YFPA Scholarship Program Recipients
Kristen Aguado (2023) Kristen graduated from American Canyon High School. She excelled academically and showcased her leadership skills in areas that aligned with her passions and interests. She served as the Color Guard Weapons Captain as well as held officer positions in the Science National Honors Society and Soroptimist's S Club. Additionally, Kristen enjoys volunteering in her community with her church, where she gained a deeper appreciation for the joy of giving back. Guided by the Bayanihan spirit, she became an altar server, choir member, catechist aide, and lector at her local parish and discovered a vibrant Filipino and Hispanic community along the way.
Through her experiences at church, school, and family, she encountered the essence of what it means to be Filipino: to love. As a Filipino-American, her culture is synonymous with embracing others into the community, creating a nurturing home through the power of togetherness. She strives to do just that, especially as a nurse. Kristen is enrolled as a Nursing major at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her career goals involve becoming a pediatric nurse practitioner with a focus on holistic and preventative health, while also conducting research on equity. |
Zoe Dorado (2023) Zoe graduated from Castro Valley High School. As a writer, she has collaborated with healthcare workers to humanize public health and policy issues through poetry and journalism. She has organized poetry events with Youth Speaks as a youth advisory board (SPOKES) member, led writing workshops for Filipino youth at Sama Sama, and facilitated ethnic studies workshops through the Bayanihan Youth Group at Filipino Advocates for Justice (FAJ).
As a drummer, Zoe has performed in ensembles with the California Jazz Conservatory, the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the pop-rock band Peaboo and the Catz, and with rap artist Ruby Ibarra. She has been a teaching artist for the Filipinx Girls Rock Camp Sampaguita Rock and a private drum educator for youth. She was the Drum Major of her competitive high school marching band, co-President of the She’s the First Club fighting for global gender equity in education, and the News and Artists’ Abode Editor for her school newspaper. From 2021-2022, she served as Alameda County’s Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate, and in 2023, she became a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, an honor bestowed on behalf of President Joseph Biden. Zoe is an incoming student at Pomona College hoping to study English and Public Policy Analysis. |
Colin Evans Morrow (2023) Colin recently attended Pasadena City College as a Studio Arts major, and graduated from John Muir High School. He is passionate about animation and aspires to work for Marvel or Disney in the future.
In high school, Colin was active in the Film club where he did camera operation and screenwriting, and also produced two amateur short films. He was also awarded Honorable Mention in the 2021 Young Arts competition. Colin has also supported as a lighting technician and camera operator for Holy Assembly Church in Pasadena. In addition, he has also worked on multiple independent productions in the Los Angeles area. He also proudly served as Treasurer of A2mend organization at Pasadena City College. Colin has been awarded the Alan F. Paredes Scholarship with full tuition to Academy of Art University, San Francisco and will be studying Animation. 
Haley M. Molina (2022)
Haley is graduating from Alameda High School. She was born in Oakland, California and grew up in Alameda, CA. As President and Co-Founder of The Filipino Club at Alameda High School, Haley helped to create a community inclusive to people who wanted to learn about or share their experiences of being Filipino-American. With her club, she organized and performed traditional tinikling folk dance and events showcasing members in traditional barongs, patadyong and Baro't sayas. Haley is a peer mentor for the youth-led program Project What. A program under Community Works West, Project What was created to raise awareness on the injustices within the prison system, stigma against children with incarcerated parents and facilitate positive change in the lives of community youth. She helped draft content and present to organizations including, law enforcement, educators, college and high school students, social workers and current inmates. Haley plans to become a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and will attend the University of Hawai’i at Manoa this Fall. 
Raenalyn Cruz-Balleza (2021)
Raenalyn is a graduating senior at Lowell High School, San Francisco, CA. At Lowell, she was an AP Scholar from the College Board and Honor Roll three of the four years. Due to Covid-19 in-person classroom restrictions, Raenalyn took advantage of online and virtual education with Club Med, a virtual organization, that gave her the ability to shadow healthcare workers online and completed free online courses including: Stanford University Breastfeeding course, Red Cross Water Safety, John Hopkins Measuring and Maximizing Impact of COVID-19 Contact Tracing and Open University Caring in Hospitals. She also enrolled in Women’s Health courses at San Francisco Community College. Raenalyn participated in high school extracurricular activities including, the Polynesian and Filipino American Club, San Francisco’s Asian Pacific Islander Youth Leadership Council, Filipino Cultural course at San Francisco Community College and the Filipino Wellness Internship through the San Francisco Unified School District. Raenalyn would like to become an OBGYN nurse and plans to attend University of San Francisco this Fall. 
Maria Paningbatan (2020) Maria is graduating from Westmoor High School in Daly City. Through her accounting class at Westmoor High, she contributed to the development of an accounting efficiency system and resource guide for student clubs on campus, in accordance with California education codes and student government bylaws. An active member in the Filipino community she worked on cultural engagement projects in Stockton's Little Manila, addressed concerns of PilipinX students pursuing higher education at UC Berkeley's PilipinX Academic Student Services (PASS) Shadow Weekend, attended Stanford's Pilipino-American Student Union's PilipinX Youth Leadership Conference (PYLC) on current issues facing the Filipino community and volunteered with Filipino Barkada events to support and raise funds for impoverished communities in the Philippines. Maria hopes to become a Certified Public Accountant and plans to major in Business Administration, Accounting and minor in Asian Studies with a concentration on the Philippines. She would like to pursue her Master's Degree. Maria will attend University of California at Berkeley this Fall. 
Kayley (2018) Kayley is a graduating senior from Jesse M. Bethel High School in Vallejo. She is an avid member in the Filipino community, often traveling to attend Filipinx Youth Conferences spanning from Davis to Santa Barbara. She has taken the lessons she has learned from these conferences and has implemented them into her school’s “BRIDGE Club”, a club that tries to bridge the gap between being a young Filipinx and also being American. Growing up in such a diverse and rich community like Vallejo, Kayley learned the importance of educating yourself on, not only about your own culture, but also other people’s culture. Kayley’s other interests include volunteering with her school’s Interact Club, makeup, and technology. The summer before college, Kayley will be at Google’s Computer Science Summer Institute at their Seattle office and will be attending California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in the fall to further pursue her studies in Computer Science. She hopes to work with artificial intelligence to create companion robots to help those with intellectual and physical disabilities. 
Bridgitte (2016)
Bridgitte was born in Turlock and raised in San Jose, California. She is a graduating senior at Mt. Pleasant High School where she has taken several leadership roles in class office, student government, and track and field. This year she was the Vice President of School Site Council, a member of the Safe School Ambassadors Program, and team captain for her Track and Field team. On top of being involved in school, she actively serves in her church. She participates in the Liturgical ministries, teaches Catechism classes, and sings in the choir. She is an active participant of the Filipino-American Committee that promotes Filipino traditions to the church community, and also donates food and toys to charities/nonprofit organizations. She aspires to give back to her family and community by sharing her knowledge in business, encouraging students to pursue a degree, and offering her time and services to help them. Bridgitte will be attending California State University, Long Beach this fall to pursue a major in Business with a concentration in Marketing. 
Precious (2015)
Precious was born and raised in the Philippines. At the age of eight, she moved to the Tenderloin, San Francisco, with her dad and two brothers to reunite with her mom, who moved to the U.S. in 1999. Living in the Tenderloin has shaped her passions and aspirations. In the future, she wants to go back to her community and expose youths to educational opportunities in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, and make District 6 safer for all. As of now, she is a senior in Sacred Heart Cathedral and a prospective freshman in UC Berkeley in the college of Letters and Science for Applied Mathematics. 
Julianne (2014)
Julianne is graduating senior at Lick-Wilmerding in San Francisco. Julianne was actively involved as a freshmen, sophomore, and senior class representative and served as an Executive Co-Vice President. She was also co-president of her school’s Filipino Heritage Club where she explored her Filipino American heritage and helped foster an appreciation for the culture at her school. Julianne has been dancing since the age of 4 studying jazz, ballet, tap, contemporary, and hip hop. She was a member of Tiffany’s Dance Academy of SSF’s performing company, Funksters SF - a youth hip hop team, and at school where she was chosen as a “Dance Mama,” a role that entails organizing rehearsals and being a positive presence. In addition to dance, Julianne has been playing the piano for 13 years. Julianne’s encounters within and beyond her school’s academic settings have given her a sense of what she hopes to do in the future. Through her many science classes and hospital volunteer experiences, she’s developed a passion for the mechanistic and humanistic sides of science. Julianne believes that the sheer interaction between individuals is just as valuable as the science behind the conditions one experiences. Julianne aspires to pursue medicine and become a doctor in the future. and will be attending University of California, Davis in the fall, majoring in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior. |
Dominique Cabading (2022)
Dominique is a graduating senior at Lick-Wilmerding High School. She is a fifth-generation Filipina American, born and raised in San Francisco, California. At Lick-Wilmerding High, she was a member of Kaba (Kababayan) Club that celebrated Filipino culture, coordinated events and fundraisers and created opportunities for people to learn more about the Filipino community. Dominique played varsity point guard at Lick-Wilmerding and served as Team Captain her senior year. She became a basketball camp counselor to mentor young athletes and help develop their basketball skills, confidence and leadership skills on and off the court. Dominique was a National Society of High School Scholar NSHSS and participated in the Physicians Medical Forum, Doctors on Board Program and Youth in Pre Med Summer Program in 2021. Dominique volunteered at Manilatown, a Filipino-American community gathering space in San Francisco. This opportunity allowed her to build relationships with Manilatown performers and staff and connect deeper with her Visayan and Ilocano roots. Dominique plans to become a full-time dermatologist. She was born with eczema and as a dermatologist, would like to join in the research to find a cure for eczema. Dominique will attend Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA this Fall. 
Shanne Tuviera (2021)
Shanne is graduating from Vallejo High School, Vallejo, CA. She was born and raised in the Philippines. Shanne was involved in programs and clubs, such as Upward Bound, Filipino Club, Leo Club and was Vice President of the Kabayan Christian Club which involves her religion. As President of the Vallejo High School Filipino Club, she organized college field presentations on Filipino-American history, created fund-raising opportunities and events to highlight Filipino culture. Shanne organized the Parol Competition; the Vallejo City Unified School District Superintendent and his board members attended as well as over a hundred community members. Shanne plans to work overseas as a Nurse Practitioner in the Navy and establish a foundation to help people living in impoverished areas in the Philippines receive better access to food and healthcare. Shanne will attend the University of San Francisco in the Fall. 
Fausthina Dalit (2020) Fausthina is a graduating senior at William C. Overfelt High School in San Jose. She is first-generation Filipina, raised in a diverse, majority Spanish speaking neighborhood. Away from home, Faustina connected with Filipino culture through church activities and the Filipino Youth Coalition in middle school. At Overfelt, she was a member of the Filipino American Student Association, played volleyball and received the Players Award and Coaches Award and served as Team Captain her senior year. Faustina worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Overfelt counseling office and impacted local communities in Ecuador through Global Glimpse. As a senior, she completed the Medical Student Transformative Experience in Medicine program (SSTEM) at Stanford University. Faustina aspires to be a pediatrician and a catalyst for communication models between care providers and patients, especially in low-income neighborhoods that lack equal access and opportunities to healthcare. Fausthina will attend University of California at Berkeley this Fall. 
Alyanna (2017) Alyanna was born in Berkeley, California and raised in Hercules, California. Born from Filipino immigrants, she grew up heavily influenced by the Filipino culture. Alyanna has served in her school’s “Filipino Club” as an officer, helping to teach her community about the different foods, arts, and history of the Filipino people. She has also participated in her city’s “Tinikling” dance, where she performs the traditional Filipino dance during multicultural events, and teaches elementary students how to do the dance themselves. Alyanna has also conducted a “Threads of Hope” Fundraiser for her community service club “KIWIN’S”, that sold bracelets for the purpose of raising money for underprivileged families in the Philippines. Alyanna enjoys singing, volleyball, and playing instruments in her spare time, as well as devoting her talents to perform in front of the elderly through an organization called “Pinole Friends”. Alyanna graduated from Hercules High school as salutatorian, and will be attending the University of California, Los Angeles in the fall, majoring in Physiological sciences. 
Kristal (2016)
Kristal was born in Quezon City, Philippines and migrated with her family to the United States in 2011. Growing up with a shy personality, she eventually emerged as a leader when she became an intern for an afterschool program by Filipino Advocates for Justice where she create and facilitate workshops about Filipino history/culture and societal issues. She uses her leadership to empower women and help create a space for fellow immigrants to adjust in America. She also mobilizes youths to actively participate in the community to fight against discrimination in our society. Kristal’s experience as a leader empowered her to use her voice as a future educator. She will take on a new journey in San Francisco State University as a Sociology major and Ethnic Studies minor. She also values her Filipino identity and wants to teach young people to be proud of their background by embodying the saying, “No History, No Self” 
Jerold (2015) Jerold was born in Quezon City, Philippines. In April 2002, his family moved to San Francisco in search for economic prosperity and a better education for him and his brother, Ivan. They lived in the South of Market neighborhood, a community containing mostly low-income and immigrant families. Jerold attended Bessie Carmichael Elementary School and various programs around the SoMa such as West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center and SOMCAN (South of Market Community Action Network), which helped him keep a sense of Filipino identity as he grew up as an Asian-American. Even as he was exposed to the greater San Francisco community in his transition from elementary school to middle and high school, he still stayed in touch with his Filipino culture and his sense of community. Jerold currently attends Galileo Academy and expects to graduate in May. In Galileo, he was a captain for his Cross Country and Track and Field teams, as well as the president for the Yoga Club and the Vice President of the Filipino Club. In the SoMa community, he is currently one of the core members of YOHANA (Youth Organizing Home and Neighborhood Action), a youth-led program that strives to mold the city’s future leaders through leadership building and political awareness. As one of the leaders of YOHANA, Jerold spoke in front of San Francisco City Hall to increase the minimum wage and pass the Housing Balance Act. In his free time, he likes to run, do yoga, or play basketball. He is also an avid Warriors and Giants fan. In the fall of 2015, Jerold will attend Stanford University. 
Alexandra (2014)
Alexandra is a graduating senior at Presentation High School where she is involved in student activities and clubs such as the Presentation Ambassadors Club, Community Involvement, Mu Alpha Theta, California Scholarship Federation, Peer Ministry, Leadership Academy and she was the Editor-In-Chief of the yearbook. She recently completed a project collecting over 800 books and $100 to donate to remote libraries in the Philippines through Books for the Barrios. She writes for SF Post, Inquirer.net, is a blogger, webmaster, and is an Honourable Mention for Youth Voice at the Plaridel Awards. Alexandra participated in various Fashion pageants like the Snow Show for San Francisco Fashion Week, the Philippine International Aid show, and currently holds titles in several pageants. Alexandra also hosted the Miss Philippines Earth USA Pageant last November. She recently signed with City Models Management as a model. Alexandra hopes to publish her own book and have her own show to highlight local business and promote community events. Alexandra will be attending Santa Clara University as a Communications major and minor in Business |