OPEN HOUSE: Visit the Grand CSA Hotel
UPCSA’s Open House 2223A invites students for a comfortable visit to the org
News | Ashley Cua
With blended online and face-to-face classes right around the corner, the UP Chinese Student Association (UPCSA) greeted this new season by opening their doors to all UP Diliman students in the Grand CSA Hotel from August 15 to 26, 2022. This year’s open house welcomed over 115 interested applicants to the CSA community through a series of online games and community bonding on social media platforms.
Prepping the Hotel
“When you check in a hotel, you’d want it to be as comfortable as possible. And we wanted to do that for the students, especially the freshies who are new to UP culture.” — Samantha Lee, Director for Applicant Events
Preparations for this large two-week event began early, according to Alieli Choi, the current Vice President for Membership. Given her previous experience as the recruitment head last year, Choi was familiar with the tasks necessary for event planning. Moreover, her team’s work in the previous open house created a strong foundation to build upon. Effective team-building games like the online escape room were recreated this year, as well as the system of using Facebook groups for announcements and getting-to-know posts.
This efficiency of preparations extended to the team’s development of the hotel concept. Samantha Lee, the current applicant events director, recalled that the team had been brainstorming and looking through trending topics when Alieli Choi had come up with the simple, classy idea of a hotel.
“It was so fitting for open house to be a hotel. When you check in a hotel, you’d want it to be as comfortable as possible. And we wanted to do that for the students, especially the freshies who are new to UP culture,” Lee remarked.
Moreover, the hotel concept created a strong appeal in the stunning publication materials, which were created by Maybelline Tee, Vice President for Creatives.
It may have been this appeal of a comfortable stay that led to a whopping 115 applicants in the program, a number that no one had expected.
“Our goal was for 50 applicants this year, since last year was around that amount. We didn’t expect it to go over 100. As far as we know, open house hasn’t reached 100 in a long time,” Choi said.
With this unexpected gathering of students, pre-event work became quite a challenge. Nichola Chang, director of applicant relations, and Samantha Lee worked together in contacting all of the applicants and ensuring that everyone was able to enter the Facebook group.
Lee said, “There were so many questions to answer and there were some about specific org activities that we had to relay to Alieli. It was a lot of back-and-forth communication.”
“We had to tag everyone and make sure they were able to introduce themselves. It was a little overwhelming at times, especially since the applicants were so excited,” Chang also shared.
Grand Opening: A Full House
The infectious energy of the applicants carried over to the grand opening on August 15, 2022. The official Messenger group chat was flooded with greetings, likewise, the Facebook group was full of introductions and fun follow-up conversations initiated by members and applicants alike.
August 19 marked the Kahoot! game on CSA community trivias, including the online pandemic activities of the organization. This was followed by the Human Bingo on August 22, which encouraged applicants to discover interesting facts about the members and their fellow applicants. Lastly, there was the online escape room where volunteer CSA facilitators and applicants teamed up to solve mind puzzles and beat the game as fast as possible. Event prizes ranged from care packages of snacks and drinks to a GCash prize of 500 pesos for the winners of the escape room game.
RESULTS:
Kahoot! Night
1st: Aisha Go, 2nd: Sophia Azcona, and 3rd: Karol Co
Human Bingo
1st: Edric Dy, 2nd: Sofia Ngo, 3rd: Margarit Cabochan
Escape Room
Breakout Room Group 1
Moreover, CSA also provided timely advice for the students in light of the upcoming blended mode of classes. On August 20, the Research and Academics Committee hosted a roundtable discussion on face-to-face classes entitled From Green Screen to Greenery, which was open to all CSA members and open house applicants as well. CSA seniors and alumni Sabrina Tan, Andrew Yao, Josei Tolentino, and Jedrek Sio served as the panelists and advisors in this event.
The Membership Committee also shared the UP Guide: CSA Edition, a series of post that featured an expanded map of the campus, helpful studying tips, and recommended food spots.
The Esteemed Hotel Visitors and the Honorable Staff
“The highlight for me was definitely the many apps and the CSA members who supported open house.” — Nichola Chang, Director for Applicant Relations
Though open house applicants came from different backgrounds and schools, they held great interest in the organization and made the effort to interact with everyone. All three of the open house leaders had stated that the true highlight of the event was the applicants who reciprocated the efforts of the team with genuine friendship.
“The best part of open house is always the apps,” Alieli Choi stated. “It’s always fun to meet them and see them interact.”
“It was amazing to see everyone meet each other and have fun even when they’ve met for the first time. It felt like a safe space.” Samantha Lee said.
Nichola Chang also expressed her gratitude to all CSA members who helped out with the event and talked to the applicants even if they weren’t part of the Membership Committee. “This event was only made possible because of the members.”
The applicants themselves also shared their positive impression of the organization. Several applicants praised the organization’s overall welcoming atmosphere and said they were excited for the next events to come. Another applicant expressed their curiosity of how the organization was run and asked the members some questions on the different committees and their main objectives. Furthermore, there was an applicant who was hoping for face-to-face activities for the open house.
Alieli Choi stated that although the university was transitioning to a gradual ease of face-to-face classes, the organization’s application process would remain fully online.
“For the safety and accessibility of everyone, we choose to remain online for now,” she said, “but we won’t be prohibiting face-to-face interactions on sigtasks, buddytasks, and the like — as long as there is an online alternative.”
Amidst all this excitement, however, there were still a number of applicants who were worried that they wouldn’t fit in CSA. Samantha Lee shared, “When I was first contacting some of the applicants, they had this misconception that you had to be pure Chinese or be of Chinese descent to be accepted in the org. But it isn’t like that. CSA is open for everyone.”
In holding the two-week open house, the Membership Committee hopes that all applicants will be able to see the values and bonds that the CSA community has, beyond just cultural identity or some shared schools. As seen in how the organization has adapted its long-time tradition of open house to a seamless online set-up, there is no obstacle too big to stop the organization’s welcoming spirit.
“CSA is like one big family. Sure, there are jokes, there are disagreements, and days when everyone gets along. At the end of the day though, CSA is still a home I love.” — Alieli Choi, Vice President for Membership ’22-’23
In a more concise manner, Choi described CSA in the following image:
