Hello, friends!
Like I'd said in a previous post, I had 2 official Urbana jobs. One was working in Solutions, which was a lot of fun. The second job was also tons of fun. I was working in the Pan Asian North American Student Lounge as a host and eventually as the MC for the week.
First, let's talk about the name. It's a long name for sure but each piece is important. Let's start from the back and work our way forward:
- Student Lounge: Well, this should be pretty self explanatory. Urbana is a conference for students so the lounge should be for students too. With all the hustle and bustle of Urbana, we wanted to provide a place where students could relax and connect.
- North American: Urbana is not just a US student conference but had students literally from all over the world. The two biggest sending countries were the US and Canada. We wanted to make sure that our friends to the north knew that they were welcome. In the US we use the term Asian American. In Canada, they use the term Asian Canadian. Making sure students knew that all of North America was included was important. (Note: There was also a lounge for international students that Megan led so everyone was covered.)
- Pan Asian: When you think of the term "Asian American" what comes to mind? Probably you're thinking of East Asians; Chinese, Korean, Japanese. There's nothing inherently wrong with that but Asia is actually a pretty diverse continent. There as South Asians (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanaka, etc.), South East Asians (Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, etc.) and even different ethnic groups inside of those countries (like the Hmong in China). We wanted to make sure that everyone knew they were welcome.
OK, so what actually happened in the lounge? There were 3 main parts to it. Part One was the relaxing. We had snacks, music, games to play, a selfie station, and all sorts of good stuff. We wanted students to be able to take a break from the intensity of the conference if they needed. Part Two was the mentoring and Special Guests. Each day we had a different theme (STEM, Law and Politics, the Arts, and Vocational Ministry) and special guests who were in those fields. Students could have conversations with these folk and receive a little mentoring. We also had my man Jason Chu perform a few numbers for us, which was pretty great.
Part 3 may have been my favorite part though. Each day in the lounge we had special gatherings for students to connect to one another and see the diversity and togetherness of Asian America. We had special gatherings for Southeast Asian students, for Filipino students (also Southeast Asian but there were so many of them they had a separate gathering too), for South Asian students, for adopted children, and for Korean students. At each of the gatherings we had special food to speak to their hearts and our staff were able to cast vision for the students as a whole to reach their corners of their campuses. Even inside our Asian American chapters, we need more diversity.
What about me? What was my job specifically? Well, the general staff job for the lounge was to be around, connect with students, make sure there were enough snacks, and generally have a good time. Since I was the closest staff to St. Louis, my other job was to procure a sound system for us to use so we could play music and make announcements. As we were setting up on Day 1, the director of the lounge asked me and another woman if we had any MC experience. Y'all know that I do so suddenly, she and I were the hosts and MC's for the lounge, making announcements, introducing the special guests, and taking care of the music.
Y'all know me. You know I loved that job. It's a no brainer right? All I have to do is be up in front of folk, give instructions, tell a few jokes and put on some tunes? Sign me up for that everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. The only part that I didn't like was the travel. See, the lounge was right by the Dome where everything was happening but my hotel, where all the A/V equipment was, was about a half mile away. Forgetting a cable then having to run back and forth to get it was not my idea of a grand old time. =0).
So, that was me at Urbana. I would absolutely do it again in a heartbeat. I ate good food, hung out with students, put my skills on the mic to good use, and didn't have to be out in the cold. All said and done, I'd say it was a pretty good Urbana job.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
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