Extracurriculars
Freshman year, I was dance coordinator for the Japanese Club at UF. I continued to dance with the dance team for one more year. The picture to the left was taken backstage for a VISA Talent Show performance.
Sophomore year, I joined Belly Gators. I joined them various times for belly dancing performances. The picture on the right was at a performance for Oak Hall's International Festival.
My junior year, I was Vice President of the Japanese Club. That year, I was in charge of organizing Harumatsuri, our keystone event with about 300 guests and a full day of performances. I also held weekly language conversation tables for club members.
My senior year, I was president of the Japanese Club. I was in charge of coordinating events for the club, such as general body meetings and officer meetings, delegating duties to my fellow officers. On the left, we were making origami for a craft general body meeting in preparation for our Spring Festival (Harumatsuri).
Each year, I got to give tours and create social events for the Shimane University students that would visit UF.
With Japanese Club, I volunteered at the yearly Sakuranatsu event put on by high school students from Oak Hall.
Overall, being a part of the Japanese Club as an officer for three years was both great fun and quite challenging. Learning how to mediate difficult situations, plan ahead of time accordingly for events, and keep up with school at the same time took time to master. It was definitely rewarding.
During my senior year I have been Executive Secretary of VISA. VISA (Volunteers for International Students Affairs) is the largest umbrella organization on campus comprised of approximately 20 multicultural sub-organizations. We organize yearly events for International Month, with our keystone event as VISA Talent Show, which has approximately 500 attendants.
Extracurriculars Reflection
Back in high school, I made my own Japanese Club and I was the president of it for three years. It was only natural for me to want to continue participating in a similar club, like the Japanese Club at UF. During my first semester, I immediately got involved as dance coordinator, which allowed me to experience the art form of Japanese dance. This was a very new experience for me, since I only knew how to dance hispanic cumbia back in middle school. I started to form new friendships by learning the traditional Japanese dances with other like-minded people. It was a great way to practice team building and showing initiative, by introducing new dances to be learned and passed down to newer members. I often got out of my comfort zone when dancing in front of audiences. We were invited to dance at many events, like Museum Nights at the Harn Museum of arts, USF Japanese Club's keystone event Night in Tokyo, Sakuranatsu, and many others.
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Dancing for Japanese Club led me to find belly dancing with the Belly Gators club during my sophomore year. I got to participate in a few of their performances, which had a very different rhythm and choreography from traditional Japanese dance. I enjoyed learning about the Arabic culture and the music behind belly dance from the student instructors and coordinators. Learning a completely different skill and trying something new is always appealing to me.
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I transitioned into Japanese Club Vice President of Japanese Club as a sophomore as well. This allowed me to work with other officers and club members in a different capacity. I was in charge of facilitating weekly conversation groups to practice the Japanese language. I was also in charge of organizing our keystone event: Harumatsuri. I had never been in charge of hosting such a large event before. I worked with the treasurer to take care of the finances. I booked the venue and the performers. I sent out invitations. I assisted with decorations and got everything in motion.
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During my junior year, I had the opportunity to become president of the Japanese Club. This allowed me to delegate responsibilities to others, work on relations with other clubs and organizations on campus, and plan general body meeting, socials, and officer meetings.
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As a senior, I have been Executive Secretary for VISA. We also oversee about 20 cultural sub-organizations. This has allowed me to help put together a very large keystone event: VISA Talent Show. The talent show usually has about 500 attendants and the show is comprised of about 10 cultural dance teams that compete for the top three spots.