By: Eliana Morales
For junior health science major Maryjoy Guirnalda, Asian Night is not just an event on the calendar, but a responsibility she has been building toward all year.
Guirnalda serves as the vice president of Asian Club and this year’s Asian Night director. She was the club’s community service director for two years before becoming vice president, and admired how previous Asian Night productions came together. She was also involved in dancing for Latin American Club (LAC) Night, becoming close with directors who inspired her.
“From then on, I just had this really big passion to share our culture with the community and especially with our school,” she said.
As preparation began for Asian Night, Guirnalda expected to use a planning template left by previous directors, but she found none.
“I was very shocked,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh, this is completely different from what I was envisioning.’”
Guirnalda had to start building the script from the ground up, a process she describes as a lot of brainstorming and trial and error.
One of her biggest challenges was figuring out how to bring seven different Asian cultures together in a way that feltels cohesive. The cultures represented will be the Philippines, India, Korea, China, Japan and the Oceanic Islands. As she developed early ideas, she quickly ran into limitations around production scale and approval processes.
Eventually, Guirnalda said she moved toward an “Asian Bachelorette” structure, building on a format used at an Asian Night several years ago. Guirnalda said the theme reflects the pressures many young adults feel around life milestones, especially the expectation to quickly move into careers and marriage following college. She said the production encourages students to slow down and approach relationships with patience and faith.
“I know we can be hyper-fixated on finding ‘the right one’ and feeling that pressure, especially culturally,” she said. “We want to do all these things to impress that person, but I don’t think God ever requires that from us. We don’t have to perform, we don’t have to produce; we just have to be ourselves and submit it to God, and it’ll be the right person.”
Guirnalda says the production’s theme is personal to her and reflects a period of growth in her life. She shared that if people had met her a year or two ago, they likely would not recognize the person she is now; back then, she says, she was more withdrawn and suffering from poor mental health.
“But I learned that with community and the people you surround yourself with, you can literally feel the love from God in all those areas,” she said, “and that’s why He puts opportunities around us. I think that’s the biggest thing I’m learning from this experience.”
Guirnalda also described a point earlier in the semester where she experienced burnout as the production began to feel overwhelming. Scheduling became difficult, especially as actors, videographers and other participants balanced graduation and heavy academic workloads. She recalled moments when she questioned whether the show would come together and felt close to giving up.
“I remember a moment of surrender,” she recalled. “I said, ‘Lord, just one day at a time. I will give you this task. I’m not going hyper-fixate and hold on to it anymore.’”
From there, she said things slowly began to come together as people responded, shared their availability and worked collaboratively. Guirnalda also described having to step into the technical side of production in ways she didn’t fully expect.
With multiple scenes that needed to be filmed for the script, she worked closely with videographers and learned about lighting and editing.
Production has faced logistical challenges, making it difficult to keep everything running smoothly. Those delays have required constant coordination and communication between teams, something that Guirnalda admits can be difficult to manage.
“One of the bigger lessons I’ve learned is delegating,” she said. “I used to be very shy with it, so now I’m just learning to fairly share the tasks with everyone.”
Dannika Olea, a VP associate for Asian Club, has worked closely with Guirnalda throughout the planning process. She acknowledged that preparing for Asian Night is a huge task that requires a community to make it happen.
“Maryjoy embodies what it means to be a servant leader,” she said. “She doesn’t skip over the small details but puts her full effort into what needs to be done.”
Guirnalda said she is looking forward to seeing everything come together after months of planning. The night will begin with a pre-show featuring live performances in multiple languages, plus interactive elements such as a photo booth and a 360-degree camera experience. Students representing different Asian countries will be contributing food or drinks that reflect their culture. For example, students representing India, China and Japan will serve mango lassi, fried rice and mochi, respectively.
For Guirnalda, Asian Night is meant to offer a break from academic pressure and be a space where students can unwind, learn about other cultures and feel represented.
When asked about the importance of non-Asian students attending Asian Night, Guirnalda said she believes it is an important opportunity for cultural understanding and connection. She encourages her non-Asian friends to participate, emphasizing that involvement in Asian Club and Asian Night is open to everyone, not just Asian students. She said it has been encouraging to see more students from different backgrounds getting involved in the show.
“I really love seeing the unity of different cultures just coming together,” she said. “It makes me so happy that even though we have our differences, we can still be united, whether through dancing, acting or different creative art expressions.”
Jeriel Leal, a co-director of Asian Night, described Guirnalda’s leadership as inspiring.
“Although at times [production] has been overwhelming,” he said, “her persistence through everything has been incredible to watch, so she can deliver a night where everyone feels seen and represented.”
