I’m a senior from Texas who’s currently a Posse Scholarship finalist for UVA. This merit scholarship offers me full tuition but requires that I agree to apply Early Decision. I am also preparing my candidacy for the Jefferson Scholars program.
Throughout high school, I’ve been heavily involved in Asian American advocacy and community organizations. I am fortunate to live in a major city with a significant Asian American population and organizations to work with.
Thus it is very important for me to find a school that has:
at least several highly active Asian American student organizations
a strong commitment to community service and resources to help students
affordable and diverse study-abroad programs in East Asia, especially China
How is the Asian American student population at UVA? Are there a decent number of active Asian American student organizations? Do any of them engage in advocacy, or interact with Asian American communities in Charlottesville or elsewhere? I’ve reached out to the Asian Student Union but I’d also like some insight from current UVA students.
Since Charlottesville isn’t a huge city, I am also wondering about opportunities for community service, specifically advocacy/civic engagement. How strong is UVA’s support for community service and what opportunities are there in Charlottesville? Can anyone tell me more about the Jefferson Public Citizens initiative?
Finally, how are UVA study abroad programs in Asia (particularly China)? Specifically, are there any funded opportunities or other financial assistance available?
To be honest, most of your questions are easily answered if you just look at the information on the university website. It would be better if you at least looked up the basics yourself, and then if you still had questions, ask something more specific. For example, here is the link to all the student organizations on campus: https://atuva.student.virginia.edu/Organizations. Every university website lists all student organizations. Here is their study abroad program information: http://www.programs.studyabroad.virginia.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.AdvancedSearch Every university website also lists study abroad options. It took me a just a couple of seconds to find these links by doing searches on Google. You should develop these basic skills and practice them for yourself before starting college. Otherwise you will go through life oblivious to all the information and resources out there, and taking way too long to find answers to questions by asking around instead of just looking up the information for yourself.
@mommyrocks The OP seems to also be looking for more personal observations about UVA and Charlottesville, not just a list of organizations and study abroad locations.
OP asked:
“Are there a decent number of active Asian American student organizations?” By following the link I provided, OP can see that there are over 30 Asian themed student organizations, which seems like a “decent number” to me, and OP can read the descriptions of the organizations and decide if they are involved in the type of activism and other activities of interest.
OP asked:
“How are UVA study abroad programs in Asia (particularly China)?” By following the link I provided, OP can read about 19 different study abroad programs in China, and many more in other Asian locations, and see if those are of interest and find out more about costs and funding.
OP also stated:
“I am also wondering about opportunities for community service.” I just did another search that took me a second and came up with the answer on UVA’s website: http://publicservice.virginia.edu/ That link describes all types of volunteer-related activities, courses and organizations available to students.
I don’t believe I am doing OP a disservice by suggesting doing a search online to find these answers. Granted, there are a lot of questions in the post, and hopefully some people on CC will have personal insights to offer in response to some of them. In the meantime, I wanted to point OP in the direction of where to find a lot of the answers – on the university website.
Congratulations on your many accomplishments. The great thing about UVA is that the student groups are self run and if you wanted to start something that they don’t have you can. Best of luck with your decision.
Curious about when you were notified about being a Posse finalist? Did they notify you by email? Congratulations on the honor, that’s awesome! From your line of questions above, you’re going to be a great addition to whichever campus you choose!