Those very familiar with our organization know that our bread and butter, our founding program, the initiative that gave us life in early 2016, was our Filipino Studies/Civic Engagement Course called the Awareness in Action Program (AAP).
An eight-week, free and community-based course, AAP is interdisciplinary and ties lessons on Filipino language, cultural history, psychology, and community action through a Filipino Communities Project and various etho-exposure tours. Since 2016, we’ve ran AAP out of AARS-HR 360 on the Eastside of San Jose. #ShoutOutAARSFamily
Our AAP has continues to grow, attracting not just high school aged youth, college students, and young adults, but families from across the South Bay region.
It wasn’t until earlier this year that we noticed an upward trend.
Our summer 2018 AAP received 6 sign ups from distance learners: one from Ohio, one from Pennsylvania, and three from the East Bay. Not to mention, our 16 in-person participants.
Bootstrapping all the way, we offered live streaming, hosted weekly Google Hangouts, and shared our learning materials virtually with our distance learners.
With half of our AAP organizing team hailing from the East Bay, coupled with the increasing interest in our program, we made the decision to expand our summer AAP to the East Bay!
Through the gracious support and sponsorship of Filipino Advocates for Justice, we will excitedly begin running our program in Union City this summer 2019.
The East Bay expansion will be led by: Celeste Francisco, Michelle Nelmida, and Jeren Penalosa. Our San Jose team will be led by: Tyrell Malonzo, James Binauhan, and Karen Manalac.
