On this page, you’ll find a list of the numerous ways you can get involved in Barkada. We have various committees and groups that you can join that range from singing to dancing to E-Sports to photography. Read more about each group under each tab!
Pilipino Graduation General Committee
Gain leadership experience by shadowing P-Grad executive board and help volunteer and plan Pilipino graduation!
For more information, please contact Frenchesca Dela Pena, P-Grad President, at president@pgradcpp.com
Sportsfest Club
Sportsfest club focuses on building leadership skills, promoting mental health, and practices healthy habits. The main event the club puts together is Pilipinofest. Pilipinofest will be a festival event in March featuring food, sports, games, and cultural dances. Volunteers can earn leadership experience and win prizes such as gift-cards, even a chance to win a Disneyland ticket.
For more information, please contact Barkada’s Athletics Chair, Jayson Pacio, at sports@cppbarkada.org
Historian Committee
Assist in preserving the history of Barkada–come out to events and take the photos and videos that will be uploaded all of Barkada’s social media. No photography experience or camera required. Committee members do not need to attend all events.
For more information, please contact Heather Bautista, Barkada’s Historian, at historian@cppbarkada.org
Come learn and tell stories of Barkada through journalism. For more information contact Athena Aguilar, Barkada’s Public Relation, at pr@cppbarkada.org
Alumni Spotlight: Alyssa SubaHello Barkada! My name is Justin Angeles and today I have Alyssa Suba, Bayan-E’s (2017-2018) Historian, and Luck-E (2018-2019) President. Her creative talents and her hard working attitude made her a phenomenal leader for Barkada. I hope you can give this article a read. Alyssa majored in Psychology and graduated in 2020. She is currently tutoring children while looking for a job. In addition, she is learning how to improve her design and drawing skills. She explores different cultures through short films, animation, food, and music. She even loves to cook and bake. Fun fact, she was born on January 23 (01/23) and is left handed, which she has been told are signs of good luck. Growing up, Alyssa was surrounded by many Filipinos. When she was in high school, the three main things she did were art, running, and her school’s Filipino club. She wanted to continue doing at least two of these things in college. Growing up, Alyssa wanted to study art, but ended up signing up for Architecture, which meant that she would have to leave the Bay. The summer before school started, her mom suggested she join Barkada after hearing about it from a friend. She even gave Alyssa money to pay the membership fee. When freshman orientation came around, she met April Castro, who helped her sign up for classes since she had to leave early for a flight. She signed up for Barkada but did not go to the Asian Pacific Islander Student Center (APISC), one of Barkada’s main hang out spots, for a while. She attended the Tagalog workshops but was still a bit shy around Barkada. However, it changed during Kuya Ate Ading Reveal Night when she got picked up by Marlon Abubo. Her favorite moment with her Barkada family was when she went to Ski Trip with her Kuya Marlon. When they were visiting the lake, there was a small wooden plank that was being used as a bridge. Alyssa thought she could just walk around it but started sinking in the mud and her kuya had to pull her out. Her boot ended up getting stuck. They also found a long strip of ice on the road and tried ice skating on it, but then her kuya slipped and fell on his back. When she picked up her first ading, Isaiah Baltazar, they hung out a lot and even had ice cream day every Tuesday since they didn’t have class. With her ading Diego Cordova, she joined intramurals for the first time to play soccer with him. With her ading Audrea Dayapera, they went on ice cream dates whenever they ran into each other on campus. All the small moments with her adings is something Alyssa cherishes forever. She called her line Sunshine Line because they would get ice cream all the time, and typically someone would get ice cream when it’s sunny outside.Alyssa ended up running for Historian Bayan-E year because people told her that she should run for a position that includes something she already does. Taking pictures and video editing was always something she loved to do. Before she was a psychology major, she was an architecture major. She really wanted to go into design instead of architecture, but wasn’t allowed to. She thought it would be a good opportunity to practice with the Adobe Apps and express her creativity through Barkada. The next year she ran for President. When she was Historian, she ended up recruiting a ton of people for the Historian Committee. It helped her understand how to manage and delegate tasks. After talking to Warjay Naigan, Legac-E’s (2015-2016) President, at the legendary BOFA house, she learned about both positions, even though she only wanted to run for Historian at the time. She decided she would give it a try and push herself out of her comfort zone. She took a leap of faith and she ended up winning the position. Her favorite moments with Bayan-E board were documented in the vlogs. She remembers when they did the Lumpia Chubby Bunny challenge, filming the videos brought joy to her. Some of her other favorite moments were the BGT 90s theme music video, What’s in the Box vlog, Anong Balita Committee picnic, and even the KAA video featuring Barkada member Adi Nur, cause his name sounds like ading. She doesn’t remember much because she was usually asleep.Her favorite Luck-E moments were when they did internal collaborations, such as the one with Hermanos and Hermanas. Since they had to deal with semester conversion, she thought it would be a good opportunity to experiment with many things that year. She also tried to do something with board positions she has not done before to learn a bit about everything. Retreat that year was fun as it was different from her first experience. The random impromptu socials hold many great memories for her. There was even a week where there was a social every day. Even though it was tiring, the excitement she felt that year was contagious. For Anong Balita, Alyssa used the quote, “Control what you can, confront what you can’t, and always remember how lucky you are to have yourself,” which is from a song by the band The Maine. She hears the first part from others all the time, but the last part is what makes this specific version stick with her the most. She says this quote doesn’t always apply to everything, but it’s important to remember that you’re the only one who understands your own experiences. At the end of the day, it’s just you doing your thing.Alyssa did not stop at Barkada’s executive board. She became External Vice President for the Pilipino American Studies Kollective (PASK) and even became the Vice Chairperson for the Southern California Pilipinx-American Student Alliance (SCPASA). She wanted to explore SoCal before moving back home. She loves hearing other people’s stories and she felt like she could expand her worldview as external. One of her favorite moments that year with PASK was the kamayan at UA Barkada house and the Kamayan at La Mesa. With SCPASA, she still can’t believe she helped pull off SCPASA Summit at CPP that year. She had so much fun at Friendship Games, where she was able to meet almost all the externals and hand out stickers she designed just for that day. Alyssa was part of several Barkada houses. She was part of Hyphy House. She remembers the housewarming party that was planned. The nights where people would all just sit around being together were fun. There was even a point where all the roommates were on board (Luck-E year). The random moments and food outings were something she will always look back on. During her last year, she became a part of CrAcKhEaD hAuS for roughly 2 months. Every night was a fun night for her with her roommates, even when they just watched the same music videos every night. She had so many memories with Infinit-E’s (2020-2021) External Affairs, Ma Vien Dizon, where they would randomly go study, hang out, or meet up with other externals.Barkada was quite different back then. For her first two years, CPP used the quarter system and converted to the semester system at the beginning of her third year. There was rapid growth in communication via social media between different platforms and features that were more useful to organizations. For her personally, Alyssa was finding herself amongst all these changes. She switched her major from Architecture to Psychology in hopes of learning about perception and creativity. Alyssa was doing things that she felt she wanted to do instead of things that she was told to do which made her happier. She felt like she could take a step back and experience the world around her for once. Alyssa recommends that everyone in Barkada should go to Historian Committee workshops. She wants to place an importance on not only preserving things but the work that goes into it as well. Being able to see the process is important—just because something is easy to look at doesn’t mean it was easy to make. For Alyssa, she felt that if Barkada helped her learn a lot about her own culture, then the other cultural clubs on campus would help her learn a lot about their respective cultures. She believes that everyone should externalize and internalize at least once to learn from other organizations.Alyssa’s favorite place to get food is at Korean restaurants such as Love Letter, Mister Bossam, or Red Castle. The sweet potato pizza from Love Letter Pizza & Chicken lives in her mind rent free. There were many places to get Korean food in SoCal compared to the Bay Area, and Barkada introduced her to a lot of it.As much fun as Alyssa had in Barkada, she learned many things like learning how to “let it marinate,” which is a term Alyssa randomly started using during board meetings. She exclaims that it’s one step to let things soak in, but it’s another step to really internalize your experiences and use them to better yourself as a person. She thinks about her many memories and looks at them as lessons through self reflection. In the future, Alyssa would like to see a Barkada LinkedIn group to connect people with jobs and opportunities, especially outside of Southern California. More people are starting to use LinkedIn nowadays which would be a fantastic opportunity for Barkada for networking. During her years on board, they always talked about wanting to help older members with career planning and after-college things, but had a hard time carrying it out. Alyssa hopes to see Anong Balita continue. She exclaims that a video can’t capture everything, and that sometimes words can capture memories in a unique way. Anong Balita has the ability to give opportunities for Barkada members to tell stories. Alyssa has made so many achievements in Barkada. In addition to being Bayan-E’s Historian, Luck-E President, PASK’s External Vice President, and SCPASA’s Vice Chairperson, she helped preserve Barkada history by downloading all the data from the Barkada WikiSpace before the site closed down and transferred it to the Barkada website. This included the names of board members from the 1980s and 1990s as well as the entire list of lifetime members. With the advice from her predecessors Aaron Lucela and Alyssa Castro, she made Historian Committee workshops at the beginning of the school year an annual event. She even designed the Luck-E year shirts. Furthermore, she is a big reason why meetings are bi-weekly in the evening instead of every week at University Hour. She didn’t want members to even think about debating between attending academic club meetings and Barkada meetings. Having longer time slots and creating more substantial meetings would make the experience better for the members that did attend these longer bi-weekly meetings. Alyssa misses Barkada dearly. She misses being able to hit people up and go out randomly. It’s difficult to do that now, especially in a pandemic (but mostly because she lives so far away). She misses the energy and seeing everyone so excited for whatever is going on. She misses helping other people learn about themselves. It was hard to feel terrible being surrounded by the people she loved. If Alyssa could say one thing for the members right now, she said, “Try something you don’t think you will ever do at least once. Try to look at things outside of how you normally would. You don’t know what you don’t know. Seek things out and be adventurous.” Alyssa would like to give a shoutout to everyone in her line: her kuyas, adings, cos, grands, and great grands. Shoutout to the JBEEs, Triple A Cos, Benny’s, Hyphy House, BTBWAR, Retirement Line, CrAcKhEaD hAuS, her fellow Royalt-E babies and Royalt-E Board, Bayan-E Board, Bayan-E babies, Luck-E Board, Luck-E babies, Schlaz-E Board, Tiwala Board, and everyone who helped her along the way in college. Thank you for everything Alyssa. I will always remember the time we went to Los Angeles in the middle of the night to have a random photoshoot. I think about the fun times we had whenever I visited Hyphy House and I look back on Luck-E Board memories still. You were an amazing leader. I was honored to serve with you. I miss you lots, best wishes and much love. ...
Alumni Spotlight: William HuaHello Barkada! My name is Justin Angeles and today, I have William Hua, Legac-E’s (2015-2016) Social Chair. He has a kind heart and is always just being his loveable authentic self. Thanks for your support! I hope you enjoy this article.William graduated in 2017 as a Hospitality Management major. He is currently working as a corporate event planner. Before the pandemic, he travelled throughout the nation executing various corporate meetings and conferences traveling to different states like New Jersey, New York, Florida, and California. In his free time, he loves to dance and cook. Originally, he got into hospitality because he wanted to become a chef. However, after his tenure as Social Chair, he fell in love with event planning and eventually obtained an event planning job with ASI. He expresses a lot of his gratitude to Barkada for making him the person he is today.William joined Barkada because of Renz Soriano, Legac-E’s ASI/MCC Representative. They met in the dorms during welcome week. Initially, he drew towards Barkada because of their wild parties, but it was the people and culture that made him stay. Barkada allowed him to feel Fillpino even though he is ethnically Vietnamese. The first person he met in Barkada was Pia Radaza-Sumalinog, who was Fanc-E’s (2014-2015) Secretary at that time. Pia drove William to Lumpia Night and they became closer friends. William felt that no one understood his humor but Pia was a big catalyst for him to stay because there was that understanding between them. He enjoyed Barkada’s camaraderie and after checking out other clubs, he ultimately decided that Barkada was the right club for him.William got picked up by Francis Yu Cordova and became a part of POT Line. At first glance, they seemed so different, but their shared interest in tennis and anime brought them together. Eventually, William picked up his one and only ading , Jethro Lapena, and the rest is history! William describes France and Jethro as “Gentle Giants”, always helping William from Point A to Point B and having brothers like them in his life is truly an honor.William ran for Social Chair because he wanted to create a family feel for Barkada. He wanted to be that person who extended his hand and welcomed members. He knew that there were so many big personalities in Barkada and that it could be intimidating at first, but as Social Chair, his main goal was to have people feel accepted and loved.In 2015, William was in charge of Friendship Games. His theme was Barkada’s Top Model because he wanted members to feel empowered to be themselves. “During our day to day lives, we are not models.” William wanted members to be pushed out of their comfort zones. Utilizing the Barkada tradition of adding strippers to their Friendship Games interaction, William pushed his creativity to the max. Friendship Games became their runway. However, his favorite part about Friendship Games was actually Hype Nights, the week-long preparation for Friendship Games. William remembers his Legac-E babies having no knowledge about Friendship Games, but after a couple practices, it all changed. He saw everyone come together because when Barkada arrived at Cal State Fullerton, they strutted across their way to the main field like supermodels. William states that “it was a true honor to lead them that day and I look back on those memories as one of my proudest moments”.Driving to Friendship Games was an adventure as well because the freeway was shut down due to an accident. He knew his members needed him so he decided to be an illegal driver and drove on the exit way to cut through the traffic. He wanted to carry the torch that his predecessors before him carried. He just wanted to have everyone feel like themselves because he knows how it feels to be left out. William holds so much pride and admiration for the members that went from being shy and timid to unapologetically expressing themselves.His favorite moment with Legac-E Board was the Lake Arrowhead Retreat. Getting to know everybody on a much deeper level is an experience he will always remember. They came as 13, but they left as 1. Everyone felt so close and vulnerable and bonded together because of the fact that they all loved Barkada and wanted to give back to a club that gave us so much already.If William could go back in time and tell his Barkada self one thing, he would have told himself the following, “I know you have a lot to give, but don't forget to provide for yourself as well. I know you love the members, but how can you love them if you don’t love yourself first? You will lose yourself in the process.”Back then in Barkada, the humor was different. Raving was not a thing. Pop punk, High School Musical, and throwback music was at its peak. Everyone could be their child-like self in Barkada. College felt like what you wanted to be like in high school without any judgement. Members were able to nerd out on the things that made them happy. William believes that all members should go to Barkada’s Got Talent (BGT). Other than Friendship Games, BGT was William’s favorite event and holds a special place in his heart. Having a platform to express yourself is important. William was always figuring out how to express himself in Barkada. When he saw Dwight Ong, Royalt-E’s (2016-2017) Public Relations paint on stage, it changed the whole scope for him. He realized anything could be performed on stage. He loves how everyone there is supportive and decided to come back to perform one last time in 2020 and dance on stage as an homage to all the performances he did before. Check out his performance below:www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiv0_7JP-mM&ab_channel=cppBECSome of William’s favorite places to get food in Barkada was Banana Bay, Jinza Teriyaki, and Mr. BBQ in Fullerton. He would always go during University Hour and may occasionally skip class to go with his closest friends, Miguel Cuyugan and Warjay Naigan. As much as William did have fun, a big learning moment was learning how to ask for help. Knowing when to take a step back was a learning curve for himself.. Helping people is a good thing but he realized that he should not get caught up with everything. He needed to help himself too. He also realized that just because you graduate doesn’t mean Barkada leaves you. Till this day, it feels like Barkada is still a part of him.In the future, William would like to see SPUF, Spirit, Pride, Unity, and Friendship being relevant still. The friendship part is the most important. The friendships he made in that club are still his closest friends till this day.Other than Legac-E Social Chair, he was (2016-2017) Pilipino Graduation Vice President, he won social butterfly twice, comedy king, and best group with the Shit Shack which consisted of Renz, Alyssa, Jimmy, Jose, and Anthony. He even choreographed Malakas at Maganda. With his ballet background, he was able to fuse his knowledge of contemporary dancing with Filipino culture. William misses seeing everyone on a day to day basis. University Hour at the Asian Pacific Islander Student Center had so many memories. Asking friends to get Subway meant so much to him. The small moments and the camaraderie that he felt in the APISC was unforgettable. If William could say one thing for the members right now, he said, “Stay strong. Times for the current member are unprecedented. I have a lot of empathy for the members in the pandemic right now. Your time will come to see each other again. When you do see each other, bask in that moment, and be yourself. Cry if you want to cry, smile if you want to smile, Those memories are the best memories. It is hard now, and you missed out on a lot, but you’ll come back even stronger.”William would like to give a shoutout to SS, Renz Soriano,Alyssa Francois, Jose Correa, Anthony DeVera, and honorary Barkada Member, Jimmy Phu. He also wants to give a shout out to his ading Jethro Lapenia, and his kuya, Francis Cordova. Shoutout to Legac-E Board and Legac-E babies. Special shoutout to the babies because you guys are still babies to him and he is still so proud of them. ...
Alumni Spotlight: Oliver RafolsHello Barkada! My name is Justin Angeles and today I have Oliver Rafols. He was Fanc-E’s (2014-2015) Culture Chair. Thank you for all the fun conversations and haircuts Oli. Hit him up for all your haircut needs. Oli joined Barkada during Steez-E year (2011-2012) and graduated in 2017 with a degree in Business Administration Accounting with a minor in Hospitality. In his free time he likes to try out different hobbies some of which include photography and cutting hair. He catches up with his Barkada friends from time to time, even providing haircuts for a majority of them.Initially joining Barkada as a means to build clientele for his barber business, Oli stayed because he enjoyed the company and conversations and eventually ran for Culture Chair. Oli ran for Culture Chair because he wanted to write the script for Pilipino American Culture Night (PACN) primarily, but also to grow as a leader. He lost the first time he ran but it helped him grow as a person, as he felt like he needed to work on becoming more approachable and reliable. He helped out with PACN, attended Pilipino American History Month workshops, and even became the Pilipino American Studies Kollective President. He ran again and became Fanc-E’s Culture Chair.His favorite memory with Fanc-E board was seeing PACN come together. Planning a student run production is tough for anyone, and he feared that he was micromanaging the whole play. Nonetheless, the perseverance, the hardships and the overall enjoyment from the members made it worth it. Working with Fanc-E’s Barkada Entertainment Company Coordinator, Bryan Naugit, they managed to put on a show. In the real world, most people would just see PACN as just a play. However, in the actual show, Oli thought to himself that this was going to be the last time he would perform the dance and it was dawning on him that PACN was more than just a play, it was one of the most surreal experiences for him that he will never forget.Oli took inspiration for PACN from watching gangster movies. It focused on finding a sense of community while balancing life. It touched on the different perspectives in the Filipino community in regards to life and family, as the title “We Are” was a reference to Barkada’s unity clap, as he believed it’s what brought everyone of different backgrounds together.Alongside being Fanc-E’s Culture Chair, he was PASK President. He even won the one-of-a-kind superlative twice and member of the year. He exclaimed that it never hurts to be one of a kind, people will gravitate to you. If you stand out, stand out.In between PACN practices and at Barkada parties, Oli, Irwin Soria, and Gilbert Rose would make rap cyphers. It was normal to have freestyle rap sessions over classical instrumentals back then. They had days of the week like Two Bar Tuesday and Four Bar Friday. They would just mess around in between dance practices and occasionally send each other snapchats of themselves freestyling. They still do it every now and then. Oli also picked up numerous adings in Barkada, whom are Andre Moreno, Kirsten Gavina, Daniel Rogel, Nader Esmael, CJ Rambuyan, and Matthew Ceballos. Oli picked up Matt Ceballos as his last ading and one of his favorite moments was during reveal when he and Irwin (Matt’s other kuya) stood at the side to have no one there for him as a prank. They constantly bond through their similar interests, which include sports, photography, roasting each other and turning many situations into meme references. In addition, Oli picked up Nader, who he got to know through football. He also picked up Kirsten, who he didn’t know he went to high school with, but bonded more outside of Barkada, as they both share an interest in haircutting/hairstyling. He picked up Daniel Rogel as well, and liked how they could talk about the most random things. He initially picked up CJ Rambuyan during Fanc-E year as a joke, but because CJ submitted a KAA form that year, Oli unknowingly picked up CJ’s entire line. But before all of that, him and CJ were teammates on Barkada’s football team and they would constantly roast each other during practice. He also picked up Andre as his first ading during Class-E year, who he bonded with over their love of sports, music, and photography. He speaks highly of Andre’s work ethic and how he carries himself as a person, and credits that to his wanting to learn more about people and the world around him.Oli recommends that all members go to Barkada’s First General Meeting as it’s a great way to network and know who the board members are, and that all first gens he has attended have been amazing. He never once felt out of place in the event because of how approachable the board members were. It’s a great opportunity to get rid of the jitters of not knowing people and going out of one’s comfort zone. Some of Oli’s favorite places to get food in Barkada was Yard House, Bdubs, Panda Express, and Innovation Brew Works. Oli was down for anything. As much as Oli did enjoy himself in college, he did learn many things.Oli learned to take things at face value given that Barkada was composed of many people of many different backgrounds. He learned that it does not matter what others thought of him. He learned that he could just be himself, and that the ones who will be there for him will be there for him. What he put in Barkada is what he got out of it, as he references one of Barkada’s mottos, “Stupid is cool and cool is stupid.”In the future, Oli would like to see more alumni outreach and appreciates anything involving alumni. Oli still checks to see what Barkada is doing nowadays and loves to see how the organization is evolving. Oli misses everything about Barkada; going out with his friends, learning about the culture, people subtly reminding him to stay on top of his grades, and the overall camaraderie. He misses the social aspects of Barkada. It becomes difficult to catch up with friends after graduating. If Oli could say one thing for the members right now, he said, “Just do your thing. Live life. Enjoy it to the fullest.”Lastly, Oli would like to give a shoutout to everyone he met in Barkada and outside of Barkada. Stay real and do your thing. ...
Alumni Spotlight: Jherray BabidaHello Barkada! My name is Justin Angeles, CPP Barkada’s President, and today I have Jherray Babida. He was Steez-E’s (2011-2012) Secretary, Class-E’s (2012-2013) Social Chair, and Fanc-E’s (2014-2015) President. He is a rare three time board member. Thank you for the interview. I hope you enjoy it!Jherray started college in 2010. He studied Computer Information Systems before switching to Business Administration Marketing. He did not graduate but he currently has a finance job at Merrill Lynch as a Registered Client Associate. He helps financial advisors manage their book of business and deals directly with several high net worth clients. In his free time, he plays Call of Duty as well as Dungeons and Dragons with his friends. He is also in the process of starting his own alcohol/custom bottle business! Jherray’s first Barkada memories are of Andrew Amante, Shea Salinas, and Kevin Tsu at the club fair giving him a lei and a bunch of condoms. After being invited to Barkada’s Summer Luau, he was springboarded into the organization. They made fun of Jherray, a freshmen at the time, for bringing a cooler filled with water and Arizona iced teas. Nonetheless, he enjoyed the company of everyone he met that day and fell in love with the organization. As such, he decided to join the Kuya Ate Ading mentorship program and got picked up by his Ate, Rizza Piamonte, Steez-E’s External Affairs. Barkada was great at promoting family and togetherness which resonated heavily with Jherray. He wanted to do his best to give that experience back to the younger members to show them that Barkada is more than just a club. As a result, he ran for Secretary because he was organized, was great at typing, and was always good at taking notes. Jherrary continued to give back and ran for Social Chair the next year. Jherray always loved getting to meet new members and Friendship Games, his favorite annual event. He remembers getting sick the week of Friendship Games his Social Chair year and chugging that magical orange juice from the farm store all week trying to get over the sickness. He showed up to Friendship Games not feeling well, but pushed through anyway. Their theme that year was wedding. After Friendship Games was over he went back to CPP to rest. He still wanted to go to the clubbing event at The Grove, so he busted a mission and partied the night away. Jherray always wanted to be President. He decided to run next year but lost. He was distant from the club the year after that, but after some convincing by friends, he decided to run for President again the year after. He learned a lot from that year. Jherray admits that he wishes he could have done more with Fanc-E board to support them and be there for them. His favorite moment with them was the end of the year banquet watching the final slideshow and crying with everyone. Seeing everyone relieved and thankful that they made it through the year meant everything for him.Jherray enjoyed his time in Barkada. He remembers getting Super Fries with his friends from Albertos and always getting L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. He gets nostalgic about PACN and loved acting on stage when he was a freshman. He remembers messing up his pick up line on stage and dancing the Kordilyera suite with the boys. As much as Jherray had fun, he learned many lessons from Barkada. Jherray learned that communication is key, especially when work gets overwhelming to the point of burnout. He learned that the whole 13 strong mentality is important for the overall well being of a team. Jherray learned to understand where people come from. He recognized that every problem is different each year and that everyone has their own lessons to learn. Lastly, he learned that what he put into his work is what he got out of it.Jherray believes all members should go to Lumpia Night because there is something about sharing and making a meal together that brings people together. Some of the best conversation he had was whenever he was making a meal together with his friends. He got to know more people in Barkada at Lumpia Night. Jherray also believes that it is important to connect with the outside organization and externalize.Jherray pushed for Barkada to be more active with SCPASA and external organizations. In fact, Jherray met his wife because of SCPASA. After meeting USC’s President at the SCPASA President’s dinner, they were then invited to a Troy Phi party in Los Angeles. USC’s President introduced them (she was their IVP at the time) and they played a game of beer pong together. A month later, they saw each other again at another party and they talked the whole night and he even walked her home. The next day, he took her on a date at The Grove in Los Angeles and the rest is history. When Jherray proposed to her, he recreated their first date at Umami Burger. It was the day after their four year anniversary and he had tricked her into thinking they were going to see the musical. Wicked, to make sure she was dressed up. After dinner, he walked her to a giant stuffed panda (her favorite animal) in the middle of the mall. Next to the panda was a box with one of their favorite quotes and a ring pop inside. As she freaked out, he took a step back, got on one knee and proposed. She said yes and they recently just got married this past February! In the future, Jherray would like to see Barkada become more politically and socially active. In addition, he wants to see more alumni connected to the younger members. They have so much insight to share. He recognizes that building a strong community can make a powerful asset. Jherray misses walking inside the APISC and feeling so welcomed by Barkada. He misses that camaraderie. Being able to know every single person in the API and having legitimate conversations is something he will forever miss. As people get older, those kinds of connections are a lot harder to come by. If Jherray could say one thing for the members right now, he said, “I know that it seems that Barkada is everything to you in college right now, but remember to focus on yourself and your own personal growth. There is so much more than just Barkada out there.” Jherray would like to give a shoutout to Nast-E Board for showing him what Barkada is all about. Without them, he would not have felt so passionate about Barkada. Shoutout to Steez-E, Class-E, and Fanc-E Boards for all the good times and memories! He will always cherish those great times on E-Board. Shoutout to every Barkada member past and present that has contributed to what it is today and what it can be in the future. Shoutout to grand kuya, Andrew, his Ate, Rizza, and his adings, Francis, Jonny, Dakota, Jerron and Nicole! ...
Alumni Spotlights: April CastroHello Barkada! My name is Justin Angeles, CPP Barkada’s President, and today I have April Castro, Fanc-E’s (2014-2015) ASI/MCC Representative. She is a hard worker who does her best to help those around her. I hope you enjoy this article.April graduated from CPP in 2018 and majored in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management and Human Resources. She recently graduated and obtained her Master of Education from USC’s Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs (PASA) program. She does a variety of work as the employer relations and internship specialist for career services at Otis College for Art and Design. She helps people through career development and the job/internship experience, as well as support the event and marketing management. Furthermore, she volunteers for various community groups and organizations, including the NASPA Asian Pacific Islander Knowledge Community, LEAD Filipino, and the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies. She is trying to learn more and collaborate with researchers and practitioners in increasing knowledge about APIDA-identified students and Filipinx-identified students in higher education. In her free time, she exercises and goes on walks on scenic routes to different places trying to get back in shape and maintain her health. She has even been painting recently on canvases and exploring Procreate. She also enjoys watching internet influencers and listening to podcasts to get a better understanding of the world. She is a big fan of memes and is creating a whole meme book for her students. She is an avid dog lover and puppy enthusiast. Lastly, she has been cooking with her mom back home. She joined Barkada during Dream-E year (2013-2014). She knew people from highschool who went to CPP and they suggested that April join Barkada when they found out she was going to CPP as well. She thought everyone was so cool after attending their First General Meeting. The first people she met in Barkada were Renz Soriano, Legac-E’s (2015-2016) ASI/MCC Representative, and Paige Gutierrez, Dream-E’s Public Relations. She did not spend much time in the Asian Pacific Islander Student Center as she was still commuting to campus and was a busy architect major. She also wanted to explore more of her campus and join other programs at school, such as Resident Hall Council at Encinitas. She started to interact with Barkada more after one Friendship Games practice where she walked with her fellow Dream-E Babies back to the dorms. It was not until Barkada’s Got Talent where she got involved with the organization. She would practice performing for the show and met people like Michael Belicano, Iggy, Maya, JD, Pia, and Carlo. Over the years, she started to dance to K-pop on stage with her friends. Little did she know, along with the Dream-E kpop performance her freshman year, it would leave a legacy because Barkada dances to K-pop everytime now during the talent show. One of her favorite moments from Dream-E year was when they barricaded Kevin Yang, Legac-E’s Treasurer, with barstools while he fell asleep one day at the architecture building. She gets nostalgic thinking about her time in the dorms at Alamitos when her, Warjay, and Bryan decided to make longanisa with rice for dinner. With her talents, she decided to be on stage again at Barkada’s Pilipino American Culture Night (PACN). She ended up being on the tinikling team and her partner was Oliver Rafols. She remembers her first tinikling hell night vividly because they practiced the whole night. They even got to sunrise and the custodians were setting up the new trash cans for the new day. April continued to participate in PACN during her time in Barkada, like coordinating Maria Clara with RJ Reyes and Project Obvious. Then Legac-E year, she was Rural Coordinator alongside Warjay Naigan and acted as Violet in PACN XXVI “What If”. During the play, she was part of the comedic best friend duo with her friend Stephen. April loved the character she played because she was the best friend who would always look out for the best in her friends. She got to be close with fellow actors, like Adrian, Janine, Megan, Marlon, Ismail, and Shirin. She is thankful for Miriya Gutierrez for writing an amazing script and being an amazing, supportive director. With her acting knowledge, she became an acting director the next year to help out Barkada. She learned so much about her culture and grew as an individual through PACN. The culmination of practices and memories with Barkada is something April will forever cherish. As April got close with Barkada, she decided to sign up for the Kuya Ate Ading mentorship program in her first year. She always gets excited whenever her family is trying to take a picture together because getting everyone together can be quite difficult with everyone being busy in college. Nonetheless, there was one time where her Barkada family, Your Line in April, went to McDonalds to get french fries and chicken nuggets, which ended up being one of her favorite moments with her family. She has met every single person in her family while she was attending and working at CPP, even though she had several adings. She is surprised at how big her family has grown. When she picked up her ading Marlon, she remembers seeing himself wrapped in gift wrapping paper at KAA reveal and just laughing at such a wholesome, iconic sight. Even though she has graduated, she does her best to meet up with them virtually, or text/call them to help out in any way she can and just catch up. She appreciates all the time she has had with them.After feeling like she found her place in Barkada, she decided to run for ASI/MCC Representative. Being involved with many different areas in campus already, she wanted to connect Barkada with these services and expand Barkada as a community, as a whole. She wanted to make members feel like it was a safe space, like they belong in school. There was this stigma that if someone was an architecture major, they would not have any time for anything on campus. She wanted to prove that architecture majors, or anyone enrolled in a rigorous/intense major, can still get involved with the community in their own way. April won that year and became a part of Fanc-E Board.Her favorite moment with Fanc-E Board was Friendship Games. April was not able to come to Friendship Games when she was a first year, so the whole experience was new to her. Their theme was Dr. Seuss that year. From building the props and sharing the energy amongst each other, it became one of the most exciting experiences for her. She remembers Jherray hyping everyone up and leading the chants that year. Even practices were fun. She remembers painting the props and seeing people on the day of just eat, drink, and make dance circles. The camaraderie and the people around her was unforgettable. Even the videos they made that year were amazing. To promote Friendship Games, they did the Rap Battle parody of Key and Peele to promote hype nights. She was the host for that video and it was just an overall goofy video to film. In addition to Friendship Games, April got involved with volleyball and basketball intramurals for Barkada. She remembers filming the intramural promotional video and just playing basketball with Shaugn, Jherray, and Oli late at night. They would mess up and retake a few shots but she still loved just being able to be there with her friends to enjoy the little moments. Being placed in these wacky situations and parody videos brought April out of her shell, even with the video where they taped lumpia to her face to promote Lumpia Night. Board retreat was just an eye opening experience to her because she got to learn more about her fellow board members on a deeper level. It was a tough year but she was happy that she was able to be a part of Fanc-E Board.With her ASI/MCC Representative skills, she started working for ASI at the BRIC. She was there just making sure equipment was working and providing remedies wherever she was needed. Even though she loved the people she was working with, she felt like she was not growing as an individual at the BRIC. As a result, she applied for the student activities programming office, which is now called BEAT on campus. She got the job and she fell in love with event planning. She was excited to be involved on campus again, while also getting paid at the same time. She worked as an assistant, then became a supervisor for the team. After graduating, she stayed in BEAT to help support the student staff as she figured out grad school. She is thankful to have met fellow supervisors and mentors who guided her through the second half of her CPP journey, like Sharon Rocacorba, the Associate Director of Programs for ASI and the first Filipina April met to have a professional role in a higher position. She became a mentor for April as she moved on in her career. Being a part of BEAT and Barkada helped her in her career as she still uses what she learned from there today. She still helped out Barkada when she worked for BEAT by providing resources and updates for free food, scantrons, and personal/professional development. She even helped get some Barkada members jobs at ASI.In Fanc-E’s Anong Balita issue, April used the quote, “The little things, the little moments, they aren’t little to me.” For April, the small moments where she was able to just sit down with her friends when they had a rough time, the little moments during PACN practices, and moments as simple as just talking about life meant more to her than big extravagant events in her life. The small things are what makes up someone's life. It could be as simple as just saying hi, hanging out in the study rooms in the library, hanging out at Starbucks or LO, or watching anime at Barkada’s weeb night. Those were some of the best moments in college for her. Barkada was quite different back then. The majority of Barkada listened to old school hip hop and punk rock. “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” by Fall Out Boy was played at every single Barkada event. Now people are getting into EDM and going to raves. Nonetheless, bonding over music is something April will always remember from Barkada.April believes all Barkada members should go to PACN orientation. April exclaimed that even if somebody missed out during the first half of Barkada, as long as they see what PACN is all about at orientation they will feel like they did not miss out on anything. PACN orientation teaches members about the dances and Filipino American Culture. There is something for everyone. Many coordinators want members to join their dances because every Barkada member has potential to perform on stage. In addition, Apil recommends members to attend the end of the year banquet because that is when the new board is revealed. Seeing their friends up on stage and become future leaders is inspiring. Alumni even come out to see the new board and to check out the last performances of the year from Barkada Band, P-Notes, and the Cultural Dance Troupe. Members can even dress up fancy with their friends. It’s a great way to end the year. In her free time, April loved going to places like Pacific Fish Grill to get dollar fried fish tacos with her Kuya Maurice Rhee. She loved getting frachos at Yard House for the fifty percent off appetizers during happy hour and Taqueria de Anda, her favorite place for tacos. For desserts, she loves getting Frostbites, which is shaved ice combined with vanilla ice cream (unfortunately there isn’t one near her in Los Angeles).April learned many lessons in Barkada. She was physically weak, but she learned how to become mentally tough. She learned that someone will always be there for her even if it does not seem clear. It could have been her best friend or even her ading. She learned to ask for help from whoever it may be. Things were quite different in college, so April learned how to take things at her own pace. She learned that it is better to fall in love with her passions rather than rush through her college career. Sometimes things fall apart, but at the end, things always come together. She learned to chase for whatever she wanted no matter what the outcome might be. In the future, April would love to see alumni connect with the current Barkada. It does not even have to be Barkada related but it can be about life in general. There is much potential for alumni to mentor students because they were once in their shoes. April thinks it would be cool to do an Instagram livestream with alumni to help give them an opportunity to talk about their stories. Furthermore, it would be cool if Barkada shared their talents more. There are a ton of dancers, singers, and artists who could gain a big support from Barkada’s audience. April misses the energy of Barkada. No matter what the room or environment is, Barkada always comes through with everything they have. One of the reasons she decided to have a career in education was because of the energy she saw in Barkada and seeing people’s passions come together. She misses sitting outside to the APISC to have one-on-one conversation with her friends. She even misses when people would yell far away to just say hi whenever she and others were sitting outside the building. There was always something exciting happening at the APISC. If April could say one thing to the members right now, she said, “Lean on each other. This time right now is going to be tough. There are different ways you can all connect with each other for five minutes or a lifetime, and it can be tough when you are just at home when not a lot of people are around you. Just be real and honest to yourself. Talk to staff and faculty and just talk to them about anything. It does not even have to be about job experience. There are many people who can help you with your education and through your life. Turn to each other for help.”April would like to give a shoutout to Dream-E Board, Dream-E babies, and all her Dream-E friends. They played a significant role for her and paved the way for college and her life. Shoutout to Fanc-E Board and Fanc-E babies because they taught her many things about herself. She learned how to be vulnerable through them. Shoutout to the friends she made throughout the years, and still keeps in contact with, for all the memories and fun and catch-ups. Shoutout to her kuya, Maurice Rhee and her co’s Marielle & Jerald, and her family Your Line in April: all of her adings, grands, great grands, 4Gs, and 5Gs. Shoutout to all the people she has collaborated with and taught her about what it takes to work together. Shoutout to Martha & Team S, which are Bryan, JD, James, Patricia, and Jessica. Lastly, shoutout to ASI. ...
