A Lasting Impact, Where are SIPA’s Alumni Now?
SIPA’s presence and programming in Historic Filipinotown for the past 50 years expands beyond the immediate neighborhood, beyond Los Angeles, across California, and throughout the United States.
Filipinx Media Company, Kollective Hustle (written by Jen Redondo), gathered the stories of a handful of some of our most impactful alumni in the article “SIPA's Lasting Impact | From Afterschool Programs to Nationwide Influence, Faith Santilla, Desi Danganan, Johneric Concordia and other Alum Share Their Stories”.
“I started as a youth organizer and a youth counselor. That's how I met Johneric, Christine, Mike, and Ann. They were all part of the youth programming at SIPA.” shares Faith Santilla, union representative, organizer and artist. “We had programming such as tobacco prevention, but also more exciting and interesting things such as what's going on in the Philippines and how U.S. imperialism is the reason how they all ended up living in Historic Filipinotown (HiFi) and why their parents had to leave them for a long period of time in their early childhood to be able to eventually bring them here.”
SIPA wants to continue gathering the stories of all of our alumni as a way of recordkeeping and preserving our stories. We want our alumni of board members, volunteers, program participants, and anyone that has a core memory that SIPA was a part of, to stay in touch.
We hope everyone continues to engage with SIPA through volunteering, fundraising, attending community events and workshops through the next 50 years!
Fill out the SIPA Alumni Submission Form
to stay connected.
“I ended up becoming a classroom teacher for many years, and it wasn’t until I got recruited to become an ethnic studies teacher, that I started to trace back to SIPA all the lessons and valuable experiences from my role as a youth organizer and service provider. My sense of being, my understanding of who I am, my place in the world and my ability to reach young people in San Francisco, was the result of how I was developed at SIPA.”