Founded in 2001 by Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales and her students from San Francisco State University (SFSU): Claudine Del Rosario, Kimmy Maniquis, Gwen Agustin, Tracy Buenavista, Ivan Santos, Jeff Ponferrada, Mark Bautista, Perci dela Cruz, Maricel Elacio, Christine Bernard, Christopher Rini, and Anjela Wong, created a lunchtime mentoring program at Balboa High School in the Excelsior neighborhood of San Francisco, CA. With the high rates of Filipina/o/x and Filipina/o/x American dropout, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse,  gang violence, and mental health issues, Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales and her students conducted "sala" talks (conversations with students) to discuss issues that concerned them. Issues such as: identity, low numbers of Filipina/o teachers and faculty representation, the lack of Filipinas/os and Filipina/o Americans in the curriculum, and fractured sense of community, Dr. Tintiangco-Cubales and her students organized workshops on Filipina/o American her/history, Hiphop, spoken word, and theatre as a means to address these issues and develop solidarity. The interest in Ethnic Studies for Filipina/o and non-Filipina/o students began to grow and PEP students organized their classmates to create a petition to implement a Filipina/o American experience course in the spring of 2001. What started as a humble lunchtime mentoring program manifested into the Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP) becoming a year-long Filipina/o American studies class at Balboa HS. It soon expanded to the following schools: Longfellow Elementary as an after school program established in 2005; a year-long course at Philip & Sala Burton HS (2005) and James Denman MS (2008); and have partnered with professors & instructors from City College of San Francisco (2007), Skyline College (2012), and University of San Francisco (2013). The PEP high school course is a Steps-To-College and A-G Credited class, where PEP HS students can receive college credit and use towards satisfying their A-G requirements for UC and CSU applications.

What is PEP?

The Pin@y (Pinay/Pinoy) Educational Partnerships (PEP) is a service learning program that has created a “partnership triangle” between the university, public schools, and the community to cultivate a barangay (community) that produces critical educators and curriculum at all levels of education and in the community. PEP’s partnership triangle includes: Bay Area universities/colleges, San Francisco public schools, and the Filipino American Development Foundation (FADF). Uniquely, our counter-pipeline implements a transformative decolonizing curriculum and pedagogy, incorporating all grade levels including primary, middle, secondary, post-secondary, and graduate students. As volunteer teachers of the program, graduate and undergraduate students, from San Francisco State University and surrounding universities who are pursuing careers in education or community service, receive a unique opportunity to teach critical Filipina/o American studies. They gain skills in the practice of critical pedagogy, curriculum development, lesson planning, and teaching.

Vision & Commitments

The overall vision of PEP is to support learning and teaching as practices of freedom.  It is committed to:

• Developing education to be accessed as a means toward global, local, and personal  liberation;
• Create critical spaces in the educational system and in the community where students and teachers study the struggles and survival stories of Filipina/os in the United States and throughout the world; and
• Promote and advocate for services, social justice, and self-determination

Goals

1. Retain both Filipino high school and college students
2. Recruit high school students to pursue college and to recruit college students to pursue careers in education
3. Reflect on historical and contemporary experiences of Filipino Americans
4. Provide Research, Training, and Service-Learning Opportunities for Students

Objectives

The main objectives for the PEP program are:

• Address the lack of Filipina/o American curriculum
• Address the lack of Filipina/o American teachers
• University-Community Partnerships
• Promote service-learning & learning service
• Provide practical and creative training to future social justice educators
• Provide services for youth and students to reach their potential and pursue their goals
• Use Participatory Action Research (PAR) as a means to study and address community issues
• Develop and implement a critical pedagogy, which includes a critical and cultural curriculum that focuses on Filipina/o American Studies & Ethnic Studies