The student-led Social Issues Club (SIC) at Parami University and Southeast Asian Movement (SEAM) at Yale University collaborated to release the spring 2023 issue called 'Reflections.' SEAM is a student-led club at Yale University that aims to provide a platform for students and academic practitioners to exchange and discuss Southeast Asia in and beyond the United States.
One of the SIC goals is to raise awareness of tangible and intangible social issues in our community. The club members regard the partnership opportunity with Yale's SEAM club as a good practice for its members and other undergraduate students at Paraim University to raise awareness among their peers, academic colleagues, and academics.
A club member of the SIC, l a i x e n, talked about the collaboration initiative between SIC and SEAM. "Initially, I and Philomena from SEAM just talked about anime and manga, the normal otaku stuff, and later discussed on the spur of the moment, eventually coming to explore what if we partnered on two student-led clubs between SIC and SEAM (Parami University and Yale University). After three months of deadline fighting and efforts from everyone in both groups, it's finally here. Philomena and I put together a proposal and notified the leader of our SIC club and team members, which we later validated with the president of Parami University."
For the publication, SIC mainly took responsibility for organizing the submission procedure, holding Q&A sessions for students who wanted to participate in the publication, managing data, and screening pieces, while the SEAM was in charge of reordering the submission texts and artworks.
Kaung Myat Phyo (Kelvin), who also had his essay published in the 'Reflections Issue Spring 23,' gives a snippet of his experiences and hardships during this crisis and explains how even then, he was still one of the very privileged individuals considering the plight of his fellow citizens who are suffering from far more unfortunate circumstances.
"My main inspiration was to have our voices heard. I also felt that it is our responsibility to utilize every opportunity and every means available to us to help share the stories of those who are not having enough voices or the same opportunities to speak out. I felt the need to highlight that, explained Kaung Myat Phyo (Kelvin).
The collaboration allowed students to share their experiences, feelings, difficulties, aspirations, or hopes during these trying times, which were featured in the publication of the Southeast Asian Movement (SEAM) at Yale University. Kelvin added that this kind of opportunity is essential, especially given that what the people of Myanmar are going through has been very much under-represented on the international stage.
The opportunity was not only available for Parami undergraduate students but also for all students from the Parami community.
Ein Kyi Phyu, a part-time class fellow at Parami, is another author who contributed her essay to the Reflections Spring Issue.
"While working part-time, I have been sharing my stories on social media and participating in writing and translation workshops. "Reflections" is about our frustrations, difficulties, and pain locked up in our hearts during the two years of the coup. We're finding a way to release them through this publication and letting the world know the side that most media don't show. My story is about the time when someone was seized and investigated just in front of me. It was an undeniably terrifying experience that I wouldn't be able to forget for the rest of my life,” said Ein Kyi Phyu.
Although I have published several translated short stories in a magazine, Ein explained that this is her first publication as an individual. "I felt delighted to be part of this, especially for getting an opportunity to be a voice from Myanmar."
Parami University Class of 2026 have recently finished their Spring semester, meaning they have completed the freshman year of their undergraduate program at Parami. Parami students are self-driven individuals who are personally and academically committed to their studies and making meaningful contributions to their community.