At a glance
Our main focus is outreach to the Pacific Islander community here in Washington. Specifically, Pacific Islander High School… Read full summary
- Funding received
- 2023-2024
- Small
- Awarded
- $5,000
- Funding partners
-
- Services and Activities Fee (SAF)
Our main focus is outreach to the Pacific Islander community here in Washington. Specifically, Pacific Islander High School students. Our other main goal is to spread cultural awareness of the different Pacific Islander cultures across the UW campus. Our community makes up less than half of a percent of the study body, where it is important for us to be seen by our peers. Our event, Polynesian Day, hosted by the Polynesian Student Alliance, focuses on engaging and encouraging Pacific Islander high school students with post-secondary education. Through various workshops both academic and cultural, we show younger generations of Pacific Islanders that they have a place in post-secondary opportunities and that they especially belong.
Our project idea is an event that we have been hosting as a legacy event here at UW. Where our main focus is outreach to the Pacific Islander community here in Washington. Specifically, Pacific Islander High School students. Our other main goal is to spread cultural awareness of the different Pacific Islander cultures across the UW campus. Our community makes up less than half of a percent of the study body, where it is important for us to be seen by our peers. Our event, Polynesian Day, hosted by the Polynesian Student Alliance, focuses on engaging and encouraging Pacific Islander high school students with post-secondary education. Through various workshops both academic and cultural, we show younger generations of Pacific Islanders that they have a place in post-secondary opportunities and that they especially belong. This year, these workshops will be held inside the HUB building.
After the workshop we end our event with cultural performances for various Polynesian AND Micronesian islands in the Pacific. This year consists of performances from the islands of Samoa, Tonga, Hawai'i, Fiji, Guam, and Kiribati. This is the main part of the event as dance is very important in our cultures of the pacific, whether it be to tell a story or danced in a form of celebration. With CSF funding, we plan to use the funding towards our cultural outfits for our dances. Specifically the Hawaiian pa'u skirts for our hula segments, the puletasis for our Samoan segment, and puletaha as well as burlap for traditional Tongan wear. Along with a few accessories such as flower hairpieces and shell necklaces that will tie our clothing together. The performances at the end will be held on the HUB Lawn on a stage that we provide. Which means it is open to the general public to stop by and watch and hopefully immerse themselves in the culture and performances.
We want the performances to help solidify and make our presence know here at UW Seattle. Again, as we make less than a percent of the study body, we stand in solidarity with one another for Polynesian Day to embrace our cultures as well as hoping that others are culturally aware of our community here at UW.
Makena Togia
Project lead
- mtogia@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Student
- Years
- 3 year(s) remaining at UW Polynesian Student Alliance
Fune Tautala-Ceridon
Team member
- fune@uw.edu
- Affiliation
- Student
- Years
- 2 year(s) remaining at UW Polynesian Student Alliance
Cass Nguyen
RSO Advisor
- cassn@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- Ethnic Cultural Center
Brendan Chang
RSO Advisor
- brech@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- HUB
Aaron Espinosa
Pacific Islander Student Commission Director
- aarone21@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- Pacific Islander Student Commission
Cass Nguyen
RSO Advisor
- cassn@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- Ethnic Cultural Center
Brendan Chang
RSO Advisor
- brech@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- HUB
Aaron Espinosa
Pacific Islander Student Commission Director
- aarone21@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- Pacific Islander Student Commission
Cass Nguyen
RSO Advisor
- cassn@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- Ethnic Cultural Center
Brendan Chang
RSO Advisor
- brech@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- HUB
Aaron Espinosa
Pacific Islander Student Commission Director
- aarone21@uw.edu
- Affiliation and department
- Pacific Islander Student Commission
Request amount and budget
Plans for financial longevity
We hope that with the CSF funding we can be able to use it towards our cultural outfits. Which we brainstormed on displaying one in the ECC or the PISC office. Other than the Poly Day event, we do officer board elections for the next year, and we lastly celebrate our members and especially our seniors graduating in the club.
Friday, May 10th is Event Day. 8:00am-9:00am Registration, 9:30-10:00am start of workshops, 10:00am-12:30 3 workshops (1 academic, 2 cultural/academic), 12:45pm move students to HUB Lawn, 1:00pm- 3:30pm Cultural Performances.
Plans for long-term project management
n/a
Problem statement
The sustainability related issue we have identified at UW is the lack of awareness in waste disposal and using the resources that we provide on campus correctly and properly. Our Polynesian Student Alliance came about this idea through the similar issues that are presented in our homelands of the South Pacific that have heavily affected climate change today.
There's a huge emphasis on the preservation and protection of our oceans and we believe that if we are able to teach individuals here at UW, that our project's idea can be transferred over to the islands of the South Pacific. By teaching individuals on how to properly reduce, reuse and recycle, our Polynesian Student Alliance can help create an impact in showing a global importance of sustainability.
Problem context
For the diversity blueprint our event fits well as Polynesian Day is an event to encourage Pacific Islander students to choose post-secondary education in which we hope could be UW. Our goal has been to increase outreach to high schools of the greater Seattle area and we have been doing so through our Polynesian Outreach Program. Where we go to those high schools and talk with the students about our college experiences, resources that they can access, and lastly, why we as Pacific Islanders chose to go to college.
Polynesian Day has the same goal but we instead invite the students to our campus and have them spend the day on a college campus. As said above, by doing so, we hope to inspire these same students to do well in school and pursue higher education. Even better if they chose UW as well.
Communication tactics and tools
We have been actively doing outreach to high schools in Washington and inviting them to come to Poly Day which has been a big success. Outside of our Pacific Islander Outreach Program, we mainly advertise on social media where we have recently posted our flyer and volunteer sign-up flyer as well. Lastly, as we get closer to the date, we plan on tabling in Red Square to promote our event to the students and staff on campus. We especially would promote the food trucks that we are inviting to Poly Day as well.
Outreach communication plan
We are communicating through our Pacific Islander Outreach Program as we are catering mainly to the Pacific Islander high school students.We plan to share our impacts through workshops that are centered around important cultural topics within the Pacific Islander community. As well as celebrating our cultures through our dances. The Pacific Islander community will benefit from Poly Day the most but other students and faculty will also gain cultural enrichment and awareness.
Student involvement
Yes, there are volunteer opportunities mainly catered to undergraduates but we welcome post-undergrad students as well. The volunteer opportunity will consist of different committees such as, staging, food, registration, workshops, and security. Volunteers will get Poly Day T-shirts as well as a food that is provided by our RSO at the event.