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While some graduation exercises at universities in the continental U.S. were disrupted by pro-Palestinian protests or were canceled, the 7th Annual FilGrad commencement was held on Friday at the Kennedy Theatre on the University of Hawaii Manoa campus.

One might wonder why the students would want to participate in another lengthy formal ceremony just a day before the main university graduation.

The answer is that FilGrad enables the Filipino UH and larger community to celebrate and recognize the achievements of their graduates in a Filipino cultural way. Filipino culture, including language, is an integral part of the graduation ceremony, evident in the performance of dances and music and in the expression of significant cultural values, including for higher education.

As remarked by the : “Surrounded by family, friends, and loved ones, the students who participate in FilGrad are thanking those around them for the help, support, love and inspiration they received in their lives. It celebrates both the graduates and their families and communities.”

In addition, the commencement speakers, including students, professors and community leaders, are all Filipino. I very much doubt that this has ever been the case at the 113 UH Manoa graduation exercises but, for Filipinos, FilGrad provides an opportunity to showcase the accomplishments and talents of members of their community.

The FilGrad student speaker this year was Harvey Dayne Lafradez, who earned a bachelor’s degree in information and computer sciences, while the keynote speaker was Jovanie Domingo Dela Cruz, executive director of the state Office of Community Services. 

He shared an especially heart-wrenching story about his grandmother in the rural Philippines, who wanted to continue her high school education. But she was told by her widowed father, a migrant farm worker, that “even if your tears turn into blood, I cannot afford to send you to school.”

As an expression of Filipino culture, this year’s FilGrad theme was “Namnama at Dunong: Unforgettable Journey as Filipinx.” The latter term — Filipinx — rather than Filipino or Filipino American, has been adopted particularly by Filipino academics and college students to assert gender neutrality and inclusivity.

The 2024 FilGrad program booklet explains: “The resilient spirit of the Filipinx shines, fueled by unwavering namnama and guided by ancestral dunong. This unique blend of hope and wisdom marks an unforgettable journey of FilipinXcellence.”

All Filipino graduates of UH Manoa, including those receiving bachelor’s and graduate and professional degrees, can participate in FilGrad. Consistent with the Filipino cultural value of inclusiveness, non-Filipino students who embrace Filipino culture are also welcome to join. 

In addition to the traditional cap and gown, as an articulation of their ancestry, FilGrad participants wear a graduation stole fashioned after the Philippine flag, which they can also don for the UH commencement exercises the next day. 

FilGrad began at UH Manoa in 2017 when graduating Filipino graduate students collaborated with the Tinalak Filipino Education Advisory Council to hold the first ceremony. Twenty-four graduates participated, and their numbers have steadily increased to about 100 this year, including those earning medical and law degrees, master’s degrees and Ph.Ds, despite a two-year hiatus during the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020 and 2021.

As in previous years, FilGrad 2024 was planned and implemented through the hard work and dedicated efforts of students, who assumed primary roles for fundraising, speech and entertainment, logistics, recruitment and promotion. Their reward was the near-capacity turnout of the graduates’ family and friends, who attended to boisterously cheer and celebrate with them.  

The first FilGrad in the nation was in 2001 at San Francisco State University, which isn’t very surprising given the considerable enrollment of Filipinos at that campus. In California, with its 1.7 million Filipinos, besides at universities, FilGrad ceremonies are held for high school graduates, such as that sponsored by the Filipino American community in San Diego. 

One might ask why there are no comparable commencement exercises for haole, Japanese or Chinese graduates. It is probably because their students and faculty don’t feel the same need or desire for organizing an event that highlights the academic accomplishments of members of their respective communities.

Haole, Japanese and Chinese hold high positions in government, business and the community at large and are likely confident that their college graduates will assume those same positions in the future. They hence may believe that those graduates don’t require special encouragement and recognition to pursue their educational and professional careers through a group-focused commencement ceremony.

But for ethnic and Indigenous minority students, they may be the first in their family to earn a college degree, so graduation is an especially meaningful event for themselves and their families. Thus, Black Grad, Pasefika Grad (for Pacific Islanders) and La Hemo Kula Native Hawaiian graduation ceremonies are also convened at UH Manoa, with especially the latter a cultural manifestation.

Black Grad is formally called the Alice Ball Black Graduation Ceremony to honor Alice Ball, the first African American woman to earn a master’s degree from UH in 1915. She perhaps is better known for developing an injectable form of the active agents in chaulmoogra oil, which was used to treat Hansen’s disease, but was not given full credit for her contribution until recently.

According to Niya Denise McAdoo, chair of the Black Grad Planning Committee, renaming the 8th Black Grad after Alice Ball is a way to honor her legacy and to connect students to one of the university’s most distinguished African American graduates. She adds that this year’s theme for the ceremony is “Black Royalty” as they “celebrate the absolute excellence of our Black graduates, community members, and ancestors in Hawaiʻi and beyond.” 

The is organized by the Hawai’inuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge for its graduates and their ohana and is held the evening before the main UH Manoa commencement. Wearing a traditional kihei garment over their left shoulder, each graduate gives a ha‘iolelo personal speech with those from the Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language presenting in olelo Hawaii. 

According to the school website, a chant and protocol are offered during the graduation ceremony as a “gift of Aloha to family and guests” in attendance. Following UH Manoa tradition, Hawai’inuiakea graduates together with other Native Hawaiian graduates and faculty open the commencement exercises with a chant and protocol the next day.

While in no way seeking to challenge the official designation of UH as a Native Hawaiian place of learning, Filipino, African American and Pacific Islander students and faculty are creating cultural spaces for themselves so that the university is also a Filipino, Black and Pasefika place of learning and teaching.