Do you want to get involved? Do you want more of a cultural impact in your life? Join Niles North’s Filipino Club. Niles North provides over fifty cultural, athletic, and student-involved clubs and organizations for students. Of the various multi-cultural clubs, Filipino Club is one of the most well-known organizations at Niles North.

Filipino Club kicked off the 2015 school year with their first orientation early September, welcoming both old and fresh new faces. Club presidents, Franzel Siron and Patrick Cayanan, led the first meeting with icebreaker games and an introduction for the various, exciting events that are happening for the 2015-2016 year.

“For this year, the Filipino board members are planning to participate in more performance opportunities at school events such as pep assemblies, Winter Party, and International Night. Every year, Filipino club also participates in a collegiate level traditional dance competition called Battle of the Bamboo (BOTB) at the University of Illinois-Chicago,” Siron said.

“This year, we’ve added a program called the Ate/Kuya program, which means older brother and older sister. This’ll be an effective way for an upperclassmen to form a group with the underclassmen and help make the underclassmen members feel welcome and supported in the club,” Cayanan said.

As a proud member of Filipino club, I can easily say that I admire how members of the club welcome everyone and anyone equally with open arms. Being a new student last year, I decided to attend Filipino club and I instantly made new friends with students from various ethnic backgrounds- not just from Filipino heritage either. Most importantly, it was incredible to see how much people valued Philippine culture altogether- whether it came to the food, dances, and traditions celebrated in the Philippines. Although I was one of the few Filipinos that wasn’t born from the native homeland, hearing stories about cultural impacts and assimilations from students who were born in the Philippines made me appreciate my cultural background even more.

Jaycee Almanza, senior, expresses his happiness over the progression of success that Filipino club has gone through the past four years he’s been a member.

“People should know more about Filipino club because collectively we’re all one big family, and every meeting we bring out the smiles and laughter within one another. Of my four years of being in this club, I’ve definitely made great memories that I’ll always keep with me,” Almanza said.

Filipino club meetings are held every Monday after school in room 2400 west (W.)