Best Professor

It has been a while since I posted a blog. I been pretty swamp after finals was over. It was just hard to decide what to write about. I decided to write about Eric Pido.

I took his AAS 355 course in the spring semester. He was an awesome professor that I took at SFSU. He made the students feel comfortable in class. He was open to tell students about what he did over the weekend. He allowed students to tell how their weekend went. For a guy that only taught for two semesters he was amazing. I would tell students to take his class because he was amazing.

I don’t have much information about him. I just thought I would dedicate this blog to him. If I had more info on him I would write more. It just hard what to say about him. Sorry.

Flip Da Skript

            I attend an event on campus called “Flip Da Skript”  Thursday Night. LFS (League of Filipino Students) was the organization that advertise the event. They allow students from all ethnicity to do sketches like poems and songs. I appreciate how many people were open to come up in front of an audience and speak their mind out. I can tell that the audiences were into the performances. I wasn’t getting into it but I was paying attention what the performance were.

            The event was to get students to fund raise money for the students to go to the Philippine in the summer. They were selling souvenirs and showing photos what to expect during the trip. It was also to talk about the budget cuts that California is going through with the colleges. LFS is an organization on campus that been around since 1977.

            How I would tie the performance to what I learn from any Asian American Studies courses involving Filipino? I see a connection to the video of Kiwi and the other activism involve in the Philippines. The reason I would connect it with Kiwi to Flip Da Skript was because of open mic. Kiwi would educate young people while LFS aware students about the budget crises that the CSU are having. LFS is a activism organization that fights for their rights. Both are educating people the struggle that it going on.

            One of the performances that I like was one of the coordinator singing. She sang a song that was great (it was in Tagalog). Her high notes were like opera. There were also other people that were involve in the organization that perform. Some did sing and did some poems. There was one person that got the crowd moving. His name was Joal Vargas singing about “National Democratic Movement”. It was touching and it does mention what is going on with the Filipinos in the Philippines are suffering from and including the budget crises that the colleges are going through.

            Out of all Flip Da Skript turn out to be a great event. It allow people to speak their mind and also allowed the audience to join in. Hopefully LFS can hold another event that allow people to speak their mind.

Asian American Studies

I had this question ask a lot of times about what will I do with a degree in “Asian American Studies”. To answer that I really have no idea what I want to do yet. Reason I have no answer to the question is because I have not graduated yet.

I became an Asian American Studies major in Spring 2010 (I was originally a Journalism major from Diablo Valley College in Fall 2009). Taking classes from Jonathan Lee, Russell Jeung, and Jeannie Woo have taught me a lot about Asian Americans in California. I learn the struggle with Vietnamese coming to the United States from Filipino struggle in the Philippines. I felt like I was white in the inside and brown on the outside because I did not speak the Filipino dialect Tagalog. By taking these courses I don’t feel neglected anymore. Now I feel Filipino American than just plain American.

There is a lot of opportunity that I can do with a degree with “Asian American Studies”. I could do research on the Filipinos struggling to leave the Philippines to come to American. I can research the Vietnamese that were affected by the Vietnam War. I could work for PBS (Public Broadcast System). I have studied Journalism at Contra Costa College and Diablo Valley College and I use it as way to work around the Asian American Community. You might see me revise the local television show “Bay Area Backroad” or “Eye on the Bay”.

I volunteer at the International Hotel Manilatown Heritage Center in San Francisco as part of my volunteer service for one of my classes. What I have learned while volunteering at the I-Hotel Manilatown Center is the long history about the place. I never knew anything about Filipinos living in Chinatown. I always thought it was just Chinese in the area. That proves that I am really Filipino American since I care for the Filipino Community. I took much of my time every week just to help them out.

I have seen Asian American reporters like Kristen Sze, Malou Nubla, and Thuy Vu (yes I only named women) on local television. They were role models that I look up to that I want to match with on what they did for the Bay Area.

I got only a year left until I graduate from San Francisco State University. I am looking forward to finishing up with Asian American Studies. With the motivation that I am getting from Eric Pido, Lorraine Dong, and Jeannie Woo I think I can do it. The coordinator at the I-Hotel Center thinks I can do it.

Going forward with my life I think I am make it out there. I just have to prove it to myself that I can do it and not let anyone tell me I can’t do it. I made it this far and I refuse to not let it happen.