Vivian Cheong, 4th year, is a Public Health Policy major with a minor in Management. When she began her college career, she started with ASUCI as a Concerts Intern. Through this role she discovered her passion and love for UCI. Being an intern allowed her to express her livelier spirit. It gave her the chance to be intimate with students, and not through academics.
Event planning has been her “thing” since high school, and she loves it! Though she loves concert planning for her UCI peers, she couldn’t be both in charge of concerts and having to plan at least seven while also taking on Soulstice as the Executive Producer. As much as Vivian enjoys concert planning, nothing is as spirited and family oriented as Soulstice. It becomes an outlet for everyone to meet showcase talents and support friends.
Vivian’s favorite part about it is watching the show come together from beginning to end. As she puts it, “I don’t know how it’s going to look when we’re planning. But then when we finally get to watch it all, it amazes me how awesome it turns out.” A particular part she loves to watch is the League putting on their skits and just how witty they are. More than anything, she simply loves being able to watch people who are so passionate about the show and aren’t afraid to be themselves.
As Soulstice is coming together, Vivian points out how much she loves working with her team. Every aspect – from seeing the progress, the excitement, how differently people work with each other – it is an energy boost! To see people have so much passion and dedication for what they do makes her so much more pumped up. That’s not to say the position doesn’t come with its challenges. Vivian says it’s always hard to work on a team, especially when there are so many ideas flying and many people to coordinate with, but it’s rewarding to experience it with people who share the same passion.
Beyond the teamwork challenge, another thing she points out is it’s also quite difficult not knowing how something is going to turn out or if something is missing. “There are so many people working this together!” Because of the varying ideas and opinions, being able to know everything and every detail is most definitely a challenge. Anything can happen and Vivian doesn’t deny that it sometimes makes her anxious, but that’s all part of the process. Her part with herself is figuring out the balance and how to reduce stress.
You would think that being the busy bee that Vivian is that all this work would take a toll on her, but turns out, she’s actually managing all of this really well. She owes it to all the work she did while she was a Concerts Intern and planning concerts throughout the year. As a matter of fact, there isn’t much stress on her shoulders. “It’s a good stress. Something that doesn’t easily bother me,” she says. Vivian is a really optimistic person and this keeps her energy running which helps her gets things done. In turn, it makes her happy. With a very supportive team, it also makes everything easier to handle.
It’s her last year and she’s going out with a bang with Soulstice! But first, she wanted to share with future performers and committee members some words of wisdom: “Always take a risk.”
Vivian says that there are the opportunities and the experiences. Going for it shows just how talented you are. Not making it the first time doesn’t mean that you weren’t wanted or you weren’t good enough. It means that time and moment was not the right time for you to be in that place. Take the chance. Having the confidence in what you’re good at is what will put you above others when it comes to this.
“You’re not like each person in the room.”