Sarah Ho

VP of Programs

Screenshot 2025-09-20 164602

Current Location: Birmingham, AL

Current Status: Undergraduate - Senior

Affiliated School: University of Alabama at Birmingham

Experience


UAB VSA
-Food Director, LUTL 4 Cultural Show
-Fundraising Head (2025-2026)

UVSASE
-Food Committee Staff
-Logistics Committee Staff
-Logistics Director, Olympics

Additional Leadership
-President, Campus Organization

Biography

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah Ho, and I will be graduating in Spring 2026 with a degree in Biomedical Sciences (Pre-Medicine) at UAB (Go Blazers!). After completing my undergraduate studies, I plan to take two gap years before starting medical school. During this time, I will continue working as a Medical Assistant while studying for and taking the MCAT. I will also be pursuing my Master’s of Public Health in Global Health.

In my free time, I enjoy traveling, cooking, trying new foods, and watching American football. I am very passionate about staying connected to and sharing all aspects of Vietnamese culture! I have been part of UAB VSA for four years and part of UVSASE for three years. I have formed so many memories and built meaningful relationships as well as experiences during this time, and my ultimate goal is to assist people from different paths, but with the same goal, toward opportunities to get involved in our organization (and have lots of fun)!

Personal Statement

I have several leadership experiences that have prepared me for this role. My first experience stemmed from when I served as Food Director for UAB VSA’s cultural show, LUTL 4, and as Fundraising Head for UAB VSA from 2025–2026. Through these roles, I learned to recognize both my strengths and areas for growth while developing my ability to organize, structure, and manage events effectively. As Food Director for LUTL 4, I focused on highlighting Vietnamese culture through dishes. My original idea was to showcase dishes from the three regions of Vietnam. Through working with my committee, one of my members suggested presenting the tasting experience in the shape of a Vietnamese map so that attendees could try dishes from the North, Central, and South in order. This experience reinforced my personal belief in the importance of encouraging team members to share ideas and allowing creativity to shape the outcome. As Fundraising Head, I also worked to make my committee more connected with the rest of the organization. At the start, my committee expressed that they joined fundraising to become more involved with VSA and to also know more about other committee members, since they did not know many. In response, I focused the second half of the semester on organizing collaborative fundraisers with other committees. This led to new and creative fundraising events not often seen before, such as a “Dinner and Movie” fundraiser, where participants purchased a menu featuring foods that appeared in the movie being shown. Outside of VSA, I also serve as president of another organization at my school, where I work to create a safe and supportive environment where individuals can be their authentic selves without fear of societal judgment. Additionally, as staff for UVSASE in both the Food and Logistics committees, I helped ensure operations ran smoothly while offering suggestions and support when needed. These experiences have shaped who I am and my leadership skills today, while also giving me perspectives from both the VSA and UVSASE levels. Through logistics planning, collaboration, and creative programming, I believe I can be prepared to contribute meaningful ideas and help develop impactful programs in this role.

When I first joined UVSASE as an attendee, I was not afraid to admit that I was scared. I was scared to step out of my comfort zone and try new things, especially in front of hundreds of strangers. While I had taken on responsibilities within my own school’s VSA, even those roles took time for me to grow into. However, my attending family quickly welcomed me in. During Tâm Sự, I felt a sense of belonging that was silently shared and understood throughout our circle. On the final day, during our group hug, I realized that UVSASE was an organization I wanted to give my all to. That feeling continued when I first joined the staff as a Food Committee member and later returned as a Logistics member for later SELC. Through the challenges, long hours, and collective effort, I saw firsthand the dedication that every staff member puts into creating meaningful experiences. Now, as the current Logistics Director for Olympics, with several committee members experiencing UVSASE for the first time, I see reflections of my past self in them.

I wanted my members to not only enjoy each meeting but also discover their strengths and weaknesses, grow into future leaders, and recognize their fullest potential. Across every program, I noticed a common theme: what once begins as a group of strangers quickly becomes a family. Because of these experiences, as a candidate for Vice President of Programs, I strive to help create the same transformative moments for future attendees and staff. I hope to design programs that bring strangers together through meaningful conversations, shared vulnerability, and memorable experiences. By fostering spaces where laughter, reflection, and connection can coexist, I want newcomers, just like I once was, to find comfort, belonging, and perhaps even a new family within UVSASE. Whether it is introducing Vietnamese culture through SELC food and games or uniting teams through the Olympics, I want to emphasize connection through shared experiences. More importantly, I want these programs to encourage individuals to step outside their comfort zones so they can grow, discover themselves, and help shape the future of UVSASE together.

Application Questions & Responses

My biggest motivation for running for E-Board is the ability to turn ideas into action. As an E-Board member, one has the opportunity to carry out a vision and implement it alongside a team that shares the same commitment to the organization. While E-Board may be the face of the organization, it is also supported by a community that contributes ideas, perspectives, and passion. I value this opportunity not only to share my own ideas, but also to create space for others to share theirs. Although the responsibilities of an E-Board member can be heavy, the lessons that come with them are even greater. Through my experiences serving in E-Board positions within organizations at my school and participating as staff in UVSASE, I have developed a strong desire to continue challenging myself because when I thought things were impossible to achieve back then, I ended up tackling them regardless. There were circumstances I faced as a director that I did not encounter as a staff member, even within the same committee. These experiences showed me how much growth comes from stepping into new leadership roles, even if there might be initial fears. Running for UVSASE E-Board is not only about pushing myself further as a leader, but also about encouraging fresh perspectives to implement. I want to help create an environment where these are welcomed and where continued growth and positive change can keep shaping UVSASE.

I have several leadership experiences that have prepared me for this role. My first experience stemmed from when I served as Food Director for UAB VSA’s cultural show, LUTL 4, and as Fundraising Head for UAB VSA from 2025–2026. Through these roles, I learned to recognize both my strengths and areas for growth while developing my ability to organize, structure, and manage events effectively. As Food Director for LUTL 4, I focused on highlighting Vietnamese culture through dishes. My original idea was to showcase dishes from the three regions of Vietnam. Through working with my committee, one of my members suggested presenting the tasting experience in the shape of a Vietnamese map so that attendees could try dishes from the North, Central, and South in order. This experience reinforced my personal belief in the importance of encouraging team members to share ideas and allowing creativity to shape the outcome. As Fundraising Head, I also worked to make my committee more connected with the rest of the organization. At the start, my committee expressed that they joined fundraising to become more involved with VSA and to also know more about other committee members, since they did not know many. In response, I focused the second half of the semester on organizing collaborative fundraisers with other committees. This led to new and creative fundraising events not often seen before, such as a “Dinner and Movie” fundraiser, where participants purchased a menu featuring foods that appeared in the movie being shown. Outside of VSA, I also serve as president of another organization at my school, where I work to create a safe and supportive environment where individuals can be their authentic selves without fear of societal judgment. Additionally, as staff for UVSASE in both the Food and Logistics committees, I helped ensure operations ran smoothly while offering suggestions and support when needed. These experiences have shaped who I am and my leadership skills today, while also giving me perspectives from both the VSA and UVSASE levels. Through logistics planning, collaboration, and creative programming, I believe I can be prepared to contribute meaningful ideas and help develop impactful programs in this role.

Interview Questions & Responses

I would like to say my principal weakness is definitely biting a lot more than I can chew or just taking on a lot more than I can handle per se. And it’s something I’ve kind of just worked through at the moment with just scheduling and and just reaching out. How it’s gonna interfere later on is there are 19 schools within the region, hoping to gain more on and working with scheduling interviews with all the Presidents as well as projects, I would like to get it done in the position. It might determine or it will interfere because I will have a lot more on my plate, working with a lot more individuals and then also working with the events that UVSASE does commit or does put on. How might I overcome them is basically just making sure that I’m scheduling everything accordingly ahead of time. And then as well as being comfortable with asking for help asking other fellow Eboard members to see if they can help take some of the slack or if I’m short during some areas, just so they are transparent on where I’m at and I can more efficient get what I need to do, done in time or in a timely manner as well as just working with the president as well as see if they can work with me and try to get some of the projects done as well. So just overall transparency and being able to reach out.

Okay, so a situation where someone work was criticized, was definitely planning as Hospitality Director, I’m trying to get what I needed to do or done with them, I just wasn’t as clear or as organized as I should have been. And my team, my committee members, approached me about it, talk to me about it. How I handled it, I took it personally, not like, personally, not because of them, but more so on me that I should have done better, I could be doing better, especially in my position. And in that I internalized that feeling and then I did my best to overcome or basically solve any of the problems that I had originally or any problems they had with me and then making sure to ask them afterwards if there’s any way for me to do better oranything they want to see more out of me from, which falls into how I prefer my current feedback or criticism. I definitely don’t mind that all constructive criticism. If I’m doing wrong, I would definitely like to know that I’m doing wrong or if I’d need to improve, I would definitely like to know that I need to improve just so I can fix it. Because it’s one of those things where I feel like, if I don’t know, how will I fix it? Because even even if I’m paying attention to myself, there’s ways that I mean, everyone’s human and I will slip up. But if someone has any issues, I really hope people will just tell me right off the bat, because I’m pretty, I would say, in the moment, not in the moment, I’m a face to face person, I should say. I’m an open book. If you tell me this is a problem, and I will deal with the problem.

So the current pillars would be unity, leadership, culture, and development and advancement. Our strongest pillar would definitely have to be the leadership aspect.The reason why I say leadership is, say Element, or Olympics, or camp really emphasizes growing your leadership skills and then leading a team leading events and turns hoping to have more staff members or more committee members anything growing in that position. And then our weakest, I definitely would say, culture. In our events we do include a lot of cultural aspects. But I don’t see us applying culture as much to our programs, teaching more about the history, teaching more about, I guess, a sense of Vietnamese American but more. And then…yeah, not teaching as much sense of what it means to Vietnamese American or Vietnamese or everything that goes along with that saying like, what a normal everyday Vietnamese person does, their their beliefs, or kind of just their day to day lives or anything like that. How would I improve that pillar is to work on adding more segments or even just topics or discussions, where we can talk about what it means or have a discussion even about identity of what it means to be a Vietnamese American or Asian American to really talk about these things. And it’s something I definitely want to push more just because I myself, have been having an identity crisis trying to figure out like, what it means to be Vietnamese American, and if so, what does Vietnamese American mean to my role in society? What should I be doing? And so discussion questions, bring up topics to talk about even more I guess segments that camp or conference. I don’t know how we do this for Olympics, probably not that maybe toss him more like cultural games during conference as well, instead of just some of the more popular games or popular American sports or so. And then really talking about like the history of immigrants and moving to the US as well, because I feel as that’s a very important as we get further generations and generations further away from first generation Asian Americans or even from our parents, which were immigrants, we tend to lose the, I guess, severity or the impact of how much our past ancestors or like family had to really push to give us the life that we had here. So those are the topics I really want discussed in all of our programs and off to the side as well.

With everything that’s going on, traveling is definitely gonna be restricted, it’s gonna definitely be a little bit harder for us to meet. And this is why the online platform is something that we definitely need to research more and move into. Say any virtual experiences and even going back to what I said before, opening up topics or discussions where anyone in SE can meet and freely talk and discuss about their experiences and even share, say like, have one night where everyone kind of discusses and talks about their families experienced going to the US and really sharing that so that we’re constantly talking about issues that need to be talked about and then building the community. And then even with the, say, games, we can do online game nights to bring the communities together, we can even split, say, like the region into spatial areas like have almost like a tournament even to have one region or a couple schools on one side and keep them in groups and then constantly just switch up groups. So each group is talking with new people every time because sometimes even with larger groups, people are a little bit more scared or shy to talk to you. So we can open up multiple, I guess chat rooms to even have people discussing different topics as well. So moving towards an online platform, is I guess, in my beliefs the best way that we can address the travel issue in the travel ban because at this time, only thing we can do is really just work around with what we have.

With the director, I would personally reach out to them first, have a talk with them, get to know what’s going on…Well, actually, you can do this with both executive board members as well. Because everyone signs on to a role for it’s almost like they agree to the specific terms that they need to get this job done. So if there’s lacking or slacking in the position, there usually is an underlying reason of why they’re not making or making deadlines or not getting their work done. So first would be talking to them kind of get an understanding of why they’re not getting their work done. Is it like personal reasons? Are they not able to? I guess organize well or if they’re having any troubles, then seeing what ways can I help in what ways can another committee help? If we can take some of the load off, either the director or the executive board to see what helps gets results with them. And then if they’re constantly not doing their job well, are they constantly falling back, then it’s something that for a director, I would talk to other fellow executive members, seeing if they can reach out, see if they can make an impact, get through to them. If not working with the Exec Board, you’d have to come to a decision to see what the next plan of action would be if we personally cannot get them to work. And then it just comes down to a team decision. And then for an executive board member, it would be a similar process, we would talk to them, get down to them personally see what’s going on, and then see if there’s any way to alleviate some of that workload or help out or any personal matter that we can help out with and then if not, it’s something that we have to talk as a group together and see what needs to be done next.

Now, if two members on executive board were having some problems with each other, and it was leaking into the work environment, what I would do is sit down with each of them individually and listen to their side, to kind of get a better understanding of where each of them are coming from. And then seeing where their anger lies or any discretion or any aggression, and then see if I can talk to them if they can work out a solution or like a middle ground. And then from there, I will take those answers and then I’ll keep those to my heart when I have both of them sit down and then give each of them time to talk without the uninterrupted time to talk. So then the other person can kind of listen. And then I’ve worked as a mediator, try to find some middle ground where they can get a mutual understanding, to resolve the issue or at least, quell the issue. And then also to reiterate that I understand there is some personal problems, but there also is a deadline. And this is a professional position, and we need to keep professional and personal, separated. And then if for at least if the issue is not able to be resolved at the moment, because I don’t know what’s going on if their anger is just unquenchable at the moment, I would say hold that anger off to the side for this justice week until deadline is done so we can get work done and then give them specific tasks and goals to get done within that week. So then I can kind of check up on them and make sure they’re getting their tasks done. And then afterwards, if we can’t quell in the beginning, then we’ll see if we can after we get the work done, we have a little bit more time to kind of just work on the relationship between the two.

Now, if a member approaches me, claiming that they were sexually harassed, this is something I definitely want to talk to them about first to see if they’re comfortable talking about because that’s not something, it’s…sometimes it scars them…if they’re okay with talking about I would like to understand a little bit more of what’s going on. And then the other party that was involved. And then I would like to see if there was anyone else nearby or around that could also back up these statements and then talk to the other person as well to see their side because this situation is a very heavy topic to blame right off the bat and to charge right off the bat because there’s always some missing there’s always a potential for misinformation and I don’t want to ruin anyone’s lives for, by not clearly check into the situation. So I will talk to the person claiming or saying stating that they were sexually harassed, the person who they claimed, sexually harassed them, and then check to see the situation if there was any way I could find evidence or proof or anything. If there’s any videos or anyone around that can I can listen to and then I would definitely like if it is comfortable with that member, if I can talk to the rest of Eboard about it to make a decision, because I feel like that decision is such a heavy decision that I cannot make a call on my own. So I feel more comfortable talking with the rest of Eboard to make sure like, what our next plan of action do we report the case or should we check more into if there’s any inconsistencies in like one or the other stories to see if we can find any common ground or not a common ground, anything that leads to facts.