
If you were to have a goal for VSS in the upcoming year, what would it be?
My goal for VSS is to expand its membership and increase the attendance of our amazing events. I would like everyone and anyone to know more about Vietnam through being a part of the VSS family; including people from Vietnam who may miss home, people born in Canada without other opportunities to experience Vietnamese culture, and everyone else who just wants to have a good time with great people.
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Anh Thư Võ (VP Administration, Event Coordinator)
Why do you want to be part of the VSS executive team?
Life is about experiencing, so why not?
As a part of the VSS executive team, I would be able to do one of the things I love the most: to connect people. Not only would I be able to meet more people in UBC and Vancouver, I see the chance of meeting and helping new Vietnamese students coming to UBC next fall.
Furthermore, I enjoy challenging environments and, of course, success in what I do. I would be thrilled to face new challenges in this new environment to see what I am capable of.
What skills and qualifications can you bring to the table?
– Dedication and 100% commitment to what I do and what I’m assigned to do
– Responsibility and punctuality
– Being able to handle unexpected situations
– Fast learner, easy to adapt
– Creativity
If you were to have a goal for VSS in the upcoming year, what would it be?
Connect more Vietnamese on campus as well as in Vancouver (UBC and SFU?) by holding more collaborate events
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Binh Nguyen (VP Administration, Event Coordinator)
Why do you want to be part of the VSS executive team?
Having participated in many events and initiatives organized by the VSS executive team for the past two years, I’ve had some genuinely great time as well as made friends with wonderful individuals. But above all I’m highly inspired by the level of dedication and efforts put forth by the VSS team in managing the logistic behind these events. I would love to be a part of the team that made all this possible as well as offer my inputs in making future activities more entertaining and successful.
What skills and qualifications can you bring to the table?
I’m an organized individual. I’ve found the key to succeed in UBC is to manage my time extremely well as well as to constantly challenge myself to complete tasks with higher degree of efficiency. I set high goal and I’ve been told that I’m persistent, especially in things that I’m determined to follow through till the end. Additionally, my knowledge of the Vietnamese culture due to having been brought up there for more than 16 years, will hopefully provide a certain degree of insights that others might find valuable.
If you were to have a goal for VSS in the upcoming year, what would it be?
Recruit more members. Ultimately I would like to see every member of the club genuinely involved in the club activities thus strengthening our bonds. There are many unique individuals out there who are who aspire to learn more about our culture. Many of these might even prove to be productive members of the future executive team!
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Dan Nguyen (VP Administration, VP External)
Why do you want to be part of the VSS executive team?
I am Vietnamese, straight up pure blood. I enjoy the companionship with VSS, and wish to see it grow further than what it has achieved, because despite the successes, we are still not close with the Vancouver Vietnamese community. Even our closest friend, SFU VSA, is still quite a distant from us. I want to offer my service assisting VSS to be more well-known and welcomed by the Vietnamese population, because it allows stronger relationships, and our members get to know the city and its people more. With my experience, I believe I can contribute somewhat to such beneficial cause.
What skills and qualifications can you bring to the table?
I have been taught to speak, write, type, read, and listen fluently in both Vietnamese and English, with years of experience translating casually and professionally. I have witnessed and been involved with North American Vietnamese as well ass Vietnamese culture throughout the majority of my university days. Thus I possess considerable knowledge of similarities and differences of the two communities. I know how to count money and add numbers, which are quintessential criteria to financial management. Having been an architecture student, I also can manage to organize timetables, schedules, etc. quite efficiently.
If you were to have a goal for VSS in the upcoming year, what would it be?
As mentioned above, I hope to achieve some sort of emergence and inclusion of VSS to the Vancouverite Vietnamese community, further than we already are. There are various different views on Vietnamese coming just from our population alone, due to different backgrounds: new immigrants, old immigrants, Canadian born, American born, international students, General Consulate, etc. which make it challenging to a unison of voices regarding Vietnamese culture. I wish to focus on the field that can attract maximal amount of interest and while maintain the minimal amount of political complexity, i.e. Vietnamese cultures and their geographical differences of North, South and Central Vietnam, Northern, Southern, East coast, West coast American Vietnamese, Western, Eastern and Central Canadian Vietnamese, etc. to generate interests in our club for the Vietnamese population in Vancouver.
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Ha Pham (VP External, VP Administration)
Why do you want to be part of the VSS executive team?
My year with VSS has been such an amazing one. My position in VSS was Event Coordinator, where I not only had opportunities to promote Vietnamese culture just like what my goal was when I applied for VSS last year, but also met so many awesome people from other faculties and universities with diverse backgrounds and nationalities. Being a VSS executive was such a precious experience that I am so excited to share wherever I go, and I hope to continue to promote Vietnamese culture as well as develop VSS further.
What skills and qualifications can you bring to the table?
– Organization skill: Being VSS Event coordinator has definitely taught me how to plan and create activities as well as set up timelines for various events. I also keep in touch with members and organizing committees to plan out events through emails and phone. My organization skill will help VSS not only in maintaining good relationships with other clubs/organizations and sponsors with precision and in a timely manner, but also in managing documents, meetings and budget within the club.
– Communication skill: My enthusiasm and sincerity in getting to know and understanding people will enable me to reach out for potential opportunities and build stable relationships, thus, help VSS gain more recognition as well as promote Vietnam and Vietnamese culture.
If you were to have a goal for VSS in the upcoming year, what would it be?
My goal for VSS this upcoming year is creating more collaboration events with other clubs in UBC (and other universities if possible), specifically doing presentations on topics such as Vietnamese history and culture awareness. I also want to increase the number of members by reaching out to Vietnamese students in different faculties and potential students coming from Vietnam through emails and Facebook.
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Chantel Luu (Event Coordinator, Promotions Coordinator)
Why do you want to be part of the VSS executive team?
I want to be a part of the VSS executive team in order to further my involvement in the Vietnamese-Canadian community at UBC. I have already made amazing connections with the members and executives of the club and would love to expand those relationships. The club itself is so welcoming and I would like to expand in my knowledge and love of the Vietnamese culture. Being able to connect to my cultural roots and share that with the UBC students would be a great experience. I’d appreciate being able to get involved and contribute in anyway I can.
What skills and qualifications can you bring to the table?
I have experience working with a variety of different groups and in different settings. From working with children, youth, and young adults I feel I am capable of adapting and adjusting to the environment as needed. I have also been attending VSS executive meetings since last school semester, this has given me insight and experience into how the executive team of VSS operates. I am heavily involved with my Vietnamese community in Abbotsford and am ready to utilize that experience for furthering VSS.
If you were to have a goal for VSS in the upcoming year, what would it be?
My goal for VSS would be to expand the presence of VSS at UBC. I would love to see students of all cultures to be aware and perhaps spark an interest in the Vietnamese community. By doing so VSS could become well known and contribute to the furthering of Vietnamese culture at UBC.
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Russell Chiong (Promotions Coordinator, Event Coordinator)
Why do you want to be part of the VSS executive team?
I want to be a part of the VSS executive team because I’ve had a lot of amazing experiences with VSS as a member in the past year. I want to be a part of the team that helps make the next year a great one for VSS and its members, to help other students have great experiences like I did this year, and to help VSS improve and grow.
What skills and qualifications can you bring to the table?
This past year, I was a marketing executive at HKSA, so I do have experience with promoting events. In high school, I worked with an organization known as Catching the Spirit, helping promote and organize environmentally focused events for youth in the lower mainland. Furthermore, I am a great team worker, and I am not afraid of putting in the time and effort to help the club grow and improve.
If you were to have a goal for VSS in the upcoming year, what would it be?
My goal for VSS for the next year is to help the club grow and improve, to be able to involve more people, and allow them to enjoy VSS as much as, if not more than I did this past year.
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Mini Nguyen (Promotions Coordinator, Event Coordinator)
Why do you want to be part of the VSS executive team?
Being a third-culture child, I used to worry that I would lose my Vietnamese cultural identity after arriving in Canada. However, after taking part in many events organized by the VSS club, I found a sense of belonging more strongly than at anywhere else. Besides having a great time making new friends, I got to learn more about my country’s culture and helped promoting it to my peers in the process. Thus, I want to continue promoting Vietnamese language and culture and helping the club to grow even larger through taking the role of Promotions Coordinator.
What skills and qualifications can you bring to the table?
I am as passionate about marketing as I am about promoting my country’s culture. With the experience of working in the marketing department of many companies in the past, I am confident that my creativity, assisted by my competence in using Adobe Creative suites, will be an asset to the team. In addition, being a hard-working and detail-oriented individual, I will make sure that my works are of high standards and hence achieve the goal of effective social medias management for the club.
If you were to have a goal for VSS in the upcoming year, what would it be?
I would aim to connect the club to more students in UBC, especially Vietnamese students, since a huge part of the club’s success is student involvement. This would be done through raising the students’ awareness about the club, followed by a greater variety of activities and events throughout the year. Ultimately, all those changes should have the main aim of making VSS club a more vibrant society that welcomes students of all backgrounds whilst focusing on embracing Vietnamese language and culture.
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