History
Beginning on April 10, 1995, the Filipino Intercultural Society of Drexel University (FISDU) received official recognition as a student organization at Drexel University. FISDU started with four aspiring students and now has about 40-50 active members each year. The purpose of FISDU is to strengthen, represent, and spread Filipino culture throughout the Drexel community. One unique characteristic of this Filipino organization is the focus on “Intercultural.” FISDU’s focus is not only to gather Filipinos at Drexel, but also to welcome those individuals that are interested in learning about Filipino culture and history. FISDU also strives to support other cultures in order to have a well-balanced understanding of many ethnic and minority groups. We have open membership, which is available to the entire Drexel community.
FISDU is a member of a national organization called the Filipino Intercollegiate Networking Dialogue (FIND), which holds one Dialogue in the fall and one Conference in the spring. FISDU holds many ties to FIND because members of FISDU have held executive board positions within the organization. In its founding year, FISDU was able to send two out of the four members to the Dialogue and Conference.
In a short amount of time, FISDU has gained the respect and admiration from many student organizations on campus, member schools of FIND District Five, and Drexel’s Office of Student Affairs (OSA). One of FISDU’s greatest accomplishments is that it was the host organization and school for the 1998 FIND Fall Dialogue. Along with the other member schools of District Five, FISDU was able to educate, entertain, and learn from nearly 1,000 college students from all over the US and Canada. With this accomplishment, FISDU received Drexel’s award for Best Student Organization Program of the Year.
Another of FISDU’s greatest accomplishments is being awarded Student Organization of the Year by Drexel’s Undergraduate Student Government Association (USGA) after FISDU’s first year of existence on campus in 1996. Not long after, FISDU, along with the organization formerly known as the South Asian Society (SAS), held a semi-formal. FISDU was able to save the planned outdoor event from becoming a disaster due to unforeseen bad weather conditions by swiftly modifying logistics and holding it indoors last minute. FISDU held its own first grand event in Spring 2001, a Barrio Fiesta (entitled “Sumisibol” that year), which has become our major annual event.
FISDU was again the host school for 2016 FIND Spring Conference on University of Pennsylvania’s campus. With the help of the surrounding District Five schools, the conference introduced a professional aspect to the conference and also introduced a city wide scavenger hunt to encourage visiting students to explore the great city of Philadelphia.
Traditions
Families
A huge part of Filipino culture is family. Find your kuya/ate/adings (older brother, older sister, and younger siblings, respectively – aka bigs/littles) in your fellow members and become a part of one of FISDU’s four families – red, yellow, blue, or white! Families go head to head in competitions such as Family Cook Off and Sports Night each year. Families also have hangouts throughout the year.