Redefining the Filipino Dream
Launch the 2016 Kaya Co. Fellowship!
“For nineteen years,” says Louie Vital, a current student at the University of Washington, “I had suffered from a self-inflicted, stubborn case of colonial mentality.” It’s a classic story that many 2nd generation immigrants and beyond can relate to: the struggle to fit in, the wrestling for self-definition, the resistance against and erasure of some of the most inner and authentic parts of one’s self.
| “I am now resisting in the opposite direction.”
That changed for Louie in college, when she got to know Filipinos outside her family for the first time. In her own words, she fell in love. “I found love for the people, the culture, my body, myself. I am now resisting in the opposite direction.”
In 2014, Louie studied abroad consecutively in the Philippines and in Spain, and learned about colonialism and world history from both sides. The experience jarred and awakened something in her. Soon, she started telling her story through spoken word performances in the plaza of her university, then at culture shows, at classes, high schools, speaking competitions, festivals. In her university’s Filipino group, she has begun to open up spaces — in the form of bi-weekly workshops — that explore and educate others on topics ranging from colonial history to climate justice to Fil-Am privilege.
Louie is one of many emerging voices from this generation of Filipinos in the diaspora — the global children of migration — who are rising up to reclaim their cultural identities and carve a new space in the global conversation for the Philippines and the Filipino people.
This summer, 11 of these young leaders will be returning to the Philippines through the Kaya Collaborative Fellowship. Over 8 weeks this June to August, the Fellowship will connect them to internships with local Filipino social entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders, a curriculum on social change across boundaries in the Philippines. The summer experience is the first part of a larger mission: to develop these young global Filipinos into leaders in driving resources, networks, and knowledge globally to accelerate the work of local leaders in the Philippines. This year's fellows are:
- Aina Abell, University of Southern California, '17
- Trixia Apiado, Georgetown University, '18
- Frances Anne Aquino, Brown University, '16
- Kristy Drutman, UC Berkeley, '17
- Kathleen Guytingco, University of Michigan, '17
- Melissa Joseph, Harvard College, '17
- Jacqueline Ramos, Stanford University, '18
- Dianara Rivera, Brown University, '18
- Claudette Sambat, University of Washington, '17
- Bianca Taberna, McGill University, '16
- Louie Vital, University of Washington, '16
Members of the 2015 Kaya Co. Fellowship class.
“I’m not supposed to be back here, in a way,” said Anthony Garciano, a 2015 Kaya Co. Fellow, not long before his fellowship experience in Manila. “But through Kaya Co, I’ve found an avenue to connect my passion for the Filipino and our culture to support the Philippines.”
As an undergraduate in the University of Southern California, Anthony was already working before the Fellowship to shift the culture of his Filipino student group towards deeper dialogue and effective action. Since being elected a Fellow, Anthony has gained even more momentum: in 2015, he helped transform the school’s annual Filipino culture show into a fundraiser for typhoon survivors, and he is now crafting a transnational mentorship program that engages young Fil-Am college students and high schoolers in the Philippines in dialogue with one another.
Sierra Jamir, another 2015 Kaya Co. Fellow, started her cultural leadership in high school, as the founder of her school’s Southeast Asian club and the first cultural blog for young Filipinos in New England. For her, the Fellowship opened up “a platform to do something big, to hopefully influence others here that there is something we can do despite the barriers that we often say hinders us.” Sierra now leads Kaya Co’s outreach in the US Northeast and is creating a new series of workshops in Cornell that focus on critical discussion of Filipino issues.
Stay tuned as we share the 2016 Fellowship class and their stories as they approach the summer, go on to experience the Fellowship, and begin to chart their paths as global partners to the Philippines.
Together, the fellows will be learning about a new wave of leadership and innovation in the Philippines, about the different ways that local Filipinos have taken their future into their own hands. Together, they will unlock the roles that our global community of balikbayans can play.
