Carleton’s Filipino students are getting the opportunity to collectively embrace their culture on campus through the creation of the new Carleton Filipino Students’ Association (CFSA) this year.
While a cultural club for Filipino students did exist on campus prior to 2015, the group eventually became inactive and stopped hosting events.
This year, the newly-formed CFSA kicked off their creation with “Filipinotes,” a karaoke night, at a packed Rooster’s Coffeehouse on Feb. 11.
John Gallardo, one of the co-presidents of the CFSA, said it was important to him to revive the group so Filipino students at Carleton could have a place to feel included and at home.
“Filipino culture is something we’re really proud of at the club, definitely something that we want to spread around campus so that people know about our culture,” Gallardo said.
The CFSA aims to showcase Filipino culture and hospitality by providing an inclusive environment for all students, Filipino or not, while upholding Filipino culture, traditions, and values and promoting diversity on campus.
“I think it’s really important for especially clubs of minorities to have a place where people can feel represented,” Gallardo said.
The group hopes that they can further connect their members to different aspects of Filipino culture, through teaching Tagalog language classes, and hosting other culture-specific events in the future.
Another group of students from Carleton and the University of Ottawa are aiming to increase the representation of Filipino students and professionals.
Pinoys on Parliament, a national youth leadership conference, will take place on Parliament Hill Feb. 23-24—allowing Filipino students to come to Ottawa, and spend their weekend surrounded by their peers.
Delegates from across Canada are attending the event, which will consist of keynote speakers, panels and workshops taught by Filipino professionals.
Julia Miraflores, the head of communications for Pinoys on Parliament, said she hopes the delegates can relate to the variety of speakers lined up, but also engage with their fellow young leaders.
“It’s really helped us connect and network with other students, young Filipino students . . . It definitely opens a lot of doors, so we have a lot of connections,” Miraflores said.
Lhori Webster, the chair of Pinoys on Parliament, said a major motivation behind the conference was to allow Filipino youth to see other Filipinos succeeding in a variety of professional fields of work.
“We just want to provide people with different types of opportunities,” Webster said.
Webster said representation is important, and by bringing together so many young people, she said they can help support each other in different aspects of life.
“We just want to be able to have these discussions and bringing people together so that we can talk about what’s important to our community,” she said.
Photo by Temur Durrani
