The Pilipino Student Association (PSA) was founded for the essential purpose of providing our members a “home” while at The Ohio State University. We satisfy this purpose by striving to preserve, foster, and celebrate our Filipino and Filipino-American heritage.
The history of Filipino student organizations at the Ohio State University goes back nearly two decades. In 1988 the Filipino Student Association (FSA) existed mainly as a way for international students from the Philippines to socialize while studying in America. This group served to create a community for these students for four years before disbanding in 1992.
In the fall of 1994, young Pinoys once again sought a home at OSU and resurrected the student group, rechristening it the Filipino American Student Association (FASA). This new incarnation of FSA maintained that group’s commitment to providing a safe space and network for the Filipinos of Ohio State, but welcomed Filipino-American students as well as students studying from abroad. The organization’s focus was again mostly social with the purpose creating a place where young Filipinos could feel at home amongst the large population of the university. This is not to say FASA’s only goal was to have fun. They performed traditional Filipino dances at Columbus area grade schools, partnered with the Philippine-American Society of Central Ohio (PASCO) for a youth program and became involved with raising Asian American cultural awareness both through the OSU Asian Cultural Awareness night and through the Filipino Intercollegiate Networking Dialogue (FIND) conference.
In the late 1990s Jude Alvarado, Don Mercado and Errol Millambing began bringing the group to a new level. Under Millambing’s leadership in 1999 the group was renamed Pilipino Student Association to reflect a stronger tie to traditional Filipino roots. PSA continued its local dance performances and once again attended the FIND conference and the Discover Philippines conference at the University of Cincinnati. In these years the group began to make connections with other Asian groups at Ohio State as well as at other colleges, planting the seeds for the explosive growth that was to come.
