November 8, 2024/ Midnight
Erie, Pa.– Gannon University is known for providing a multi–cultural education environment. There are hundreds of international students, including undergraduate and graduate students, in Gannon University’s community. Among them are many Vietnamese students.
Khang Mai, currently a junior majoring in computer science, is a part of the Functional Representatives of Global Student Organization. In hopes that he can gather Vietnamese students on campus and bring Vietnamese culture to Gannon community, he created the Vietnamese Student Association (VSA) last October.
Khang shared some of his thoughts about the VSA with us and said that “VSA will become the best place to connect Vietnamese students, because when a new student comes here, they don’t really know the culture and have language barriers so they might need advice from the people came here before them. And also we, VSA, want to spread out Vietnamese culture to Gannon students.”
VSA welcomes everyone at Gannon who enjoys exploring Vietnamese culture and cuisine, even if it is a culture completely different from your own. Their events will mainly surround big festivals or holidays originally in Vietnam, such as Tết (the Lunar New Year) or Mid–Autumn Festival. There will also be some food festivals, where you can enjoy authentic dishes like phở or bánh mì.
Bao Nghi Nguyen, Vice President of VSA, added on “All of our head of association are students who have been here for a long time, they are familiar with the culture, language, locations and especially weather, the biggest and difficult things to get through with Vietnamese students so they can help the new one.”
Both of them believe that VSA will help Vietnamese students in their academic and social life. Khang said “Normally a new student comes here, they usually hang out in a small group of Vietnamese and don’t really reach out with other international students due to different language or shy to get acquainted. VSA will be the place for not only sharing experience but also providing opportunities for Vietnamese to reach out with new friends from other countries and also actively participate in Gannon’s activities.”
Bao Nghi excitedly said that she tried her best to invite all of friends she knew, not just only Vietnamese, to join the organization. She expected people to attend the associations.
If you are Vietnamese, you miss your hometown or traditional food, come to VSA, we share with you. If you are from different nations, welcome to VSA. To join, click here.
