PHOTO ARCHIVE - VSA Activities 1996-98
vsawsu.orgUnder President Thanh Huỳnh, the 1996-97 school year was filled with excitement and lots of achievements. Taking helm after the previous administration, President Thanh put together a talented cabinet (with Corey Calloway as Vice President, Quyên Phạm as Secretary, and Nga Vũ as Treasurer). Many of these officers were indeed young. But astonishingly, they all had had a lot of experiences from the high-school years when they served as public relation representatives for their respective Vietnamese/Asian clubs. This was one of the youngest Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) cabinet ever assembled at Wichita State University (WSU). But no one could question enthusiasm nor their desire for success.Coming from a strong athletic background, President Thanh never shied away from placing strong emphasis on the need for health and physical fitness. Throughout the school year, Thanh had always encouraged students to come to Heskett Center (a sporting/fitness facility at WSU) to participate in all kinds of athletic activities. In a way, it was good for the student individuals. But in a different way, it was good for the VSA as a team since the activities had helped prepare everyone for the upcoming sports tournament at another university. Besides sporting events, the VSA organization also was involved with many other activities, including International Student Day, Shoctoberfest, Asian Festival, Tết Magazines, and outdoor events like picnics and campings. We finished the 1996-97 school year with great sucesses. President Thanh and his cabinet have done a marvelous job throughout the year. After the 1996-97 school year, there was a brief cessation in VSA activities. Different circumstances and different needs in commitment had somehow partially pulled the VSA foundation apart. For the school year of 1997-98, there were no officials elected. There was no cabinet sitting at the helm. Just a great deal of anxious and concerns... But in the Spring of 1998, the VSA's wheels started rolling again. A number of students formed a team to work on the Tết magazine In coordination with former VSA president Thanh Huỳnh, this group of students managed to pull of the big publication task. It was a big and terric task, indeed. Led by Nguyễn Cao-Sơn, a long-time VSA magazine associate, and some other "die hard" students such as Ðình Bảo, Hoàng Huy, and Ðức Huy (and many more, but we can't remember them all), these "young guns" held meetings over at Hoàng Huy's home and began to "lwriterid down the work." The students work hard with little rest or sleep (and with very few baths/showers). For a long three weeks, they holed up in a small apartment, packed tightly together like a bunch of sardines being bundled up in an oily tin can. But the hard work had pwriterid off as the magazine was completed in time for distribution. One afternoon in the Spring of 1997, Chris (Phương) Dương --the website administrator for the VSA-- recalled a surprise encounter with Cao-Sơn as they both ran into each other at a local supermarket. Standing on the sidewalk, Chris noticed that his friend was holding a stack of Tết magazine in his hands. "Wow, you guys are all done with the magazine," asked Chris. "Yeah, we pulled it off just in time. And now it's ready for distribution to the local commnity," Cao-Sơn replied. "Well, that was very nice of you, Cao-Sơn, and kudos to everyone in the publication gang," Chris smiled. But almost simultaneously, the webmaster caught a distressing look from Cao-Sơn's eyes. And all of a sudden, with tears running down on both sides of his cheeks, Cao-Sơn wept loudly, "Hu hu hu, tui hổng biết sao tui lại cứ bị hành hạ về vụ báo Tết này hoài như vậy nữa." ("Boo hoo hoo, I don't know why they continued to dump all this "publication punishment" on me everytime we had to put together a Tết magazines like this.").
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