Issue date: 9/5/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Photo courtesy Samhang Pilipino Club Josh Abelido, left, and Josh Comprendio, right, members of the Samahang Pilipino Club show their spirit by holding up the flag of the Phillipines, during an event on the quad. [Click to enlarge]

On a Wednesday night, somewhere on the Sacramento State campus, an anthem is being sung. One stanza of that anthem goes something like this:

Stanza from Philippine National Anthem:

Ang kislap ng watawat mo'y
Tagumpay na nagniningning;
Ang bituin at araw niya,
Kailan pa ma'y di magdidilim
("The sparkle of your flag
Is shining victory.
Its stars and sun
Forever will never dim.")

One of the voices you can hear rehearsing the Filipino National anthem is Gregory Poling, a senior business accounting student at Sac State.

Poling is one of the co-facilitators of the Samahang Pilipino Club, a club that has sought to bring cultural awareness about the Filipino culture to the campus and the community through various events since 1977, he said.

"Samahang. My impression is that it means family," Poling said. "It's more than just togetherness. That's what it means to me."

The club focuses on its cultural roots, even having a couple of members act as "Cultural Chairs," who speak at every meeting about different historical events from the Filipino history.

Many members, like junior pre-nursing major Elaine Hill, love to get a taste of their historical culture at meetings.

"For me, it just makes me understand who I really am," Hill said. Hill, who said she doesn't learn much about the culture from her family, said it's also interesting to hear other non-Filipino perspectives about the culture.

Both Hill and Poling have learned to sing the national an

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them through the organization.

"It impresses my mom. It makes me proud to have Pilipino blood in the vein and it makes me proud to be a part of an organization that promotes that," Poling said.

Hill said the club is open to all races and ethnicity and that members encourage others to join and learn about a culture different from their own.

This year, the club has many activities planned.

Some of the favorite activities of member James Nenardo, a senior business marketing major, are the friendship games. That is where Pilipino clubs from colleges throughout California meet at California State University, Fullerton to socialize, as well as compete in small competitions, he said.

"It's known as one of the biggest social gatherings of Pilipino college students," Nenardo said.

Hill said the club will have many social events planned, like a pizza night, as well as a picnic that is in the works.

There will also be fundraising events, like car washes, she said.

One appealing aspect of the club is that there is no fee to join, Hill said.

"They just come and listen and learn through our cultural chairs," she said.

Poling said he is looking forward to new faces and meeting new people. He said he wants to offer new students a place to feel comfortable and be able to ask questions.

"The difference between us and a fraternity or a sorority is that there are no requirements and people don't feel intimidated to come up to us," he said.

Hill said she met all her current friends through the organization.

Poling said the social aspects of the club have impacted him equally as much as the cultural. He realized this at a wedding recently, where the bride and groom were from the organization.

"There's a saying that goes:
'No history no self
Know history know self
No culture no self
Know culture know self'

That was from a cultural chair and it's always stuck with me," Poling said.

If students are interested in joining, they can visit the Samahang Pilipino Web site at http://www.csus.edu/org/samahang/.

Gia Vang can be reached at gvang@statehornet.com.

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