Phở REAL! VSA girls perform a traditional Vietnamese dance.
Photo Courtesy: Amy Van
By Kyle Nathan Sumida
VSA (Vietnamese Student Association) competed in the annual MAYS (Mid Autumn Youth Summit) at Yerba Buena High School on Nov. 1 to raise funds for their club and to showcase their talents.
At this event, VSA clubs around San Jose meet together to compete in dance, cultural jeopardy, skits, olympics, singing and speech.
“It’s overall a really great event for the Vietnamese community because students, parents and organization leaders all contribute to making the event successful and fun,” exclaims President Rose Hoang. “I love watching the other schools and seeing what other VSA clubs are doing when they perform.”
Cash rewards are given out as prizes to the top three schools in each category, with each one ranging from around $50 to $200. PHHS’s VSA club placed third in the cultural jeopardy category and earned $50; second in skit and earned $100; and first in singing and earned $75. Although the school did not receive a reward for the speech category, senior Richard Nguyen successfully landed in fourth place.
Spencer Nguyen, member of the club and first place winner for the singing category, was surprised to hear the great news.
“There were some good singers there,” comments Spencer. “I was scared for most of the day because I had to switch songs the night before at 1am.”
The club encountered rigorous planning and preparation for all of the categories. Practices for the different categories began right after Homecoming week, but both Rose and sophomore board member Cindy Nguyen agree that it was difficult for members to all come on the same day to practice.
“Our skit people were busy on different days, so not everyone was at the practices,” explains Cindy.
Club Treasurer Tina Tran comments that the funds raised will be saved for next semester’s annual PHHS VSA show.
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