THE MONTH OFSeptember! CHILL ON THE HILLS

Tết Trung Thu, also known as the MidAutumn Moon Festival, is a harvest festival held to honor the Moon, which is at its brightest point during this time of the year. During this celebration, held in the eighth lunar month, people pray in temples, create lanterns, and eat the infamous moon cakes. Similarly, during Tết Trung Thu on the Hill, the Vietnamese Student Union handed out mooncakes to students, created and hung up lanterns made by our school’s UNICEF and VSU club, and even had a special performance from our performance chair, Timothy Nguyen, and co-publicist, Jay Nguyen! We also invited one of our members, Leanne Nguyen, to sing a special Vietnamese Tết Trung Thu song. In between and after the performances, members were invited to come onto the stage to take pictures with our backdrop that we painted. We had an incredible time celebrating Tết Trung Thu with you, and we hoped you enjoyed a glimpse into Vietnamese culture!

kicked off on ate its start, Latinx Student Union decided to throw its own Chill on the Hill Takeover! LSU’s chill on the hill was filled with a variety of activities and events all themed around Hispanic culture. The takeover began with Folklorico’s wonderful performance of Las Alazanas and was followed up by the main game of the event, musical chairs! Music is perhaps one of the most valued aspects of Hispanic culture so we made sure to play some of the biggest Hispanic hits of the past and present as our participants played in the game. There were two rounds of musical chairs and as such two winners each received a 15-dollar Starbucks gift card! Simultaneously during the takeover, multiple games of Loteria were being played in X-4 with candy prizes! Throughout the entirety of the event, people vibed to the Hispanic music playing in the background as they took pictures against our brilliant culturethemed backdrop! This ultimately culminated in students dancing El Caballo Dorado as the lunch bell rang and the event came to an end. This takeover was held in order to celebrate and appreciate the giant Hispanic culture present at Oak Grove, and in those regards and many others, this event was a success!

Written By Environmental Action Club

Animal: Sea Otter

Status: Critical

Meet the Sea Otter: Your fuzzy friend, the sea otter, is native to California coasts! Rambunctious and intelligent, sea otters once filled the Pacific coast, eating bivalve mollusks like mussels, clams, or even abalone and holding hands with their fellow fuzzy partners. However, the sea otter population has dwindled to a devastatingly low 13% since 1977 due to a multitude of reasons.

Why Sea Otters are going extinct: While an increasing rate of sea otter mortalities come from white shark bites, sea otters also face risks from human impacts. Habitat degradation, coastal pollutants, and major oil spills all threaten the sea otter population. These fuzzy friends depend on the right conditions to thrive and, unfortunately, those conditions are no longer being met.

How you can help: There are a multitude of ways to help our local sea otter communities thrive! Established in 2007, the California Sea Otter Fund is a great place to send donations. In fact, it can be found on line 410 in the Voluntary Contributions section of your California Income Tax Form. Here at EAC we encourage you to consider donating to the California Sea Otter Fund or even making simple changes at home that directly affect your California Coast. To learn more about how to help sea otters, visit Sea Otter Conservation at Aquarium of the Pacific