In the media, working class immigrant women are often depicted
uneducated, conniving and inarticulate. My life, however, as an
SFSU graduate student and as a working class immigrant Pilipina
American who has supported herself since age 18—speak of a different
experience. Watching both my parents slave over 12 hour working
days, seven days a week in menial labor jobs just to make rent
for a one bedroom apartment was my reality as a child. My parents’
work ethic and daily struggles continue to serve as an inspiration
for me to strive for a relevant and meaningful education and profession—and
to be the first in my family to receive a graduate degree.
Thanks to my parents’ encouragement, I was able to graduate
cum laude at UCLA with a Psychology and Asian American Studies
double major and an Education minor. In my four years at UCLA,
I was a five time recipient of the Provost’s Honors List. My
most rewarding experiences in college, however, were outside
of the classroom walls. As a graduating senior I was also recognized
with the UCLA Chancellor Service Award, the Pilipino Graduation
Enlightenment Award and A. Magazine’s Top 10 Student Leader
in the Nation for initiating my own community service tutorial
project in South Central, Los Angeles – a poor, urban and underserved
community. The project was called Project S.E.T. (South Central
Evening Tutorial) and we mentored and tutored the children of
immigrant parents who were attending evening adult school four
nights a week.
My work with Project S.E.T. further catapulted me to work on
issues of student and community empowerment. After graduation
I worked as a full time director of a student retention project
at UCLA’s Student Retention Center (SRC). At the SRC we served
over 5,000 “at risk” and “historically under-served” students
a year. We worked to retain students on academic difficulty
and to readmit dismissed students through peer counseling, mentorship,
academic workshops, and student initiated seminars. Because
of my work at the Student Retention Center and the greater Los
Angeles community, I was also invited to participate in the
Committee for Pilipino American Studies Conference at UC Berkeley
and the RAND Collaborative on Pilipino Health, Education and
Development.
Last August I moved from Southern California to San Francisco
to pursue a Master’s degree in Education in a concentration
on Equity and Social Justice. I hope to use this degree to prepare
me for a Ph.D. program and my professional goal of being a university
professor in the field of Education and Ethnic Studies - two
fields which have direct impact and relevancy to underserved,
immigrant youth. Being a full time student and simultaneously
working 20 hours a week at the College of Education’s Cahill
Learning Resources and Media Lab (or Cahill) and has been both
challenging and rewarding.
At SFSU, I have been able to coordinate programming and curriculum
displays for the staff, students and faculty of the College
of Education. I am also a part of the committee for the Asian
Diaspora Pre-conference for the upcoming national Adult Education
Research Conference (AERC) at SFSU in early June. My work at
Cahill and my involvement in the College of Education serves
to educate the SFSU community about social issues usually neglected
in the schools – issues such as community and individual empowerment;
community development; race, class and gender identity; and
immigrant/migrant labor.
My work on and off campus as a graduate student continues
SFSU’s legacy of having a community based education. This academic
year, my work at Cahill enabled me to coordinate multicultural
education materials and children’s activities for 100+ youth
in the Pilipino Unity Day cultural program in the South of Market
area. I have also been invited to facilitate workshops on multicultural
education and community development for a class in the College
of Education and with a visiting Pilipino student organization
from Los Angeles. I have a social responsibility to share with
the community what SFSU has contributed to my learning and my
personal development.
Without any source of income for the academic year, however,
will make it difficult to continue my graduate work while being
in great financial difficulty. Receiving the scholarship will
provide me with the peace of mind and security to manage my
rent, utilities, transportation and book expenses. The scholarship
will allow me the time to focus on maintaining my 4.0 GPA, take
up full load of classes while simultaneously preparing for my
research and my thesis – my culminating experience. My parents’
legacy and experiences continue to motivate me to persist and
to use my education to better the conditions within immigrant,
working class communities. I trust the scholarship selection
committee will provide me the support I need to continue my
studies here at SFSU and to actualize my professional goal to
be an educator.
