Community colleges are the biggest bang for our buck, and yet there are so many Filipino Americans out there who do not respect such schools. With the higher education landscape rapidly changing, the notion of what constitutes a “good school” should be reconsidered. Moreover, there are some schools that provide a more relevant education for Filipino Americans than most four-year institutions.
In this TFAL episode, we talk to Dr. Lily Ann Villaraza, Professor and Chair of the Philippine Studies Department at City College of San Francisco. In our discussion, we talk about the value of community colleges, the large stigma of this branch of education in the Filipino American community, the unique student life of community college students, and how the City College of San Francisco has provided Philippine Studies course to its students for more than 50 years. In addition, the TFAL crew discusses what our impressions of community college growing up and how we all need to check our perspectives and biases during the intro.
Listen or download the episode through the embedded player on this page, find us on Mixcloud or subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts here. And for folks on Spotify, you can listen to us here.
What is your experience as a community college student? Leave us a voicemail and let us know 805.394.TFAL or email us at thisfilipinoamericanlife@gmail.com.
Yeah, Filipino society prizes traditional 4 year college education. Learning basic life skills should figure more into the upbringing of the Filipino. Finding one’s passion that is marketable is the challenge in life after high school. Perhaps some of the prestige Filipino 4 year institution’s attitude , UST, UP, etc migrated to seek similar institutions came here.
The word college means coming together to focusedly learn. It does not specify that it has to be a special location like Westwood. It also should not be specific age group- like God forbid some rogue group activity like the white males in the movie Animal House.🤦🏻♂️
Love your podcast😀
Thanks for your kind and insightful words, George. So glad someone is listening to the podcast. =)