On a Wednesday night, somewhere on the Sacramento State campus, an anthem is being sung. One stanza of that anthem goes something like this:

Stanza from Philippine National Anthem:

Ang kislap ng watawat mo’yTagumpay na nagniningning;Ang bituin at araw niya,Kailan pa ma’y di magdidilim(“The sparkle of your flagIs shining victory.Its stars and sunForever will never dim.”)

One of the voices you can hear rehearsing the Filipino National anthem is Gregory Poling, a senior business accounting student at Sac State.

Poling is one of the co-facilitators of the Samahang Pilipino Club, a club that has sought to bring cultural awareness about the Filipino culture to the campus and the community through various events since 1977, he said.

“Samahang. My impression is that it means family,” Poling said. “It’s more than just togetherness. That’s what it means to me.”

The club focuses on its cultural roots, even having a couple of members act as “Cultural Chairs,” who speak at every meeting about different historical events from the Filipino history.

Many members, like junior pre-nursing major Elaine Hill, love to get a taste of their historical culture at meetings.

“For me, it just makes me understand who I really am,” Hill said. Hill, who said she doesn’t learn much about the culture from her family, said it’s also interesting to hear other non-Filipino perspectives about the culture.

Both Hill and Poling have learned to sing the national an

Continued