Filipino-American nurse Michael Tagadaya receives "New York Times 2011 Tribute to Nurses Award"

NEW YORK CITY - Filipino-American nurse received the "New York Times 2011 Tribute to Nurses Award" for innovation and leadership at the New York Times headquarters in Manhattan.

Michael Tagadaya, a nurse manager at the New York University (NYU) Hospital, was nominated in three different categories.

 

With his unique contributions to the nursing field, the awards organizers said they created a new award category for the Filipino nurse – the Innovation and Leadership Award.

 

“For me, to come from the Philippines and out of the almost a million of Filipino nurses here sa buong America, it’s a huge honor, napakalaking karangalan,” Tagadaya said.

 

As a nurse manager at the Ambulatory Surgery unit of the NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases, Tagadaya created paddle pagers to ease the family members’ concerns about their loved ones’ surgeries.

 

He also created new staff positions to bridge the gap between operating room and recovery room.

 

Read full story here at ABS-CBN.......

The Filipina Women’s Network select Selenna Franco-Cefre as one of the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the U.S.

 The Filipina Women’s Network (FWN) has selected Selenna Franco-Cefre, a Bay Area practicing Certified Public Accountant, as one of the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the United States. Selenna was honored under the “Builders and Emerging Leaders” category for her exceptional work as a young and emerging CPA and for her inspiring leadership and achievements as President of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association of Northern California (Berkeley) Chapter and Past President of PICPA-USA, an organization of Fil-Am CPAs in the Bay Area.

The 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the United States Award is a celebration of leadership, inspiration and achievement. It honors Filipina women who are changing the face of power in American communities, organizations and the workplace.

“These influential Filipina American women are dynamic entrepreneurs, rising stars under 40, emerging builders and executives who have moved through the ranks in large organizations, nonprofits and government agencies. They are powerful examples of women doing extraordinary work who will motivate our youth and future leaders,” said Gloria T. Caoile, political director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) and co-chair of the FWN 100 Nationwide Search and Selection Committee. “They were selected from nominations submitted from 19 states.”

Read the full story here at Asian Journal......

Filipino-American Lynda Provido Johnson wins seat in the ABC Unified School District Board of Education

CERRITOS – Fil-Am Lynda Provido Johnson placed her purse quietly on the empty seat where a bronze placard read “member.” She walked across the room while people congratulated her and every so often, the 47-year-old Johnson would look back at the seat knowing that her purse and her place as a member of the ABC Unified School District Board of Education was safe.


“That’s when it hit me,” said Johnson. “When I placed my purse up there that’s when I knew I officially won.”

For the past several months, Johnson was in a heated race for the vacant seat in the ABC Board, left by Fil-Am Mark Pulido before he was elected a City Councilman. There were only two years remaining on the seat but for her, a long-time Cerritos resident and product of the ABC school system, it was a chance of a lifetime to serve the students she knew well.

A political newbie and urged to run by long-time friend Pulido, Johnson campaigned for the seat. She was one of four all vying for a place on the prestigious school board – one of the bests in the country.

Read the full story here at Asian Journal.....

Filipino-American Capt. Monessa Catuncan Beats the Odds and Becomes a USAF F-16 Fighter Pilot

In the tough world of fighter pilots where male chauvinism rules supreme, an intrepid 29-year-old Filipino woman beat the odds to become the first Filipina to fly the supersonic F-16 fighter jet that ferried combat missions in Iraq as a member of the United States Air Force (USAF).

Capt. Monessa Catuncan, whose parents were originally from Pasay City and Olongapo City, was featured by the Asian Journal for her remarkable achievements as an F-16 fighter pilot that brought pride and honor to both the U.S. and the Philippines.

Full story here at InterAksyon.....

Filipino-American Gregory Galgana Villar III is NASA's Youngest Engineers at 24

On November 26, Saturday, NASA launched the biggest and best-equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet from the Kennedy Space Centre. Dubbed Mars Curiosity but more formally called the Mars Science Laboratory, it is expected to reach Mars by August 2012.


If all goes according to plan, the rover will be abseiling down from a hovering “sky crane” to set off across the surface of Mars equipped with equipment to analyze Martian soil and rocks for evidence that Earth’s neighbor might once have been supported life.

Among the inspiring people at NASA, who worked on the Mars Curiosity project, is Filipino-American Gregory Galgana Villar III. He is one of the youngest verification and validation engineers for the Mars Science Laboratory mission.

Full story here at InterAksyon......

Filipino teachers happy with Caddo jobs, lives after recruiting fiasco

With two suitcases in hand, they left their homes, families and the lives they knew in hopes of living the American Dream.

The opportunity seemed almost too good to be true and in some ways was.

The 43 highly qualified and experienced Filipino teachers had spent years working in public and private schools in their native country. They hoped to help themselves and their families by applying for hard-to-fill positions in math, science, English and special education in Caddo public schools.

They saw it not only as an opportunity to use their talents in the United States, but also as a prospect for a better life for their families.

"I prayed for this," said Ireen Rivera, one of the nearly four dozen Filipino teachers Caddo hired in 2008. "It was the opportunity to come to America and live the dream I had always imagined."

Full story here at Shreve Port Times......

Fil-Am graphic designer, Keith Lapinig, wins balloon contest in 2011 Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

It has been said that the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is not just an event, it is an American tradition that ushers in the holiday season. Millions watch either from the comforts of their living rooms anywhere in the world or from the frontlines, the streets of New York City.


When the 85th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade unfolds next week, (November 24, 2011 at 9am) one Filipino-American from Queens will stand tall for having his design join the festivities. His name is Keith Lapinig, a graphics and web designer for Sleepy’s mattress company. A couple of months ago, he created an elf he named Gazer, which bested a thousand other renditions and was overwhelmingly selected by fans.

The selection of Keith’s design is just the third time in the almost 85-year history of the parade that Macy’s has let someone other than its own designers create a balloon.

Read more here at Asian Journal......

Doctor-Nurses

Hospitals are full of Filipino nurses, many of whom are overqualified. Many Philippine doctors become nurses in other countries, especially the United States of America. They call themselves MD-RNs.

In applying the push-pull analysis to the situation, one looks for what reasons doctors were pushed out of the Philippines and pulled into other countries, like the U.S. Not surprisingly, the financial factor was significant. Although Philippine society views doctors as professionals who make money esily, reality proves otherwise. Data from the Philipine Bureau of Internal Revenue reveal that the average Filipino physician earns a monthly income of PhP 16,196 ($324). The Philippine government's own economic office estimates that a monthly income of PhP 16,800 ($336) is needed to meet the basic daily needs of a family of six in Metro Manila.

In the U.S., nurses can start earning $4,000 per month, more than ten times what an average doctor earns in the Philippines. In addition, this job would also serve as an entry point and a stepping stone to eventually achieving the American dream.

What this does to the availability of medical professionals in the U.S.? How can the Philippines get better if the highest educated individuals leave the country? It is well documented that overseas workers send remittances back to the Philippines, to a tune of $10.69 billion in 2005 and $12.76 billion in 2006. What an unfortunate situation of dependence.

Filipinos Staking Their Claim Within America

More often than not, when a leader is asked to stand up and be recognized in front of a large group of people, they quickly stand up and sit down, as if retreating from the attention. In a recent conversation, the head chef of Va De Vi, of Filipino descent, first introduced themself as a dishwasher. Another individual, who had recognized the self-proclaimed dishwasher as the head chef, immediately responded that the chef should stake their claim as the head chef.

Filipinos and Filipino Americans alike should be proud of their heritage, their contributions to the United States of America, and their accomplishments. It is okay, even encouraged, to take appropriate credit when it is due and to defer credit when it should be deferred.

Ohio Filipino American running for US Congress - Senator Stephen C. Austria

JOSEPH LARIOSA
CHICAGO, Illinois

A Filipino American running for US Congress may yet save the day for the Filipino Veterans bill pending before the US Congress.

Ohio State Senator Stephen C. Austria is running for US Congress under the Republican Party for the open seat of the 7th District in Ohio.

He will be in the best position to lobby at least 39 US Republican members of the House of Representatives into voting for passage of Senate Bill 1315 in the House.

Part of the bill grants full benefits for non-service disability pensions to Filipino World War II veterans.

His father, the late Dr. Clement G. Austria, was a “guerrilla under (American) Gen. Douglas MacArthur while studying medicine at the University of Santo Tomas," that was turned into prison camp by Japanese Invading Forces during World War II.

In an email to this reporter, Austria’s wife, Eileen, quoted her mother-in law, Jean Brockman Austria, as saying that her father-in-law was born in Tiaong, Quezon in the Philippines.

When he was still very young, Steve went to the Philippines three times in 1960 and 1961 and spent six weeks in the Philippines shortly after graduating from high school.

Steve’s folk wanted him to stay for good in the Philippines but his mother prevailed upon him to come back to the United States.

Armin M. Sayson, President, Philippine-American Society of Greater Dayton (Ohio), provided this reporter a brief bio-data of Steve Austria given to him by Steve’s wife, Eileen.

Eileen Austria said Stephen Clement Austria was born in 1958 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
His parents are Jean Brockman Austria of Cincinnati and the late Dr. Clement G. Austria who was born in the Philippines and came to Cincinnati, Ohio to attend Medical School.

“Jean was a nurse and he was a doctor and that is how they met," Sayson said. Steve is the eldest of nine children - all of whom have graduated from Catholic universities or colleges with their bachelor's degrees and several graduating from medical, dental or optometry schools.

Steve graduated from Marquette University in 1981 with a degree in Political Science. Marquette is a Catholic, Jesuit university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After graduation, Steve worked in politics for a couple of years before turning his professional interests in becoming a Financial Planner with the American Express Company for nearly 16 years.

When public service called, Steve successfully ran for state representative in Ohio in 1998, moving up to the Ohio Senate in 2000 and being re-elected again in 2004.

The family of Dr. Clement Austria was named one of the top 10 families of the year in the nation and was honored at the Reagan White House in 1985. Dr. Austria was a community leader and died unexpectedly at the age of 62 in November 1986.

Senator Steve Austria currently represents Ohio's 10th Senate District, which includes approximately 375,000 people and covers all of Clark, Greene, and Madison Counties.
Steve and his wife, Eileen, have three sons, Brian, Kevin and Eric.

Brad Mascho, Campaign Manager for Steve Austria for U.S. Congress said Senator Steve Austria is currently the Majority Whip of the Ohio Senate.

He is seeking election to the U.S. House of Representatives of Ohio’s 7th Congressional District, currently held by Congressman Dave Hobson, who announced his retirement late last year and has strongly endorsed Senator Austria’s election.

According to the Los Angeles, California-based Asian Journal, African American Congressman Robert C. “Bobby" Scott (D-VA-03) is the only member of the U.S. House of Representatives to claim Filipino parentage. His mother is a daughter of a Filipino, Valentin Cortez Hamlin.- GMANews.TV

Why the US wants Filipino Teachers Big-Time

By Christian V. Esguerra
Philippine Daily Inquirer

SAN FRANCISCO— One day, a brown-skinned, Filipino kid was scolded by his white American teacher in class here. Instead of answering, as he had been told to do, he looked down timidly and avoided eye contact.

Thinking he was being disrespectful, the teacher was infuriated all the more. But what Ligaya Avenida, 64, later saw on hindsight was a glaring example of cultural disconnect common in the American school system years ago.

By staying meek in the face of authority, a common Filipino trait, the boy thought he was doing the “right” thing, explained Avenida, a long-time teacher and administrator in the San Francisco Unified School District.

In the American context, he was not.

Cultural implications

“It had a cultural implication,” she said in an interview. “Here, you look directly at the person even if you’re being reprimanded. If you don’t, that’s a sign of disrespect.”

Many school kids coming from immigrant families apparently knew very little about American culture and educational system, leading them to occasional trouble with mentors in the United States.

But between students and teachers with the gulf of cultural differences between them, the city’s school district, with a big lift from Avenida, saw that more had to be done from the latter’s end.

It looked for new mentors who could better deal with its culturally diverse student population. The search eventually led to a familiar face in the global diaspora: the Filipino.

Since the 1970s when the problem of cultural divide first came prominently into national view, hundreds of Filipino teachers have found employment in American schools, says Avenida, who now runs a recruitment agency for international teachers.

Perfect fit

Her company alone recruits 600 to 700 Filipino teachers annually. The number dwarfs Hong Kong and Mexico, where her company, Avenida International Consultancy, enlists only 50 to 70 teachers every year.

She says the bulk of her recruitment is from her home country because of Filipino teachers’ facility in both the Filipino and English languages. This flexibility makes them a perfect fit in school districts with a large Filipino-American population. “They needed teachers who understood the students,” she says.

Their quiet search for greener pastures could be just as worrisome, however, a contribution in small or large measure to the Philippines’ continuing “brain drain.”

“The reason I don’t feel bad about it is because the truth is, the Philippines has a lot of teachers,” says Avenida, arguing that it’s just a question of how effectively the Department of Education is filling positions left behind by migrating teachers.

With few well-paid employment opportunities in the country, more unfortunate Filipino teachers are forced to settle for menial jobs such as being domestic helpers in Hong Kong or Europe for bigger bucks, she says.

Read more here at Global Nation Inquirer....

Filipinos are a Great Contribution to the US Healthcare System

The stereotype that many nurses in the United States have Filipino heritage is a good one to have. Not only is it true, but they are the back-bone of the American healthcare system. So if you're hurt by the comments made on Desperate Housewives...get over it. Read the article below from the AsianJournal.com. Be sure to write your comments below.

Filipinos Integral Part of US Healthcare Workforce - FCC
By Cynthia De Castro Asianjournal.com

LOS ANGELES – “The Filipinos have been meeting the demands of a nationwide personnel shortage in the American healthcare industry. They are an integral part of the healthcare workforce,” said Commissioner Michael J. Copps of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an independent United States government agency, directly responsible to Congress.In a recent press interview organized by the Filipino American Leadership Council (FALCON) and Mabuhay Alliance, FCC Commissioners Copps and Jonathan S. Adelstein affirmed the Filipinos’ great contribution to the health care industry. They did not agree with the disparaging remarks made about Filipino doctors in the TV show, Desperate Housewives, and wanted to affirm to the Filipino community that the FCC recognizes the Filipinos’ significant contributions to American health care.

"America relies heavily on the Philippines to solve the country’s nurse shortage," said Commissioner Adelstein. "For decades, the Philippines is the number one source of foreign-trained nurses in the US. They have truly made significant contributions to the country’s health care industry. In fact, the LA City Council called them the back-bone of the American healthcare industry," he added.

On a personal note, Adelstein revealed to Asian Journal that his mother had Parkinson’s Disease and a friend of his brother referred them to a group led by a Filipino who worked with Filipino nurses. "We were enormously satisfied, " Adelstein said. "They are wonderful people. Devoted. You know when it’s a member of your family, you don’t want just anybody to take care of your mother. They took good care of my mom. This experience has been multiplied in many cases across the US. The high quality of care people get from Filipino nurses are just not truly reflected in the media," he said. (AJ)

FIL-AM PRIDE BLOG SHOUTOUT! Congratulations to the New Core Officers of Filipinos In Liberal Arts & Humanities at University of California Davis

Filipinos In Liberal Arts and Humanities (FILAH) is a college organization from the University of California, Davis. They recently elected their new leaders also known as core. The Filipino-American Pride blog would like to congratulate the new inductees.

President: Lauren Dimapasoc
Internal Vice President: Courtney Lorca
External Vice President: Jo Anne Lasola
Treasurer: Christian Borgonia
Secretary: Kaye Caburnay
Publicity: Leoangelo Cristobal
Historian: Christine Erfe
Kinabukasan Editor: Marc Balderama
Banquet Coordinator: Emily Chan

About FILAH:

FILAH was created to provide political, social, academic, cultural, and personal support to fellow students in the various liberal arts and humanities and social science fields. As part of this support, FILAH's purpose will be to provide students with a forum for expression. FILAH's program will always adhere to this mission, allowing artistic and social outlets to its members while contributing to the community at large with events that preserve Filipino heritage and challenge current sociopolitical issues.

FILAH was started by a group of undergraduate students who felt the need for an organization that served the Filipino liberal arts community. As a university that is primarily scientific research based, the history of the existence of FILAH up until around 2000 has always been shaky.

Read more about FILAH here...

Filipino-Americans in Virginia Flexing Political and Economic Power

By RODNEY J. JALECO
ABS-CBN North America News Bureau

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia – They're among the fastest growing ethnic groups in the region, also among the best educated and highest paid wage-earners. Meet the Filipino-Americans of Hampton Roads.

Hampton Roads is composed of Virginia's southeastern region that includes Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News and Williamsburg. Most of the Fil-Ams are retired US Navy servicemen and their families, who've decided to settle near Norfolk, home of the US Navy Atlantic Fleet.

There are 34 Fil-Am organizations here, representing the various ethnic and geographical divisions in the Philippines, as well as professional groups.

Julius Aspa is president of the Cebuano-Speaking Association of Tidewater (CSAT). "CSAT was formed 20 years ago because our countrymen needed help, and of course we also wanted to help each other here," he told ABS-CBN's Balitang America.

"During natural calamities, we always try to send help back home like what happened after the Leyte landslide," Aspa said.

Olongapo City Association of Tidewater (OCAT) president Joseph "Joe" Ortega said their group is sending several college and high school students to schools in the Philippines.

These groups come alive in spring when Saturday night parties and dance-alongs, featuring the latest "line dancing" hits, become a staple for the growing, dynamic Fil-Am community here.

There are now about 50,000 Fil-Ams in the area, mostly in Norfolk and Virginia Beach. A study released by the Old Dominion University (ODU) showed that over 20% of foreign-born residents in Hampton Roads came from the Philippines. It is the sixth biggest concentration of Filipinos in the US (Hawaii, California, New York City, Chicago and Seattle).

Read more here...Nurses, servicemen

ABC Television Reaches Out To Recruit Fil-Ams For Internship Program Despite Desperate Housewives Comment

By RODNEY J. JALECO
ABS-CBN North America News Bureau WASHINGTON D.C. - A top executive of TV conglomerate ABC described it as a "first step" – reaching out to the Fil-Am community - but the controversy over a perceived racial slur in the top-rating ABC program "Desperate Housewives" simply refuses to die down.

Though Disney-ABC TV Group senior vice president for diversity Bob Mendez would not say it openly, the outreach was an offshoot of the indignation triggered by something Teri Hatcher’s character said in last year’s season opener of "Desperate Housewives". The one-liner questioned the qualifications of doctors who graduated from Philippine medical schools.

"As part of an ongoing conversation between ABC and NAFFAA (National Federation of Filipino-American Associations), we agreed to establish a partnership that would allow us to explore ways of addressing the problems of stereotyping and racial bias in mainstream media," NAFAA communications director Jon Melegrito explained.

He stressed that their objective was long term and intended to stop "those practices that are offensive to minorities and people of color."

"Change that takes place within, through dialogue and critical engagement, may actually lead to more substantive gains," Melegrito added.

"We do a lot of outreach in the course of the year," Mendez tells ABS-CBN’s Balitang America during the outreach program at the Capitol Hilton here.

Read more here... Large Fil Am talent pool