I sat down this week with Jaden Leiterman, (junior, medical laboratory science) who is minoring in chemistry and biology in the pre-med program to talk about his experience as this year’s AFIA president.
Given your full load, what is it like being the president of the biggest club at Andrews?
Well, I’m from here, so I kind of knew ever since coming to Andrews what AFIA is and what it is about. It’s actually a big reason why I chose Andrews in the first place. I always wanted to be involved, so beginning in my freshman year I was an intern [at AFIA], then during sophomore year I applied to work as president-elect—being president-elect means that you’ve committed to being president the following year—and now I’m president this year. I’ve had a good time serving AFIA for those years. I’m really proud of what my team and my officers have done to be able to recruit this many members; having as many members as we do and being recognized as the largest club on campus really helps put that standard up there. Knowing that I’m able to be the face of it and having that leadership standpoint with the rest of the team in serving the Andrews community is really fulfilling. As much work as it is, I’m really enjoying it.
For my edification, how many members are in AFIA?
I want to say that we currently stand at around 335. If we subtract our officers that would put us at maybe 322?
What events have you planned for this month, Filipino American History Month?
So, overall, the theme that I chose for this year is barkada. Barkada means “friendship” or “a group of friends,” and I thought that since Filipino culture is so community-based and family-oriented, it would be important to let the theme of barkada shine through the events that we put on for Filipino-American History Month, and also for the rest of the year. We’ve had a few Tuesday choice co-curriculars to share Filipino culture with people: October 4 was our first one. We brought on Andre Rodriguez [a graduate Andrews student] to share his missionary experience in Palawan; then we had Kinetic Worship on October 6, where we provided lumpia [Filipino spring rolls]. October 18 we had our tinikling dance, which is a cultural Filipino dance with bamboo sticks where you rhythmically jump in between them in specific dances, and tomorrow [October 22], we are planning on doing our Afia Aunties potluck. There are a lot of aunties at the Fil-Am church that make a lot of the food behind the scenes, and so we are sending some people over to their homes to make food for a potluck. Again, [we do this] to spread that theme of barkada, not only on the Andrews campus but in our local communities as well.
What is your relationship with being Filipino-American, and your relationship with this month?
I’m half Filipino and half Thai, and I speak Tagalog only passably, so comparing myself to my full Filipino cousins, who can speak Tagalog fluently with their parents and with each other, I am more Filipino-American. It was really evident growing up, listening to people speak around me and having to work to understand their conversations. However, culture was still a really important aspect of my life, so as I’m getting older I felt more motivated to look for ways to connect with the culture in ways outside of language. AFIA was a part of that, and the way that they typically celebrate Filipino-American History Month allowed me to learn a lot more about the history of Filipino people who were a lot more like me.
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