N.E.W.S.

THE UOiSA MAGAZINE

Winter 2015 Issue 2

UOiSA 2014-2015 Members

2 | UOiSA 2014 - 2015

Office Marketing

Program

Fundraising

Daphne HoCaitlin Sherman

Executive: Arrada DuangdaoGary GaoBen LeamonAlex HardinGwyn SniderTara Travisano

President: Sandra Benny Vice President: Ina Song

Executive: Renee ArnettKelly ChenTJ LiMaria PervovaIan Stoll

Content Editors: Alana McKenzie, Ellen Hovede, Shuo Xu, Joe Zhao

Graphic Designer: Shuo XuPhotographers: Iris Tian

Executive: Courtney TheimSrushti KamatEllie KeetonHillary FowlerIris TianSam Vitello

Executive: Joe ZhaoTaylor DavisEllen HovdeAmy LiAlana McKenzieFatoumata TraoreShuo XuRimi Yoneya

Outreach

Black History Month

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Valentine’s Day & Interview

Winter Dance

Asian Celebration

Coffee Hour Interview

Language Circle

Japan Night & Taiwan Night

04-05

06

07

08-09

10-11

12-13

14

4 | UOiSA 2014 - 2015

Black History Month

“I have a dream that my four children will

one day live in a nation where they will not be jud-

ged by the color of their skin but by the content of their

character.”

-- Martin Luther King

Martin Luther

King

Dr. Martin Luther Jr. is widely considered the most influential lea-der of the American civil

rights movement. He played a pivotal role in

ending the legal segrega-tion of African-American citizens in the South and other areas of the nati-on. He created the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and

the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He also recieved

the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. His mission was to bring a peaceful change therefore, on August 28, 1963 the March on Was-hington drew more than 200,000 people around the Lincoln Memorial.

President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama is the 44th and current President of the United States and is the first African American to hold office. He assu-med office on January 20, 2009 and then was re-elected president in November 2012. Since being president, Obama has promoted domestic policies related to gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting and has been campaigning for full equality for LGBT Ame-ricans. President Obama has achieved a lot during his presidency and is re-garded as one of the most influential black Ameri-cans to date.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks was a civil rights activist who stood up against segrega-tion in the United States. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of the bus to a white passenger in Montgome-ry, Alabama. This spur-red on a citywide boycott and helped launch na-tionwide efforts to end segregation of public facilities.

Some influential black Americans who have shaped the United States are:

The month of February is Black History Month and it is an an-nual celebration of achievements by black Americans. Since 1976, every United States President has designated the month of February as Black History Month. President Gerlad R. Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too- often neglected accomplishments for black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

Valentine‘s Day

Free cookies, free candy (*pats pocket), and singles

awareness.

-- Megan

For me, Valentine’s Day, all about the food. Cake, choco-

late…

-- Caitlyn

It means 46 years of getting nice valentines from her.

-- Mike Mitchell (Sandy’s husband)

It means a time to share love and special endearments to those we love. Family and

friends.

-- Sandy Mitchell

I think it’s great because it’s a good opportunity for people to step outside their comfort

zones.

-- Uri

Valentine’s Day is commer-cialized love. I think it’s great to celebrate it but the capital-

ization of it is frustrating.

-- Negina Pirzad

6 | UOiSA 2014 - 2015

ISA had its annual winter dan-ce in the LLC South Performance Hall

on February 6th from 7:00- 9:00. The theme was “Let it Snow” and all the decorations were white and sparkly silver and gold. Food and drinks were provided and everyone who attended was wearing either white or blue to the dance and looked fabulous. This year’s UO iSA’s Winter Dance brought together more than 200 domestic and international students. The DJ played American hits and international genres like K-Pop. This was a huge success and everyone who came danced the night away. The dance was sponsored by AEI which is the American English Institute here at the University of Ore-gon. AEI helps students learn to use English well and all of us to better understand each other’s cultures. This event was a success and we hope that everyone who attended had as much

fun as we did!

iSA Winter Dance

8 | UOiSA 2014 - 2015

Asian Celebration

The Oregon Asian Celebration, since 1985, has been a platform where Asian culture and heritage are celebrated with traditional mu-sic and dancing, foods, crafts and merchandise vendors. This year marked the celebration’s 30th Anniversary with the theme “30 Years of Love and Diversity.”

The event took place Saturday, Feb. 14, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 15, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Lane Events Cen-ter in Eugene. Acknowledging its overlap with Valentine’s Day, organizers had a special event for couples to take part in as well!

The UO has supported and sponsored the event throughout most of its 30-year history, and this year marks the largest cross-campus ef-fort ever to involve more students. The celebra-tion also got a boost from an extensive collabo-ration with campus leaders, Eugene community members and event organizers.

The Celebration was filled with activ-ities such as a traditional Chinese lion dance, which signaled the start to a day full of tradi-tional dances, cooking demonstrations, his-torical exhibits about Asian pioneers,cultural music, a noodle-eating contest (signifying the overlap with Valentines Day), a photo booth, martial arts performances, zany zoo and a va-riety of food from across the Asian continent. The fair also featured a 75-vendor marketplace and three stages.

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For more information of Asian Celebration, please visit the Asian Council‘s website -- http://

asiancelebration.org/gallery/

10 | UOiSA 2014 - 2015

CoffeeHourInterview

ISA: What’s your name?Erin: Erin Collins.

ISA: What year are you in univer-sity?Erin: I’m a senior.

ISA: What’s your favorite thing about UO?Erin: I think it’s a really good community and there have been a lot of activities I’ve been able to get involved in, and I really like my major and I’ve always had good

professors and I feel like I’ve gotten a lot out of the university.

ISA: What’s your major?Erin: Anthropology

ISA: When you’re old, what will the title of your autobiography be?Erin: I don’t know what it would be. I guess I could just title it “Erin Collins: How I Lived My Life” I don’t know something along those lines.

ISA: If you had to walk around campus with one animal on a leash all day, what animal would it be?Erin: A wolf probably. Yeah, that’d be cool.

ISA: If you could take a selfie with any celebrity which would you choose?Erin: I don’t know, do they have to be alive? Maybe Josephine Baker.

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ISA: The last question is what food would you like to see at coffee hour?Erin: Maybe a little Italian food would be good. Maybe – that’d be hard probably for a lot of people. Or maybe Moroccan food, that’d be really good.

*** ***

ISA: What’s your name?Martin: Martin Leung

ISA: What year are you in university?Martin: I’m a sophomore.ISA: What’s your favorite thing about

UO?Martin: Umm, other people I guess. It’s fun to see people around campus I mean, you don’t want it to be empty.

ISA: When you’re old, what will the title of your autobiography be?Martin: Ohh. Hmm “The Gamer.” Playing games, PC games too much.

ISA: If you had to walk around campus with one animal on a leash all day, what animal would you choose?Martin: A dog or a dragon.ISA: Nice, nice, why a dragon?Martin: I just kind of like dragons in general, it’ll be hard to find one though.

ISA: If you could take a selfie with

any celebrity what one would it be?Martin: Ahh celebrity… Joe Zhao, right there! A celebrity man, the most famous one.

ISA: Good call good call! What’s the worst thing that has happened to you today?Martin: Got woken up by somebody after sleeping for 5 hours.

ISA: They sound like no good.Martin: Well actually I’m the one that was late so it’s my fault. I should sleep earlier.

ISA: And what food would you like to see at coffee hour?Martin: Something that’s filling. And more food.

fect.”

Regardless of being perfect or not, Japan Night 2015 has finally come to close. But despite the number setbacks and complications encountered in the pro-cess, all the members worked hard to make the event a success one. It was truly a humbling and satisfying ex-perience for JSO to see all the people attend the Japan night to watch the organization’s efforts come to life.

“Although we all have a lot more to learn, JSO is striving to better itself and become more ac-

tive around campus. Japan Night was just the first step towards that reaching that long-term goal.” JSO Co-President, Risa Nambo, stated.

The University of Oregon’s Japanese Student Organization sincerely wants to thank everyone for all the support and help in making Japan Night 2015 possible and hope people will continue to attend events held by JSO in the near future.

-- By Japanese Student Organization (JSO)

Japan Night

12 | UOiSA 2014 - 2015

The Japanese Student Organization (JSO) of the University of Oregon hosted Japan Night 2015 on February 1st. Taking place in the EMU Ballroom, JSO welcomed approximately 300 people to enjoy its show that evening. The event was created with the intention of helping spread Japanese culture to both the Univer-sity of Oregon and Eugene community.

Focusing on the theme of mythology and fol-klore, the organization spent three months putting together skits, decorations, and performances for the night. Skits covered the Japanese stories of The Cre-ation Story, Tanabata, Kaguya-hime, Urashima taro, and Momotaro. Both scripted and acted by JSO’s members, the organization’s main goal was to teach the audience about Japanese mythology and folklore and to make everyone laugh and enjoy themselves.

“Japan Night was a fun time. The mythology

jumped off the page and onto the stage.” Valentina Chau, an audience of J-Night stated. JSO was also fortunate enough to order cu-stomized bento boxes from Everyday Kine Grindz served as dinner for the night.

One of many great performances featured at Japan Night was done by the UO Ninja club, a new dance crew at the university. As the closing act of the night, the performers truly got the crowd’s attention with their cool moves and comical gestures.

“Japan Night was a great representation of Japanese culture. We tried to provide quality food and entertainment.” JSO intern, Garrison Tani said, “I was really excited when I first heard about Japan Night. But after helping out so much with the prepara-tion, I grew nervous. I wanted everything to be per-

Thank you for supporting our annual Taiwan Night that was held in the evening of Friday, January 30th at EMU ballroom by Taiwanese Student Associa-tion (TWSA). The event was a huge success thanks to the support of our team and our audiences. There are several TWSA major events happening throughout the school year; the Welcoming BBQ in the fall term, Taiwan Night in the winter term, and Spring Fair in the spring term. TWSA is dedicated to bring forth the culture of Taiwan by presenting to you the most ori-ginal activities and culture. Not to mention, Taiwan is one of the most famous places to enjoy food in Asia. This time, we would like to walk you through the birth and the grand finale of this year’s Taiwan Night. Many places have their own unique wedding style, the wedding ceremonies in Taiwan are often considered a tradition which follows many Chinese customs. This year, we have a couple; a Taiwanese bride and an American groom who volunteered to be featured in our Taiwan Night. After the theme is set, we started to gather ideas for the details of Taiwan night; the kind of food that are usually provided in a wedding, sponsors that are most suitable for providing such materials and how we are going to promote the event. This long process involves finding sponsors, performance groups, etc. that make the event more attractive and exciting. After all these decisions are made, it is time to head into the preparation. While all the decision is based on populari-zing Taiwan, we also make sure that decorations not

only promote Taiwan but also fit our wedding theme. The big round table, dress codes, performances, decorations, food, and the event schedule are all done carefully to present the most authentic experience of Taiwanese wedding, giving the audiences a glimpse of Taiwan from all angles.

The event turned out to be a huge success, the tickets were all sold-out, the seats were filled, and people from all around joined us in the celebration of Taiwan Night. We were very excited to see so many people enjoying the event and having fun while expe-riencing the process of a typical wedding in Taiwan. From the participants’ “check-in”, to the food on the table and performances on the stage, we saw smiles among the audiences. All the hard work we invested in the making of the event was worthwhile. Our goal for Taiwan night is to provide a one-of-a-kind experience that our audience will not experience anywhere else. But most importantly we want to increase the exposure of Taiwanese Culture to everyone among our university community to the Eugene community. As part of a diverse, yet cohesive campus culture, it is a pleasure for all of us to present to you the culture of Taiwan, where richness is within the food and the people. Welcome to Taiwan, and see you next quarter at our annual Spring Fair.

-- By Taiwanese Student Association (TWSA)

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TAIWAN NIGHT

I arrived at the Mills International Center shortly before 4pm and couldn’t really tell that there was anything special going on. There were only a few people sitting around on various couches. What I did notice were some signs that read “German,” “French,” “Spanish,” and “English” off in the corner.

A friend of mine was sitting alone next to the German sign so I went over to join her. She frequents the language circles often she said, because she en-joys interacting in the language, though she is not the group leader and she is already fluent. Soon a few others joined us. One was in an upper division Ger-man literature class with me, another was in German 102 and the other guy spoke no German whatsoever but is planning a trip to Austria this summer. Eventu-ally the group leader arrived as well, a native speaker from Switzerland, and the language hour began. The guy from my class began reading a loud from a book of poetry to 102-level guy had brought. My friend began instructing the beginner on how to pronounce German sounds. The group leader and I got into a long discussion about our studies, travels, and discrepancies between German dialects that lasted almost up till the end of the hour.

At this point I rushed off to the French circle. I also knew a couple people here but we did little tal-king. We were watching a little YouTube video about French stereotypes, like how they mainly eat crois

sants and fois gras and play Petanque (a french version of bocce ball or lawn bowls). I chuckled at the video and then moved to the Spanish circle, where they were playing hangman or as it’s called in Spanish: ahor-cado. The theme was ‘objects in the room’ so it was easier to guess. Only one guy stumped us and he had misspelled the word mujeres. I didn’t have time for the English circle at this point but it looked like they were having a lively discussion.

The next hour they set out the signs for Arabic and Japanese (usually Portuguese is also in this group but the leader couldn’t make it that day). I remained where I had been for Spanish because it turned into Arabic. I spoke no words in Arabic so I didn’t know how I would participate but they were very accom-modating and helped me through phrases. We went

around in the circle and said our names and where we were from. We then learned to talk about our hobbies and say why we liked them. It was pretty

fun and the circle participants were diverse and at all different levels. I became so engrossed in the learning I had no time to visit the Japanese circle.

I can now personally recommend these langua-ge circles. They are a great way to engage in a langua-ge you know well or don’t know at all while getting to talk to some cool people. The learning style is fore-most implicit, which makes it more fun and accessible. I will definitely be going back.

14 | UOiSA 2014 - 2015

Every Monday afternoon the Mills International Center hosts three sets of language circles. Language cir-cles are hour-long sessions where anybody can go and sit in or participate in one of the languages offered. The circles are lead by native speakers of the language and are meant to be a fun way to learn a language, supplementally or alternatively to a classroom setting. I went to a few of the circles to explo-re the environment.

The

Mills

Language

Circles

4-5 pm: English, German, French, and Spanish5-6 pm: Arabic, Japanese, and Portuguese

6-7 pm: Chinese and Russian

UOiSA PRESENTS

N.E.W.S.

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