#usfafs

Members of AFS were invited to attend the inaugural, two-day Embark Leadership Summit this summer. The conference was organized by experienced facilitators in the USF community with the goal, perhaps best articulated by Facilitator Stephany Delgado, to "embetter your orgs and embetter yourselves". The summit offered several workshops which taught attendees valuable skills intended to aid them during their time both as student leaders, and as professionals after graduation. Attendance was comprised of students of many different ages, but who all shared the goal of improving themselves and--by extension--the university population.

The summit provided not only the opportunity to develop leadership skills, but also network with some of the prominent leaders in the school's community. Many of the USF multicultural organizations were represented by members of their executive boards, such as: VENUS, Sig Rho, aKDPhi, ASIA, BSA, KASA, and PDPsi.

The first day included informative lectures on writing and maintaining a resume, as well as proper interview protocol--both led by Facilitator Melissa Thammavongsa. Drawing on her considerable experience at USF Career Services, Embark attendees learned the do's and don't's of navigating the job market; such as DO supplement minimal work experience with leadership positions, but DON'T list your GPA if it's below a 3.0. Clearly, the former Treasurer of the Multicultural Greek Council and current President of aKDPhi succeeded in assisting attendees with their "professional growth and personal as well" through her educational presentations, which she stated as her goal during the introduction of Embark.

In addition to the seminars, the Embark facilitators helped attendees really develop their leadership skills through practice. Facilitators worked with small groups to teach them professionalism even in challenging situations through skits, mock job interviews, and games. A few rounds of Tank--teams consisting of two people throw projectiles at other teams while one member of each team is blindfolded--were memorable but also extremely entertaining challenges of communication between team members. Games like this, as well as the surprise talk with USFSG President Jean Cocco and Vice President Rhondel Whyte serve as examples of how the conference was both educational and enjoyable for all those involved.

The well-executed event indicates the planning that must have gone into it by the facilitators, the majority of which are upperclassmen. One might ask why these young adults who will be graduating soon would bother with all the effort that Embark required. Facilitator Romel Pancho's introduction explained it well: "a good leader helps those around them succeed." All the facilitators were chosen due to their extensive experience and roles in the USF community, and AFS is grateful for the time and talent these leaders donated and are eager to apply what they learned at Embark during this upcoming year.

  LINKS

Embark Leadership Summit facebook event page

Asian Students in America facebook page 

ASIA Embark Leadership summit photos 

VENUS Interest Group facebook page 

alpha Kappa Delta Phi Sorority facebook page 

Sigma Beta Rho Fraternity facebook page 

Pi Delta Psi Fraternity facebook page 

Bengali Students Association facebook page 

JULY 11, 2O14

Members of the eboard and Recruitment Committee made the trip to the University of Florida in order to attend UFFSA's Go Fest 2014: Guilty Pleasure. The annual summer retreat welcomes eboards from all local Filipino Student Associations throughout Florida and as far as Georgia. Other universities in attendance included Florida State, Central Florida, North Florida, Florida International, Georgia Tech, and Georgia State. Attendees enjoyed three days full of leadership training, dance and sports, as well as networking events.

After attending the interclub social Friday night, guests congregated bright and early at the Lake Wauburg clubhouse for the training conference. All schools delivered presentations created to help eboards learn about everything from professionalism at events, to efficient tabling techniques. USFAFS led the gathering through a sample general board meeting, using one of our most popular themes from the past year, Filipino Stereotypes, which proved to be just as relevant with those in attendance at Go Fest. 

Between presentations by the eboards, attendees also participated in workshops designed to encourage interclub networking--such as hypothetically planning a trip on a budget, and taking a quiz to discover what kind of a leader they were and learn how to make the most of their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. Eboards were divided into groups according to position (Presidents, Secretaries, Multimedia, etc) for the majority of the workshops, which allowed members to share and learn techniques specific to their job which were unique to other schools. The conference definitely assisted attendees develop their network of FSA contacts, but even better friendships between clubs.

Following the conference, guests swapped out their professionalism for their dancing shoes as everyone headed over to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. For the next event and a change of pace, UFFSA and Weekend Crew organized a dance workshop featuring guest choreographers from the different schools in attendance. Even after learning three pieces, FSA members were still ready for even more dancing. The official Go Fest Club Party also took place on Saturday, hosted by UFFSA and Weekend Crew at Simon's Night Club--see UFFSA's Go Fest album for photos!

To end Go Fest on Sunday, attendees gathered at Campus Lodge to enjoy the Dodgeball Tournament in the morning, then the Pool Party hosted by UFFSA and Kappa Phi Lambda--see UFFSA's Go Fest album for photos!

The packed weekend provided eboards the opportunity to build their networks and learn techniques which will enable them to better serve their orgs. While Go Fest definitely illustrates how the different chapters operate, it also brings us together and reminds members that despite whatever university colors we wear, we are all a part of one large fam under the Filipino Student Association.

Special thanks to our wonderful hosts for the weekend: Merikris, Kris, Dana.

Shoutout to all the new friends we made from the FSAs in attendance!

Huge thank-you to the UFFSA eboard for organizing such an educational and enjoyable event.

LINKS

USFAFS Go Fest 2014: Guilty Pleasure facebook album

UFFSA facebook

UFFSA Go Fest 2014: Guilty Pleasure facebook album

UNFFSA facebook

UCFFSA facebook

FSUFSA Photos facebook

ATLFSA facebook

Weekend Crew website

UFKPL facebook

Simon's Night Club website

Lake Wauburg clubhouse

APRIL 5, 2014

    USFAFS is very fortunate--and grateful!--to be based in Tampa, home to the Bulls but also home to the Philippine Cultural Foundation Inc. which hosts events throughout the year which promote and celebrate the culture of the Philippines, including perhaps the biggest Filipino event in the area--PhilFest!

     Filipinos and their family and friends from all over Florida drive hours to congregate at the PPAC for one weekend out of the year to celebrate their heritage by enjoying pageants, traditional dances, celebrities of the Filipino community, and--of course--the food!.

Halo halo (a traditional Filipino dessert of shaved ice, flan, ube, pinipig, beans, macapuno, condensed milk, and vanilla ice cream) from Filipiniana Cafe booth.

     Lucky for university students, it only takes just under an hour to get to the grounds and AFS showed up early to set up and table at our official AFS booth. Members sold cotton candy and cool mango juice to children and adults alike, taking shifts in the true spirit of a team and a pamilya. We had a great showing of support from members of not only AFS, but also of other USF organizations such as VSA, ASIA, aKDPhi, and PDPsi who all came out for the food, merchandise, but namely for the dance contest PhilFest Revolution. For three months AFS members learned, cleaned, and practiced dances for the annual competition, in which we placed 2ND in Revolution 2013, losing 1ST to fellow USF crew, Final Boss.

     Final Boss will actually be competing at World of Dance 2014, which is why they chose not to compete in Revolution 2014 and instead offered their invaluable time and talent to AFS Dance. A big thank you to the members of Final Boss as well as former members of the AFS Dance Team, especially Lester Canezo and Nicki Barlaan  and we encourage you all to attend WOD 2014 to support them and attend workshops taught by some of the best in the dance community.

     While the AFS Dance Team is not (yet) on the same level as some of the greats you would see at WOD, we always manage to put together a crowd-wowing set. All the pieces are choreographed by AFS members, the majority of which are young college students, and it doesn't take a professional to see the quality and talent there. The Revolution judges clearly saw it, and awarded the team 2ND place for the second year in a row. This year's panel of judges included the director of the PPAC Youth Crew, which specializes in traditional Filipino dances and performs all over the area. Score sheets reveal that we actually earned the highest marks for our cultural piece. Despite Final Boss not attending, AFS still had stiff competition including Anomaly and APOC crews which made our win that much more amazing and rewarding. Congratulations to all of the crews who competed in Revolution 2014!

  Click here to watch our PhilFest Revolution 2014 performance. A big thank you to Michael Aber for this excellent 1080p video of our performance!

     Thank you to our AFS Dance Committee whose guidance and discipline led us to this victory. The 2014 Committee included: Raenen Golez, Alvyn Dimaculangan, Josh Mejia, Carlos Hernandez, Kamille Janess, Justin Del Rosario, Jonathan Gomogda, Chris Devera, Angel Ortiz, JC Amores, and Ryan Butron.

     Thank you to our choreographers: Kamille Janess (cultural), Raenen Golez (Gloc-9's Balita and Walang Narita), Michael Pommavong (Eminem's Not Afraid), Nicalyn Perez (Diplo, Beyonce, Revolution's Haunted), Ana Caroly, Ashley Tran, and Lester Canezo (Ester Dean and MGK's Invincible), and James Nguyen (Imagine Dragon's It's Time).

     While the AFS Dance Team is mostly comprised of students with little to no experience, and dance purely for the joy of dancing, we were able to organize our performance this year as a dedication to the lives of everyone affected by Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan which devastated the Philippines late last year. The set included a clip of Anderson Cooper’s telecast praising “how strong the Filipino people are…strong not to have just survived this storm but the aftermath”, and for the finale dancers formed a Filipino flag with the word “HOPE” spelled out. Regardless of awards or prizes, we felt this embodied the true spirit of PhilFest as a celebration of Filipino culture and pride which perseveres even during the worst of times, and we thank everyone who contributed, watched, and supported our performance.

USFAFS PhilFest facebook album

UNICEF page for Typhoon Yolanda 

Gawad Kalinga page for Typhoon Yolanda

Like our AFS Dance Team page