In recent months, the Biola Filipino club, known as Biola Barkada, has had an explosion of activity and membership. The current president of the club, sophomore business major Jacob Cayanan, sheds light on the club’s revival, recent growth and its vision.
ORIGINS
When Cayanan entered Biola as a freshman, he noticed that despite the many cultural clubs on campus, there were no Filipino clubs. Biola’s previous Filipino club, originally called the Biola Maharlika Club, went defunct due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Cayanan told his mom about this, he recalled that his mom pointed out that maybe he should start a club. His friends also asked him about it. He remembers that he hesitated for a while, but eventually, he felt a strong calling from God to go forth with it.
“I was like, ‘You know, why am I sitting here complaining? If I don’t do it, who will?’” Cayanan said. “And so I kind of took a step of faith … I’ve never done any form of leadership, no club, no nothing and just jumped into the unknown.”
Cayanan was able to connect with the former leaders of Maharlika and then was offered by the Office of Campus Engagement to take over the club. However, he wanted to start afresh.
“I was like, ‘Nah, I kind of want to do something new for the campus.’ And so I have a different vision,” Cayanan said. “But I honor Maharlika and all that they’ve done and paved the way for us. And here we are starting something new.”
The new club is named Biola Barkada, a Tagalog word for “a group of friends.” Cayanan said that he and his friends came up with it based on the hope of “uniting Biola through Filipino culture” and having a place to share Filipino culture to both Filipino and non-Filipino students.
EVENTS
Biola Barkada has regular meetings at 7 p.m. every other Thursday. They meet in Room 103 in the Crowell Business Building. At these meetings, members participate in fellowship, eat Filipino food, have culture lessons — such as “Tagalog word of the day” — and have icebreaker games.
“Oftentimes we’ll have food there because food is a very big thing in our culture and we want to share that with the community,” Cayanan said.
During their first meeting, the club ate barbecued skewers as they introduced the leadership. On their second meeting, they had Halo Halo ice cream, a Filipino dessert that mixes ube, ice, jelly and condensed milk.
The club’s next regular meeting is next Thursday, Mar. 27. Cayanan shared that there are plans for a family game night as well as snacks. A family cookout is planned for the week after that. The club also plans to have monthly events, and they just had their first event last Friday. The club hosted its first-ever annual basketball tournament called the Bayanihan Cup. (Bayanihan is a Tagalog word for “spirit of communal unity.”) The event was for a fundraiser, and the club also served freshly-cut coconuts.
Basketball is an important staple in Filipino culture.
“It’s like soccer for the world,” Cayanan said. “It’s like our heart and soul.”
Cayanan was surprised at the amount of people who showed up, both to play and watch.
“It was unreal … based off the numbers, dude, we had … easily over 200 people come in and out of the gym,” Cayanan said. “We had a hundred chairs stacked around the gym. All of them were filled. And we had six girls teams and 14 guy teams.”
With the large attendance in this first event as well as the first few regular meetings, Cayanan feels blessed.
“God is good,” Cayanan said. “And our meetings have been averaging 80 plus. Our first meeting we had easily a hundred people … The second meeting we had 87 people.”
VISION
For Filipinos, everyone is family in their culture. In following this, Cayanan commented that the club’s goal is to create a healthy community, a home away from home. He wants to make sure that people at the club feel this way.
“I ask them, like, ‘How’s the vibe? Like, does it feel okay? Does it feel like a family party?’ [And they’re] like, ‘Yes!’” Cayanan said. “Perfect! That’s exactly what we’re aiming for.”
Although the club is for Filipino culture, Cayanan wants to invite non-Filipinos to this family community.
“I don’t want to say, ‘Oh, you’re not Filipino,’” Cayanan said. “Nah, we’re the opposite … And I think that’s what makes our club so different. And I love that about our club.” Filipino.
For Cayanan, the vision for this family is to reach out in hospitality. The club plans to go visit the elderly and write letters to them, as well as host a beach cleanup day.
“We’re gonna help clean up and help the community,” Cayanan said. “That’s really [the] heart of it all.”
BLESSED BY THE LORD
Cayanan considers the recent rebirth and explosive growth of the club to be a blessing from God.
“None of us … could have ever envisioned [this],” Cayanan said. “We’re one of the biggest clubs on campus right now. Everyone knows who we are. And I say it’s all God. Like, it’s not even me. They ask me ‘how?’ [and] it’s like, I don’t know how … it’s not me.”
MORE INFORMATION
For more information, check out the club’s Instagram page, which contains photos, videos and important links. You can also contact Cayanan at [email protected].
