BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE
UNIFYING FIJIAN INDIAN STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

Overview

This is the leadership experience that I am most excited about discussing. I am the creator, founder, and president of the Fijian Indian Student Association. This is a registered student organization (RSO) on campus. Being Fijian Indian, I went to the Indian Students Association and the Polynesian Student Alliance meetings only felt partly connected to each. I created this RSO because none existed for Fijian Indian students and I wanted to create a space of inclusivity for them/us just like other student organizations have created for their communities.

Personal Importance of Work

One of my core values is diversity, and that is what inspired me to create the Fijian Indian Student Association. After four years here my senior year is when I decided to create something that can unify Fijian Indian students and this was the Fijian Indian Student Association, at the University of Washington. I was inspired to create this registered student organization because I did not see anything that existed for us. I wanted to create something that would help unify Fijian Indian students, which would create a space for us, a place where we could exist.

Tasks Accomplished

• Created a registered student organization which was a very tedious process, but in the end, it was very rewarding when it finally got approved.

• Created an idea

• Recruited five officers for the organization

• Created a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for the organization,

• Hired someone to create two logos

• Created a covenant

• Attended a registration meeting and applied for the organization to be registered.

Leadership Competencies Gained

Productive Relationships

In the process of creating the Fijian Indian Student Association, one of the components I had to have before registering was a logo. I had no idea how to create a logo, but I had a mutual friend whose career is in graphic design. I emailed him and asked him to create my logo. I gave him ideas I had, and he told me what would work and look nice from a graphic designer’s point of view, and after a couple of weeks, he created two logos amazing logos that I use for my registered student organization. I valued this relationship I made because he helped me in an area where I did not know in, it was like he was a helping and guiding hand.

Scope of Competence

When creating/filling out the Constitution Form for the Fijian Indian Student Association, I was unsure how to answer everything besides the purpose of the organization. I wanted everything to be perfect because the Constitution Form is very important because it is an important component of the application and I realized that I could not fill this out successfully with what I knew. My friend is the ASUW Asian Student Commission Director and is well versed in this information, so I stopped by her office and we talked for an hour about what each question is asking, and from that, I was able to create strong answers each of the questions. After the Fijian Indian Student Association was approved, I went in and thanked her for help and asked about what I should do next since she was so knowledgeable about everything in this. I was just entering the registered student organization world and I wanted to ensure I was taking the right steps to make the Fijian Indian Student Association successful.

Inclusion

From my freshmen to my junior year at the University of Washington, I joined clubs like Indian Student Association, SEVA, Polynesian Student Alliance, although these organizations were amazing, I did not feel fully connected to any of them. My Indian identity connected to the Indian Student Association and SEVA and my Fijian identity connected to Polynesian Student Alliance, but I did not feel fully connected to either of them. This is what drove me to create the Fijian Indian Student Association because I wanted to create a place where we could be unified and share a sense of belonging.

Advocating for a Point of View

When I finally found officers for the Fijian Indian Student Association, I made sure to get their perspective components of the organization. When creating/filling out the constitution I created all the answers and would meet with my officers to make sure we all agreed on the answers, when creating the logos I got their opinions on what they liked and when creating a schedule for meetings I made sure to accommodate their schedules so we could all be present at the meetings.

Initiative
My ethnicity is Fijian Indian and I did not see any representation of myself or my ethnicity around campus. I had attended the Indian Student Association and Polynesian Student Alliance meetings,​ but I could never fully relate to either of them because being Fijian Indian, I had my Indian culture with influences of the Polynesian culture. During my senior, I decided to create a registered student organization (RSO), Fijian Indian Student Association. I wanted to create a place for Fijian Indian students, help unify us, and teach others about our culture.

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Confidence

I knew I wanted to create an organization centered around my Fijian Indian identity for a long time. When I started my senior year decided to finally embark on that journey. I had this idea, vision, goal that no one else had and I decided to act on it to create a place where Fijian Indian students at the University of Washington could be unified. I was confident in my ability to create the Fijian Indian Student Association, and I did.

Lessons Learned and Future Oriented Statements

I did everything on my own, which was challenging and rewarding. It was challenging because there were so many parts, but the most challenging part was finding other Fijian Indian students at the University of Washington. I was able to recruit two others besides myself. I asked several of my advisors and mentors, but they did not anyone besides me that was Fijian Indian. But that did not stop me, I went on to complete all the requirements to apply to register my organization, I was able to sit down with one of the student activities advisers, and she looked over my covenant and was very impressed. Two weeks later Fijian Indian Student Association was approved and that was rewarding because something that I created, put a lot of time, effort, love, and care into was a real thing that will help unify a community I belong to.

Picture Caption

This is the logo that I use for the Fijian Indian Student Association. I wanted the color scheme of the logo to be light blue and white because those are the prominent colors Fiji flag, and a hibiscus because I remember seeing hibiscus flowers everywhere I went in Fiji.