UD VSA Families Program

The Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) at UD hosted their first ever VSA Families Program for the Fall 2020 semester. These ‘families’ are smaller communities within VSA that help students make friends and support each other. Even though everything was online, there were still more than 30 participants in the program.

The inspiration for this program came from collegiate and regional Vietnamese groups around the country. Within each family, there are 1 to 2  student leaders who guide the group. They are the ones who make this program a positive experience because of the enthusiasm and willingness to provide for their group members.

In my first family experience, I was at a regional VSA conference where I quickly went from feeling as an outsider to being a proud family member (#AsianUnicornFam). These programs are filled with team-building activities and competition among other families that develop a strong sense of pride. From my experience, ‘families’ broke down the social barriers associated with each individual and built up a foundation for new memories, which is perfect for meeting people in college.

This semester’s families program theme was zodiac animals as it symbolizes the new beginnings through each of the 12 animals on the lunar calendar. The 5 families we had were ‘Tiger’, ‘Dragon’, ‘Snake’, ‘Rooster’, and ‘Dog’. 

Throughout the course of two weeks, UD VSA members were introduced to all of the amazing ‘Family Leaders’ including Grace Zhang and Allan Shen. UD VSA hosted activities such as ‘Family Challenges’ where members post daily submissions to earn points for their families.

Although the Fall programming is over, there are plans for during the spring semester open to anyone interested! Please feel free to contact udelvsa@gmail.com if you would like to get involved for Spring 2021.