June 6, 2017
From January to June, L.E.A.D Filipino and its organizers and partners work to outreach to local South Bay community colleges and universities to host educational workshops and dialogues on key aspects of civic and public leadership.
Last night, one of our organizers, Vanessa Carr, facilitated a discussion with 25 members of Barkada, the Pilipino American student organization at Santa Clara University, on the importance of reforming our current immigration system. During her presentation, she displayed the United States’ USCIS’s current “Visa” schedule and revealed the deep discrepancies within our current Visa allocation system, the arduous paths to attaining citizenship, and how we can educate ourselves to be advocates for immigrant communities.
After her presentation, she opened up the floor to open dialogue with the students. We covered topics of discrimination on school campuses, recognizing one’s own privilege that comes with holding U.S. citizenship, and the ways that we can advocate for immigrant – Filipin@ communities and beyond – to support and uplift those around us.
As our mission and vision both state, L.E.A.D Filipino strives to involve more Filipin@s in meaningful civic participation and leadership. To effectively carry out our mission, we feel that to build advocates for our community, necessitates one’s own connection to their Filipin@ culture, identity and holding a deeper knowledge of our stories of immigration, struggles and rising against injustice throughout our shared histories.
We offer free and accessible workshops on health and human issues, Filipin@ culture, history and identity, and the avenues we can take to become more visible in our community’s public and civic leadership roles.
Peace,
Angelica Cortez
L.E.A.D Filipino
