Conference allows Filipino American students chance to connect to culture
The conference, held at the University of Illinois, included workshops about heritage and culture.
Published Nov. 9, 2010
Over the weekend, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign welcomed 14 members of MU’s Filipino American Student Association to its campus for the 18th annual Filipino Americans Coming Together conference.
“We go to this conference every year to learn more about our heritage and to connect with other Filipino Americans our age that go to other colleges,” FASA President Vanessa Mancao said.
More than 1,000 students from across the Midwest assembled for the conference. Throughout Friday and Saturday, attendees learned about their heritage and culture through a variety of workshops.
“To be able to learn from someone who teaches Filipino American courses at a university and has had so much more experience with being a Filipino American is so much more satisfying than learning from books or the web,” FASA Treasurer Nicole Angeles said.
The increased knowledge correlated with an increased sense of cultural pride, said Avy Kea, external vice president of the Asian American Association.
“As an attendee of FACT, I could feel an enormous sense of cultural pride that I could not have found anywhere else,” Kea said. “I look forward to attending FACT next fall semester not only because of the people, but because of the overall experience.”
Networking was one of the main objectives of the retreat, Angeles said.
“I’m happy I went to FACT this year because it gave not only me, but everyone, the opportunity to network and meet other Filipino-American students across the Midwest,” Angeles said.
In addition to offering networking opportunities, the conference allowed attendees to observe Filipino-American communities at other schools.
“It’s really cool to see what other Filipino-American organizations across the Midwest are doing to spread awareness across their own campus and their own city,” Mancao said.
For instance, portions of the conference were held at UIUC’s Asian American Cultural Center. Constructing a similar building at MU has been an idea several of the attendees are pursuing.
Although MU’s group was originally slated at around 25 attendees, Mancao accredited midterms and schoolwork for the last-minute drop in numbers.
“The group that we did bring out was a really solid group,” Mancao said. “We all are really close friends, and we all became even closer. There’s a lot of inside jokes and a lot of silly things that happened, but it was a lot of fun, all in all.”
The group did not consist of solely Filipino students, Mancao said. Joined by students of Cambodian and Vietnamese backgrounds, she said the trip was truly a learning experience for all.
“It’s awesome that a lot of them wanted to participate and learn a lot more about the Filipino culture even though they aren’t Filipino themselves,” Mancao said.
The combination of students in the group who attended and the conference itself made the retreat worthwhile, Kea said. “FACT 2010 was an experience that definitely made my semester,” Kea said.
Inspired by the conference, Mancao tossed around the idea of bringing a similar Filipino-American gathering to MU. “I know it’s possible,” Mancao said. “We’ll see if it actually happens.”