APASA Celebrates Filipino American History Month With Spirit

by By Serena DeTorres '18 | October 26, 2018

SMC's Asian Pacific American Student Association (APASA), the largest and longest-running club on campus, is committed to building and maintaining an inclusive community through social and cultural events. APASA, which began in 1991, provides education of the Asian Pacific American experience while collaborating with local and extended communities through social justice awareness and community service. And once a year, they travel to compete against other schools in games!

The group recently competed at CSU Fullerton’s 33rd Annual Friendship Games on Oct. 20, in celebration of Filipino American History Month. Friendship Games is the largest event that APASA has participated in, and the group prepared and practiced for months ahead of time.

Since 1985, Filipino American student organizations from colleges in California, Nevada, and Arizona have competed in picnic games and performed their “SPUFs” (spirit, pride, unity, and friendship) and Roll Call routine among more than 40 other schools. “Regardless of all the stress, sweat, and some tears, seeing everyone bonding together, “SPUF-ing” their hearts out at CSUF, and hearing compliments from other schools made it all worth it in the end,” commented Liselle Ventura ’19, who along with Hana Harrell ’19 serves as special events coordinators.

While APASA did not win at the games, it has still been victorious in building a strong sense of community among students. APASA President Brevin Domingo ’19 said, “We may be a small school, but we are not a small family. We walked away from Friendship Games feeling like we won. The best part of all this is that the friendship does not end when we leave Friendship Games. The connections we made and experiences we had will stay with us for the rest of our lives.”

Clubs like APASA aim to give minority students a sense of belonging as they celebrate who they are and where they come from with other students like them. First-year Diana Parkin '22 reflected on her experience with APASA: “I was having a difficult time transitioning into college, especially at Saint Mary’s, because there were not many faces who looked like me. …Being a part of this club gave me the confidence to simply be myself and create strong relationships with new individuals.”

Join us in congratulating APASA for cultivating a strong and meaningful community here at Saint Mary’s. Thank you, APASA for your hard work and dedication to our Asian Pacific Islander students.

Check out the video from the 2016 Friendship Games here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Hpluc8bNo