Connecting across cultures and campuses
The celebrations to welcome the Year of the Ox have been more understated compared to the usual festivities. However, the pandemic did not stop the Asia Law Society (ALS) at the University of Toronto from working in tandem with other Asian law students’ associations across Ontario to bring people together for this annual festival.
On February 13, for the first time ever, all the Asian law students’ associations in Ontario gathered together for a virtual Lunar New Year social on Zoom, and participated in activities such as a fried rice class and a Dalgona coffee-whipping competition.
What originally was going to be a joint event with the Asian Law Students Association (ALSA) at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School quickly grew when Nikki Pangilinan, 2L Transfer Representative of the ALSA, helped connect the groups with students from the University of Ottawa and University of Windsor. Since the event was virtual, distance was no longer a barrier.
“I think it evolved really organically,” says Rebecca Xie (2L), Co-President of the ALS. She noted that the Asian law students’ associations from most Ontario law schools eventually became involved in the planning process and that the organizers decided to invite all the remaining Ontario law schools to join the fun.
Deborah Lim (1L), Founder and Co-Chair of Ryerson’s Asia Pacific Law Students’ Association (APLSA), was also very glad to be involved in the event-planning. “[I]t was really nice to feel welcomed amongst all the other schools and to actually have the opportunity to work with and be in a virtual meeting room with the other organizers,” writes Lim.
The event was an opportunity for students from different law schools to get to know each other. Students were shuffled among breakout rooms, where they had the opportunity to make new acquaintances and chat about life in their respective law schools. “It was nice to have an event where I wasn’t going into a metaphorical room full of strangers,” says Annecy Pang (2L), Co-President of the ALS, who found it comfortable to socialize with small groups of people in breakout rooms.
The event was designed to follow the rhythm of a dinner party – after the preliminary mingling, Tiffany Wong (3L), Co-President of University of Ottawa’s Asian Law Students’ Society (ALSS), demonstrated how to cook fried rice. Other students followed along, producing their own bowls of fried rice with rich colours. While planning for the Lunar New Year event, the associations agreed that food was an important part of social events. The organizers wanted to choose something that was interactive, relatively easy, and made with festive ingredients. Keeping in mind dietary restrictions, the final choice also had to be made with accessible ingredients at home. Fried rice not only satisfied these criteria, but also provided room for creativity. “You could see that nobody had the same thing,” says Wong, who was thrilled to see people’s creativity flourish when making this dish based on their pre-existing supplies.
The Dalgona coffee-whipping competition also brought a lot of fun to participants. Yoojung Jung (3L), President of the Asian Law Students’ Organization (ALSO) at the University of Windsor, proposed the idea. Sohrab Naderi (1L, Queen’s) won the Dalgona whipping competition, but Kay Wu (2L, Queen’s) and Hailey Ji (1L, Ottawa) also had spectacular performances.
In the course of the festivities, some students suggested starting a Discord server to bring all Ontario law students together. Jonathan Hou (2L), Upper Year Representative of the ALS, and Annie Li (1L), Founder and Co-Chair of the APLSA, helped set up the virtual space. Students were excited about having a virtual meeting place where they could connect with other students from different law schools and expand their own networks.
Janet Song (3L), Co-President of the ALSA and an administrator of the new server, hopes to see the server become a hub for people to connect socially with each other. “Right now we’re students, but one day we will be colleagues in the legal profession. I think it’s a really good opportunity to build relationships with your future colleagues now.” Song emphasized the importance of networking in the legal profession, not only with lawyers and experienced people, but also with other students.
The event’s organizers were optimistic about the prospects of hosting a similar event in the future. Wong noted that virtual get-togethers and networking with different law students would be a nice change of pace for law students, and Pang said that she looks forward to the ongoing collaboration between all Ontario law schools.
Note: The author is the Upper Year Representative of the ALS, and Annecy Pang is the Senior Opinions Editor at Ultra Vires and the Co-President of Asia Law Society.
