Must jot down thoughts.

Instead of leaving your local neighborhood and traveling around the world, bring the world to your local neighborhood.

Why wish you can go to all kinds of events all over the place? Build a city that hosts them all. Export the ideas to other cities.

UVSA is now overseeing independent teams working on 3 different projects: Tet Trung 2.0, UVSA Summit, and Miss Vietnam of Northern California—Intercollegiate.

Tam, the current UVSA President and I made an informal pact: UVSA is to become a network of nonprofit startups.

TT2.0 will be a Spirit of the Youth Festival, a radical return to our roots of what was traditionally a children's holiday.Tam and I will be on this project for the next 6 years to see it complete its 2.0 moniker. Part of the funding from TT2.0 will be to eventually establish the UVSA Foundation in the spirit of TT2.0, a cornerstone which will to fund Social Entrepreneurial endeavors. If TT2.0 is about having a youthful spirit, then I think a social entrepreneur is the prima facie of the kind of people who embody that spirit. Act Young. Be Fresh. Dream Big.

The UVSA Summit should then have a component which will allow our constituents to network, become inspired, and participate in decisions that affect the well-being of their community. I believe there should be an opportunity for the constituents to select a UVSA Foundation Recipient, because giving them a voice is one of the pillars of UVSA.

I haven't given pageants much thought before, but I think everyone on the organizing committee can agree: there's no motivation to volunteer for a project that loses its soul. If I had to give input on what I think this pageantry's soul should contain, then I think the first thing is the beauty of sisterhood. No doubt each contestant has a dream and vision, and serving their community will (and always) be at the forefront of their vision. A true leader is one who can turn her/his competitive environment into an ecosystem for doing good. No contestant (nay, Sister), crowned Miss Vietnam or not, should be discarded by our community as long as she has a vision. Whoever becomes Miss Vietnam of Northern California—Intercollegiate is someone who can manage her 19 other Sisters to advance their collective vision. Because honestly, there is no money in this, the event won't make these women any more famous, and it takes time out of their busy lives. It is hard work, and we are already in a competitive environment for funding sources, so the only thing we have is our philanthropic vision, born out of an entrepreneurial spirit: Can we make this pageant into something far better than a spectacle? If those who participate hang on to each other as Sisters, they will have something worth far more than a useless tiara.

After the MVNCI pageant application of September 15 midnight, TT2.0 will probably be a good day for the Sisters to meet and mingle, and perhaps give publicity on the nonprofits they work with and interact with other youth peers. They will have an opportunity again at the UVSA Summit to help inspire and advance a candidate project, as well as network with peers. The MVNCI organizers are still deciding on a judging system, so we're not sure if giving an audience some weight in determining the crowned MVNCI. I'm interested in the idea of giving each Sister a vote on who they think should be MVNCI (perhaps top 3 choice). That could encourage the Sisters to work hard at supporting one another, although I'm wondering about the formation of pacts. Maybe we can try it anyway.

In the first few years we shall see what sort of startup projects will be born, and from there it is simply a matter of figuring out how to best integrate them with the other projects/programs. I shall call this interproject optimization. It is a skill that I'm left wondering if there are that many people who can do it. Sometimes I wake up feeling lonely; I have seen coalitions that cannot optimize their confederated relationship. And I want to help them. I really want them to see the beauty where in unity, there is strength.