About 60 students lined up and were greeted with “Chúc mừng năm mới” (Happy New Year in Vietnamese) at the Vietnamese Student Association Bubble Tea and Viet event. The club sold $3 pre-sale and $5 at-the-door admission tickets throughout the week for students to learn Vietnamese and drink homemade bubble tea on Wednesday, Feb. 7 during Cardinal Hour.
The officers made about four gallons of Thai tea, two gallons of black milk tea and tubs of fresh boba. This is the second time VSA hosted this event and it sold about 50 tickets compared to the 80 last year.
“Last year extra credit was offered to those who attended the event and we had more time to advertise and sell tickets because it was held on a Friday,” senior and president Sebastian Nguyen said. “We also had club photos this year which affected the number of people who could go, but I’m glad that many were still able to enjoy the event.”
Because of the overlap with club photos and the need to prepare cups of bubble tea during 4th period, VSA had members like junior Bruce Stewart help out during the event.
“I truly enjoyed [helping] because I felt like I was with my people working to make delicious boba for everyone,” Stewart said. “VSA is a very positive space for all races, not just Vietnamese, which makes everyone feel welcomed. The drinks were pretty good, but I feel the true prize is the friends we made along the way.”
It was junior Isabella Gee’s first time going to the event with her friend junior Caroline Pettigrew.
“The bubble tea event was lots of fun and I got the Thai tea which tasted really good,” Gee said. “I would definitely come to future VSA events to see my friends and learn more about Vietnamese culture.”
Junior and VSA officer Allyson Nguyen had experience from planning last year’s event and said that although the turnout was less, the bubble tea fundraiser will be held annually.
“I think we will continue to do Bubble Tea and Viet Events in the future because it gets attention from non-VSA club members and is an effective fundraiser for the club,” Allyson Nguyen said. “It’s a fun event to run because almost everybody loves boba. We, as VSA officers, can only try to continue to improve the event and grow the VSA community at Bellaire.”
With the approximately $250 gained from the fundraiser, VSA plans on using it towards its BISA plans, T-shirt making and end-of-the-year social.
“At our next meeting we will probably discuss BISA and officer applications,” Sebastian Nguyen said. “I’m looking forward to BISA because we are planning on selling homemade bánh mì. Hopefully, we will gain more members by then and get a lot of people on board with VSA activities.”
VSA meets on Wednesday during the first half of lunch in Room 2603. For more information, join VSA’s Remind @bhsvsa.