Fil-Am Girl, 8, Is Nat'l Spanish Spelling Bee Champ

Kirsten Santos

Kirsten Santos , an 8-year old Filipino-America from Richmond, Texas, took home the top award in the 9th Annual National Spanish Spelling Bee in Denver, Colorado last month.She speaks four languages — English, Tagalog, Spanish, and Mandarin (See ABS-CBN News for story).

LA-Based Filipino Artist Makes Mural at Cal State Sacramento

(Source: Asian Journal)

Los Angeles-based Filipino artist Eliseo Silva recently completed a new mural at the California State University, Sacramento campus.  “Magkasama Tayo Aangat (Together We Rise),” unveiled on Sunday, August 18, is a tribute to Filipino migration, particularly by Filipina women, in the United States and the merging of the Filipino and American cultures (See story in Asian Journal).

Nevada School District Hires 57 Special Ed Teachers from PH

(Source: Balitang America)

The Clark County School District in Southern Nevada recently hired 57 special education teachers from all over the Philippines — and they’re not the first. Back in 2017, 84 special ed teachers from the Philippines made southern Nevada their home, and in 2018, 105 special ed teachers were recruited from the Philippines (See Balitang America for story.)

California School Named After Jose Antonio Vargas

Jose Antonio Vargas (Source: Inquirer.net)

An elementary school named after a Filipino Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and immigration activist Jose Antonio Vargas was officially opened in a dedication ceremony on Thursday, Aug. 15 (See Inquirer.net for story).

Environmentalist Gina Lopez Dies at 65

Gina Lopez (Source: ABS-CBN)

Filipino philanthropist and environmentalist Gina Lopez died on Monday due to multiple organ failure. She was 65. Lopez was the long-time chairperson of ABS-CBN Foundation Inc. (AFI) and was a former Environment Secretary (See ABS-CBN News for story).

Fil-Am Actor Dante Basco Directing ‘The Fabulous Filipino Brothers’

Dante Basco (Source: Deadline.com)

Best known for his role as Rufio in Steven Spielberg’s classic Peter Pan feature Hook, Dante Basco is stepping behind the camera and will make his directorial debut in “The Fabulous Filipino Brothers,” written by Basco and his brothers Darion Basco and Dionysio Basco, and set in the brothers’ hometown of Pittsburg, Calif., a working class suburb of Oakland (See Deadline.com for story). 

UP Beats Harvard, Oxford, Stanford in World Health Research Citations

University of the Philippines (Source: Inquirer.net)

The University of the Philippines (UP) beat other premiere universities — including Harvard University, University of Oxford, and the University of Stanford — in the recent world rankings for health research citation, placing seventh with a score of 98.8 in the 2019 Times Higher Education (THE) World Rankings. Citation scores indicate the number of times a research has been cited in other research outputs, or the impact or influence of a research project which other researchers use as reference from which they can build on succeeding breakthroughs or innovations (See Inquirer.net for story).

Filipino Families with Israel-Born Kids Face Deportation

Ramela and Sivan Noel, along with some 600 families, now facing deportation from Israel (Source: AFP)

Many of the 28,000 Filipinos in Israel arrived to work as caregivers and domestic helpers, but according to the United Children of Israel (UCI) association, some 600 families and their children could now face expulsion over a loss of residency status (See Yahoo News for story).