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UVSAEC
[About the Association]
What is UVSA Eastern Canada?

The United Vietnamese Students’ Association of Eastern Canada (UVSA Eastern Canada) is a non-profit organization, founded in 1997, dedicated to celebrating Vietnamese culture and to serve, empower, and unify the Vietnamese-Canadian community and Vietnamese Students’ Associations (VSAs) within Eastern Canada. As an organization, UVSA Eastern Canada’s regional mission emphasizes celebrating Vietnamese culture, encouraging philanthropy, cultivating leadership, and promoting unity among VSAs. UVSA Eastern Canada strives to create opportunities for youth and students to connect and build networks within our community, encourage collaboration and leadership, as well as give back to our community through our philanthropy work.

In addition to our own region, we are also one of fourteen regions associated with the Union of North American Vietnamese Student’ Associations (UNAVSA). UNAVSA is a non-profit, community-based organization dedicated to shaping the next generation of leaders from every associated VSA throughout Canada and the United States.

VITAS
[About The Summit]
What is VITA Summit (VITAS)?

The Vietnamese Inspiring Tomorrow Amalgamation Summit (VITAS) is a three days and two nights conference that brings together hundreds of individuals across the Eastern Canadian region to empower the next generation of Vietnamese leaders by bringing students, community leaders, and professionals together to build social networks, discuss issues relevant to the Vietnamese community, and find ways to address those issues through student leadership and philanthropic initiatives. Through establishing an immersive learning environment, this summit will provide attendees with knowledge and hands on application opportunities to effectively learn the skills needed to be successful in their future.

VITA
Meaning and Significance of the Name Change

With UVSA Ontario being renamed UVSA Eastern Canada to encompass all the VSAs it represents, the UVSA Ontario Leadership Summit (UOLS) required a new name as well. With much consideration, we are renaming it as the Vietnamese Inspiring Tomorrow Amalgamation Summit (VITA Summit). Our goal for Summit is to inspire future leaders within our community by providing mentorship, skill sets, and opportunities to develop professionally and as a leader. A summit comes to a single point, or a single focus, which is what happens when we bring a community of young leaders, professionals, and partners together to focus on a singular theme or goal. Thus, the name VITA was born. Vita [vai-tuh] is latin for “life.” We want the lessons learned and relationships established from Summit to be lifelong and impacting attendees for the rest of their lives. The plural of vita is vitae, like curriculum vitae (CV). As a collective, we can contribute our individual life stories to write the future story of our community.

IDENTITY
Theme

We are excited to announce the 3rd Annual Vietnamese Inspiring Tomorrow Amalgamation Summit theme!

This is Me, This is We: Đây là Tôi, Đây là Chúng Tôi

“Who am I?” A constant question we ask ourselves as we navigate in this journey through life, trying to find our individuality and voice. How often are we referring to our cultural heritage in this identity search? By factoring in the influences of our cultural upbringing and the challenges faced with having a multifaceted identity, we can recognize how integral culture is to this question. 

The theme of this year’s VITA Summit is centered around our self identity and culture as well as their associated impact on our lives. Through introspection and reflection of who we are as individuals, we will explore and uncover the complicated, difficult, and important truths of our culture and its effect. Our individual identity is a reflection of our culture and the effects of our culture ripple throughout generations. Akin to an iceberg, the iceberg above the water represents our individualistic nature and the submerged part represents our culture, its values, traditions, morals, and lessons which contribute to who we are as a whole. 

We will break the barriers to talking about sensitive topics to create an open, engaging, and immersive dialogue about what it means to be Vietnamese-Canadian/American. Through this conversation, we will uncover the similarities in our stories as well as the special differences of each individual. Using the knowledge of our cultural identity, this will propel us into discovering our individual truths, passions, and aspirations and ultimately, using our newfound passion to contribute to our community. 

UVSA EC invites you to join us as we try to write our individual stories, which is woven into our collective community story of This is Me, This is We.