Message from the President of Thai Undergrad Association

Welcome to TUA homepage. Thai Undergrad Association (TUA) was set up in 1997. From the start, TUA’s goal has been to increase awareness on the UW-Madison campus about Thailand and its culture, people, attractions, etc. During our years, we have gathered a group of both Thais and others to set up various events to promote appreciation for Thais cultures. Besides those events, TUA also hold many activities to encourage closer ties among the Thai undergraduate students.

In the past, we organized orientation for the new-coming Thai students and assisted Thai Students Association (TSA) in putting up welcome parties. We also participated in UW-Madison's international Festival, which we performed Thai traditional classical dances, showcase Thai artifacts, and distributed information about Thailand, etc.

Last year, we just held our first Thai Cultural Night, which turned out to be very successful. Thus, we plan to include this in our annual events. Recently, TUA participated in community events such as "Girl Scouts International Fair", "International Reach Program", "Asian American Heritage Week", etc.

Other activities included a quarterly newsletter that highlighted Thai holidays and group function, weekly Thai table and trip to Thai temples and local Thai restaurants. We also observe several of Thai holidays, such as Maka Bucha Day, Loy Krathong Day and Songkarn Festival.

This year, TUA plans to hold Graduation 2000 Ceremony for Thai students who are going to graduate this academic year. Moreover, to enhance closer ties among members, and collaborate with other students groups such as Chinese and Korean, TUA intends to set up Sport Day this summer. In the future, in order to promote and to introduce Thai New Year Day, Songkarn, it will be a good opportunity to set up this ceremony as a public exhibition. Our expectation of TUA is not only to arrange activities that help all members, but also to promote Thai culture as a part of community.

Sincerely

Thitiporn Sangunpiyapan

TUA President 2000-2001