PEP - Pin@y Educational Partnerships

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 and Filipina/o 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.
 
PEP has been instrumental in the institutionalization of Ethnic Studies in San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) and a strong advocate for full implementation of Ethnic Studies throughout the state and the nation; the development of the Filipino Enrichment FLES Pathway curriculum in SFUSD; and train and mentor of hundreds of PEP Teachers & Students to enter higher education, teaching credential, graduate, and Doctorate programs around the nation.