Filipino history and culture are important.

And many Filipino students felt their heritage was important enough to be taught in school.

For the past three years, they have worked to design a curriculum and gain approval from the state Department of Education. This fall, students of all races were able to enroll in the first Filipino studies course in the United States adopted by a statewide public school system.

Vel Angela Fernando, a Filipino high school student at Farrington High School, said, “Since taking the course, I feel more comfortable with who I am. A lot of people my age seem to be ashamed of who they are. …This class was very inspiring for me, just connecting to these feelings. I finally have a space where I can learn without feeling ashamed.

Fernando is one of 127 students enrolled in the course, developed by the Filipino Curriculum Project in partnership with the Sistan C. Alhambra Filipino American Education Institute. Farrington and Waipahu high schools were selected as pilot programs because the majority of their students are Filipino.

The project coordinator is Patricia Espiritu Halagao, professor and chair of the curriculum studies department at the educational institution and co-director of the Center for Philippine Studies at the University of Hawaii Manoa.

Halagao thanked his daughter Marissa Halagao and other like-minded students for initiating and pushing the project toward completion. In 2021, her daughter was bothered by the fact that no Filipino history classes were offered at Punahou School, where she was a second grader, even though Filipinos make up the largest ethnic Asian population in Hawaii.

“I felt like we deserved to be represented, and the fact that we weren’t getting that in our history classes, it made me realize as a Filipino American that my history and my culture not worth exploring,” said Marissa Halagao. Vogue (February 2024). Now a freshman at Yale, she said her professors encouraged her to start such a program.

Professor Halagao said: “She (Marissa) did everything and started it all. …Through my experience, I helped guide her and meet other teachers and professors to learn more about curriculum development and content.

After talking with teachers from other schools, her daughter discovered that other students had the same desire for recognition of Philippine history and culture. Those who have enrolled in the course are a mix of diverse racial backgrounds and ancestry, although most are Filipino. Some were born in Hawaii and others emigrated from the Philippines, Halagao said.

Fernando has been active in the development of the Filipino project for two years, when she was in her first year. Even though she was born and raised in Kalihi, where many Filipinos reside, “I didn’t know much about myself and where I came from.”

“As a Filipino, I feel like I deserve to be seen in the field of education and other people would feel the same way.”

Fernando enjoys the different activities in the course, including creative writing, art, reading, and drama, to learn about his history and culture. During the discussions, “I really like the fact that we can share our part of what we know” and that immigrants can contribute with their personal knowledge of the areas they came from, she said .

Halagao said, “I think that’s the beauty of the project: it really builds bridges and brings together students from all different backgrounds as well as multi-ethnic: Filipino Hawaiian, Filipino Korean, Filipino Japanese. It is necessary to bridge the experiences between our immigrant students and those born in the country, where they draw strength from their respective origins.

“For example, Marissa really wanted to learn the language more. Students from the Philippines taught him the language. And the students from the Philippines learned more about the local culture,” Halagao said.

Raymart Billote, a 21-year-old high school senior at UH West Oahu, worked with Marissa Halagao from the beginning when he was a high school senior at Waipahu High School. He is majoring in secondary education and hopes to teach social studies to high school students and include Filipino culture because “I realized how important representation really is.”

Billote immigrated from the Philippines with his family to Hawaii at age 14 and found the transition very difficult because he did not speak English fluently. Her younger sister was the first in the family born in Hawaii (in 2020) and “I can’t help but be afraid of what might happen if she doesn’t see herself in the classroom reflecting her Filipino identity, and not learning so much about its culture and history. This also applies to younger generations.”

“I hope this course bridges that gap, because a lot of parents don’t really teach the language (and customs) because they’re afraid their kids will be bullied or won’t learn it. ‘English as fast’, Billote. said.

Personally, his self-esteem and identity as a Filipino flourished while participating in the “long journey” of passing state legislation, designing the course curriculum, and obtaining approval from the Department of Education. The process required months of brainstorming with other students and attending lectures and workshops. He is now a teaching assistant in the course offered at Waipahu and a mentor to Filipinos and Pacific Islanders at UH Manoa.

Billote said, “I get very emotional sometimes” when he sees how students taking the course are slowly reclaiming their identities and learning about themselves. Immigrants often face prejudice and racism when they first settle in Hawaii and “still struggle to accept their identity.”

In spring 2025, the semester-long course will be taught at McKinley High School, DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach and Maryknoll School. The fall 2025 semester will include Leilehua High and James Campbell High, according to the DOE.