Not strangers at all to parties and celebration, the Kababayan Club threw a bash last Saturday that left partygoers ecstatic and reveling in each other’s company. Celebrating their 5-year Anniversary, members from as far south as San Diego participated in the festivities that brought together several generations of students, faculty, staff and friends.

“This is literally five years in the making,” said Liza Erpelo, English teacher and advisor to the program. “Just seeing everybody come out… seeing everybody together, it’s humbling.”

Doors opened at 6p.m. at the Janet Pomeroy Center in San Francisco, where participants eager to get the night started filed in with blazers, slacks, dresses and ties in suit, a welcome change to their normal school attire.

They were first treated to an opening video mixed together with years of different students saying hello, as well as a welcome address thanking their presence for the night. Not long after, as with every normal Filipino celebration, the dinner served as an integral part of bringing people together, with traditional dishes such as pancit, lumpia, and of course rice, on tap.

Members from all different years of the program sat amongst each other at the tables, exchanging stories and thoughts while enjoying the food. Nikki Santiago had this to add in her speech congratulating their success:

“[The program] is so different from what it was” said Santiago, founding president of the Filipino Student Union. What has always remained to her, however, was that “It’s here that we learn about the past to progressively move forward.”

Victor Ecko, proclaimed as the first student to successfully complete every class in the program, was proud to share his time together with people of different ages.

“I’m very impressed with the night”, Ecko said. “There was a lot of hype going into the 5th year anniversary. A lot of the planning going into it was made by the newer group of students. I was thoroughly impressed with how everything went down.”

Both Erpelo and Ecko served integral parts in establishing Kababayan into the collective that it is now. Because of such, they both were honored with awards recognizing their efforts and hard work. In addition to the two, Romeo Garcia, Nate Nevado and Marisa Mariano received awards as well, all smiling proudly to a standing ovation.

In a strategy that has students and teachers learning from one another, the program now amasses a huge collective effort in providing a one-stop learning community at our campus.

As a whole, the Kababayan Program encompasses several different branches here at Skyline, including the Filipino Student Union, Kapatiran Mentorship Program, Kababayan Dance Troupe, and a yearly event known as Pilipino Cultural Night. These branches form a large, united group that prides itself on what Kababayan actually means – barangay, or community. For the roughly 350 members registered with Kababayan, the word has come to mean much more than that – family.

Amid the entire gathering, a silent auction was held as the Kababayan Program always looks to raise money for their various causes. Among the items were several collectable memorabilia from older events, including photos and art created by students, and T-shirts from both Rock the School Bells and Filipino Heritage Night.

After dinner, The Kababayan Dance Troupe took center stage, performing traditional Pilipino dances that electrified the room. Members showcased their skills in the pandanggo dance, which has dancers clothed in original Pilipino dress dancing with cups filled with candles or water. They finished up with the famous tininkling dance, where two people bang large bamboo poles on the ground in rhythm with music that dancers above move to swiftly and elegantly, careful to not get their feet caught.

After a rousing applause, members of Kababayan once more thanked all members of the program, finishing off with their trademark closing, Isang bagsak!

Nothing was left but for the lights to go dark and let everybody dance themselves to exhaustion.

As the evening wound down with people spread throughout the dance floor, Jean Paul Dualan, a member of the Kababayan Program for years, simply stated both the night and events in a single sentence, “[It’s] a natural high.”