- With the students it's my favorite,
just having the opportunity to help them,
if they come to me with questions,
a lot of them, they'll be nervous about things,
or certain classes, whatever,
but because I'm in VASA I'm able
to make them feel more comfortable and happy,
and it's going to be okay,
they'll figure it out, that type of thing.
(upbeat bass and clapping)
- [Narrator] In the 1960s, a group of SVA students,
likely inspired by the revolutionary spirit of the times,
started a student government to give voice
to the student population, called VASA for short.
The Visual Arts Student Association
has been around ever since.
In addition to meeting with administration
to represent the concerns of the student body,
VASA runs events like the annual Halloween party,
and Finals Fair, as well as overseeing student clubs.
We invited the present VASA administration,
president Kenneth Barvell, vice president Amy Fields,
treasurer Eugene Lee, and student senate chair Wega Chen,
for a cup of Joe and chat.
- Hi ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another installment
of Joes and Moe's.
Today we have our grassroot government, VASA.
So, why do you want to do this?
Do you have too much time on your hand
during our school or are you just,
got nothing else to do but just want to run
a little student government?
(laughing)
- Yeah, we're just all kind of sittin' around,
bored, figured this would be a fun thing to do.
No, I mean I think we all saw an opportunity
to help the student body and engage with the student body
and hear the concerns and the interests of the students
while providing fun experiences for them,
and here we are--
- And your teacher probably knew they'd give you
a little bit more homework.
(laughing together)
So, one of your biggest highlights,
at least, for me as a student, was the Halloween party,
and I heard some great things of what happened last year.
Tell me a little bit more about that, please?
(Amy laughing)
- Ken was the vice president last year--
- So, I was previously the vice president,
the vice president's role in VASA is the event planner,
so last year Fall 20...
- Seven? - [Amy] Six?
- Fall 2016 and 17, we went to Bowlmor,
which is a bowling alley slash laser tag slash arcade.
- Awesome.
- Slash bar-restaurant down at the Chelsea Piers,
and it was such a hit that Amy this year decided
that we're gonna go back
because it was so much fun. - Great.
- Yeah. - That's amazing.
- It was awesome.
- And last year there were 666 people arrived?
- Exactly. (speaking together, laughing)
- For real? - Wicked, yeah.
- For real.
- Alright.
- Yeah (laughing).
- Some serious--
- Yeah, yeah. (laughing together)
- Jesus! Alright!
- [Amy] It was so fun though.
- We also held a Six Flags trip, Fright Night, yeah.
- Yeah, we did a Six Flags trip back in October.
- Yep.
- 54 students, I think, whatever we could fill a bus,
took them down to Six Flags Great Adventure
and spent a day down there.
I think it was 25 dollars for a ticket.
And that covered the bus. - Yeah, the bus.
And park admission.
That's always a big hit in--
- It sold out in, how many hours?
Wasn't it like-- - It was only through
the weekend, two days.
- We posted it on a Friday it was sold out
on Sunday morning.
- Yeah. - That's amazing!
So I guess there's a lot of people hates gravity
and loves flying.
- Yeah (agreeing and laughing together)
- Alright!
- So is there any sneak peek of what's gonna happen
this year or you guys still planning it?
- So we decided instead of doing a big event
like the Halloween party this year,
we're gonna do just a week full of smaller events.
So kind of basing it off of what we usually do
for orientation.
So one day, we'll have tickets to a Broadway show,
next day, it'll be something else
like Sleep No More possibly or--
- Whoa! Fabulous! - Or things like that, yeah.
- That would be amazing!
- All of these are tentative, by the way.
- Yeah.
- Because we're still exploring the costs and--
- Don't expect too much. (laughing)
- Yeah, or a comedy show.
Something along the lines, something fun and--
- Awesome. That's amazing. - Yeah.
- So what is your individual favorite moment
during VASA so far?
- My favorite thing is, it's not a specific moment,
but I love that people come up to talk to me
and who know who I am and that's not from a--
I like that people know who I am--
- Do you feel like a real politician?
- No, it just means that people know who we are.
And it means that we're having an impact
and that students are aware that we're around.
And that's something that I definitely saw
the administration when I first came here struggling to do,
to get their name out there, and to get people aware
that VASA exists and was here.
And I get that all the time now.
I get people who I don't recognize but that recognize me,
and just come up and say, "Hi,"
and it's really exciting to see
that we have that impact on students.
- Anyway, so thank you so much for joining us.
- Thank you. - And thank you so much
For tuning in. Cheers. Bye!
(upbeat bass and clapping)