Springfield Township High School’s Asian Student Association (ASA) is a part of the school’s many clubs focused on developing awareness and appreciation of other cultures. On February 27, ASA hosted their first volleyball tournament in celebration of the Lunar New Year, and invited all students to participate–whether it was by playing in the tournament or watching from the bleachers.
To learn more about how the event was organized, The Chronicle interviewed three officers in ASA, and a participant in the tournament.
Initial Organization
Junior, Juliet Arkles, ASA’s Chief Information Officer, shared that the group had “been thinking about holding some sort of event for an Asian holiday for a while,” and that the tournament “was originally Cody [Natali]’s idea.”
Cody Natali is a senior and the president of ASA, and he explained how “a lot of Asian countries are pretty talented in national terms of volleyball.” This was seconded by junior, Gael Vega (Chief Executive Officer), who said that “many South East Asian countries play volleyball, like Japan [and] Korea.”
When asked why Lunar New Year was chosen specifically, Arkles revealed that they “didn’t have enough time to do a Mid Autumn Festival, which would be near the beginning of the year,” so “[they] figured Lunar New Year, which is a very big event in Asia, would be the next best date to [host] an event.”
ASA started to organize the event around October to early November. Natali said that they “discussed with the principals and figured out dates that would work to celebrate for a Lunar New Year” and ultimately landed on February 27, which worked because “it was a Friday.”
Promotion and Participation
Arkles explained that the club “split up all of the responsibilities into different committees” and “the advertisements one was [her and Eden Ha’s responsibility].” She further explained how her committee started “off with a couple of posters that [they] could print and put around the schools.” These “just included QR codes…to all the forms to sign up.”
The advertising committee also “got an interview on the morning news with Carlos [Rivera] because [they] really wanted the reason why [they were] holding [the event] to be clear [with students]” and also to “spread more awareness about Lunar New Year.” Along with the advertisements, Natali shared that “word of mouth” was also used to advertise the event.
Junior Julia Guicheteau participated in the volleyball tournament, and she “heard about [the event] from a lot of the members [of ASA]” and “from the posters that [they put] up.” She also said that “word of mouth and the posters” was the best promotion strategy “because when you hear people talking about it all the time, it makes you curious.”
When asked why she chose to sign up for the tournament, Guicheteau shared how she “thought it’d be really fun. [She knew it was] a similar structure to March Madness,” which she has “done since freshman year.” She liked how it was “a similar layout to March Madness with the bell schedule” and overall thought that the organization was “pretty neat.”
Guicheteau also described the requirements for the teams when they signed up, saying that they “had to have at least two girls and at least two boys…which wasn’t too hard because [her] team [had] four girls and four boys.” Also, each member had “to pay $5 to play.”
As the event was happening, Spartans had two different ways of spectating: being in the gym or watching on a livestream. Natali shared how ASA “live streamed [the tournament] on Hudl” and used the “cameras [in the gym to] record the whole entire court.”
Arkles also gave a shout-out to Mr. Washam because he “helped [them] so much with the livestreams.” She described how “there [were] separate ones for each block” and “[w]hen [she] walked into some of the classrooms, they had it on.” She shared that it seemed “like people who even weren’t physically… at the volleyball tournament really enjoyed it, which [the club] is glad about.”
Why Host the Event?
On the surface, ASA hosted the volleyball tournament to celebrate the Lunar New Year, which Natali explained: “marks the arrival of spring in Asian cultures.” Gael Vega clarified that “mostly Southeast Asian countries celebrate it” with Arkles adding that “there are 13 countries that celebrate…the beginning of the Lunar Calendar.”
Each officer shared how the Lunar New Year is a time to spend with family. For Arkles, this means “[having] fun…with cousins.” But for all, the holiday is a week-long celebration to honor “ancestors and culture” (Natali).
Beyond celebrating the Lunar New Year, Natali shared that ASA also wanted “to [educate] our community on cultural awareness and Asian heritage and culture.” One of the ways the club did this was by donating their proceeds to the Asian American Foundation, which Natali explained is “a foundation that works to eliminate Asian American discrimination [and combat] prejudices around Asian Americans in [the United States].”
ASA also donated their proceeds to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Natali shared that “one of [his] best friends, who unfortunately passed away last May, fought a hard battle to cancer” and the club wanted to “help other kids [to] not suffer the same way.”
Takeaways
ASA’s first volleyball tournament saw a great turnout from each of the grades, and each interviewee seemed to carry excitement over how the event was run. When asked about plans for the future, Arkles disclosed that they “think that this volleyball tournament [might be] something [they] will repeat next year” since it “seems like everyone really enjoyed it.”
