Kapatiran students from South San Francisco High School and Westmoor High School were able to take a field trip to Skyline College to attend “Discover Kababayan” on Friday, March 16, 2018.
Kapatiran is a high school to college pipeline program focused on Filipin@ /Filipin@-American curriculum that incorporates themes of identity, culture, history, and college success. This class is available to high school students who want to learn about Filipin@/Filipin@-American history and culture while gaining skills and knowledge to succeed in higher education. There is a distinction between Filipin@ and Filipin@-American because each has their own unique history and different experiences. Kapatiran students learn both and are challenged to unpack and analyze their own experiences to better understand their past, present, and future.
The Kababayan Learning Community was established Fall 2003 by Liza Erpelo through funding for the President’s Innovation Fund. Kapatiran is a part of the greater Kababayan community but they never had a joint field trip to Skyline College. Kapatiran students come from two high school sites; South San Francisco (SSF) HS and Westmoor HS. They come from various cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds. These are two high schools located in two different districts which rarely get a chance to see each other.
Students were welcomed by the Outreach team in the morning with breakfast, snacks, and as well as an introduction to Skyline College. From there, students were taught a college style lesson plan by Cypher/Kababayan instructor Roderick Daus-Magbual about “Intergenerational Trauma”. Shortly after they participated in a “High School vs College” activity led by The Learning Center’s own Raymon Gutierrez. Students were given lunch vouchers provided by Lauren Ford from Outreach so that they can experience eating at the Sky Café. It was a working lunch because students were tasked to go on a resources scavenger hunt to visit and speak with different programs/resources on campus. The programs/resources involved were EOPS, Financial Aid, The Learning Center, The Disability Resource Center, SparkPoint, The Transfer Center, TRiO, and Counseling.
After students reported back on their resources, we had a student panel who spoke about their transition from high school to college and any knowledge they would like to share.
We concluded the field trip by playing “Sing It” where students were in mixed teams and had to sing as many songs with the word “love” in it. It got very intense and competitive but at the end of the day, we were all family.
This experience has left an impact on the Kapatiran students. They had fun making friends, learning about Skyline College, and creating connections with Kababayan staff and students.
Thank you to all who were involved.
Article by Alvin Gubatina | Photo by Jenny Yang
