On April 12, the Filipino-American Student Union had its first kickoff event in AS 150-A, where they served lumpia, which are small fried meat rolls and everyone participated in karaoke. FASU is a new multicultural organization that aims to create a network committed to preserving Filipino heritage and celebrating Filipino culture.
“Initially, I started this club because I noticed that there were a lot of Filipinos in the area specifically Bolingbrook, Romeoville, Naperville, Plainfield, like they have a very big Filipino community,” said junior biology major and FASU president Allen Makit. “I noticed that a good chunk of Filipinos come here to Lewis and I wanted to tighten the community and make something that people can call their home.”
Even though the club is starting off small with not a lot of members, Makit hopes to form a dance troupe with the group’s members someday, so that they can go around performing traditional Filipino dances, such as tinikling.
“I know this club is starting out small, but I hope one day that we can start doing things like cultural dances and
On April 12, the Filipino-American Student Union had its first kickoff event in AS 150-A, where they served lumpia, which are small fried meat rolls and everyone participated in karaoke. FASU is a new multicultural organization that aims to create a network committed to preserving Filipino heritage and celebrating Filipino culture.
“Initially, I started this club because I noticed that there were a lot of Filipinos in the area specifically Bolingbrook, Romeoville, Naperville, Plainfield, like they have a very big Filipino community,” said junior biology major and FASU president Allen Malit. “I noticed that a good chunk of Filipinos come here to Lewis and I wanted to tighten the community and make something that people can call their home.”
Even though the club is starting off small with not a lot of members, Malit hopes to form a dance troupe with the group’s members someday, so that they can go around performing traditional Filipino dances, such as tinikling.
“I know this club is starting out small, but I hope one day that we can start doing things like cultural dances and going out and performing,” said Malit. “I just hope for now, what I want to do is set the foundation so that other people who want to take over the club can, as long as they share that same interest and culture.”
Malit wanted to start this new organization because even though the school already has an Asian American Association, he wanted to create a new club that focuses on one culture.
“I know that a lot of people told me that it might be a bad idea to start another cultural organization like AAA that is basically an umbrella for all Asian culture,” said Malit. “I think that this is the next step for Lewis students to open more clubs that focus on different types of cultures.”
One of the main goals for having the Filipino-American Student Union on campus is to create another club for students to get involved in.
“One big goal that I had for this organization was to act as an outlet for other students who are in need of finding a club to be involved in because at the end of the day, this club is open to everyone,” said Malit. “Even if you’re not Filipino, you can do many different things in this club like volunteering, learning more about the culture, and social gatherings.”
Students are encouraged to join FASU because they can immerse themselves in Filipino culture, while also meeting new people.
“Students should be encouraged to join FASU because there are many opportunities that you can find here,” said Malit. “For example, you can learn more about Filipino culture, Filipino enrichment and there are many other outlets such as volunteering, philanthropy work in the future, and getting connected in the community, not just here at Lewis, but other Filipino communities that already exist locally.”
The new club will take part in many activities, which includes dancing traditional Filipino dances, volunteering, and social events.
“I definitely want to do something along the lines of a dance troupe,” said Malit. “There are many dances that are in the Filipino community that we can do and showcase to other people, whether it be here at Lewis or other places.”
Their events will be similar to the events of AAA, but it won’t be exactly the same because FASU will focus more on Filipino culture.
“I would say that it would be very similar, but not exactly the same,” said Malit. “I really like what the Asian American Association does, so it wouldn’t hurt to take inspiration from them, but I also want to expand more into Filipino culture.”
Malit feels that it’s really important to preserve Filipino culture because, “As Filipino-Americans, our culture slowly fades aways just because we’re not connected as much with that idea of togetherness.”
“[By] getting involved in the community, we can preserve the culture and make it flourish so that we can share it with other people, so that the tradition goes on,” said Malit.
The e-board for FASU is composed of some of the same students on the e-board for the Asian American Association, but there are new students in FASU, who are general members of AAA.
Due to the semester coming to an end, the first official event for FASU won’t be until next school year.
“This kickoff event was just to see where we’re at and how we can function and how engaging we can be as a club,” said Malit. “We definitely want to do something like this, like for the first event, something engaging just to retain members.”
Photo Credit: Katelyn Leano
