Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Sampelo and Rea Sampilo.
Mark and Rea, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
– UniPro National started in New York in 2009, as an organization to unite and empower organizations in New York, later expanded chapters to Seattle, Chicago, San Diego, and eventually Texas and is a nationally recognized 501c3 Non-Profit Organization.
– UniPro Texas started from a call to action to serve the community after college. Our chapter first started forming virtually in August 2016.
– All of our staff members came from a student organization called Filipino Student Association at our respective colleges all over Texas. We have staff from PhilSA (A&M), UTD FSA, HBU FSA, & Baylor FSA. We also have folks from other cities, Chicago, New Jersey and even the Philippines.
– The FSAs mentioned are under the Southern Intercollegiate Filipino Alliance (SIFA). There are 13 Universities within TX and one in OK. At the time, this organization that was primarily a cultural/social organization. Our mission has been to engage these students about deeper dialogue about Filipino culture and our diaspora here in the US.
– We formed organizational structure that complimented our leadership styles, created departments, and went to work in the community. We gave workshops at universities and created spaces for our community together.
– Our chapter officially launched at the Greaterland Community Center in Houston on September 23, 2017. Community leaders, students and business owners were present. We all discussed the needs of the community and brainstormed ways UniPro Texas can help and meet those needs.
– We started going to Filipino Conferences centered around Community and Organizing that were out of state (Seattle, New York, Chicago, San Diego, Atlanta and more). We were fortunate to meet key leaders and brought back resources to serve folks here in Texas.
– After, we developed our mission and vision focused on serving the community, education, and civic engagement. From there, we created our major pillars which are Kapwa “to see yourself in another”, Identity, & Empowerment.
– Mission & Vision Statement: “UniPro Texas aims to unite the Fil-Am community using our innate sense of Kapwa; through educating the public on our identity, we will thereby empower our people toward a brighter future. We seek to build a space for open communication between groups and generations, provide a medium for our voices to be heard.”
– We started to host community events to bridge the intergenerational gaps with events such as Bayanihan, Handaan, and Merienda with FANHS. These were communal feasts with dialogue about our issues as a community; sharing our experiences and finding ways we can grow. Thanks in great part to community partners such as OCA for providing resources and supporting us through grants and for PACC, FxAH, FANHS, & SIFA for helping connect us to the community, we were able to meet this need and bring generations together.
– Other key events we initiated helped showcase and celebrate emerging Filipinos in Texas, included the Lumikha Arts Showcase where we’ve highlighted more than 50+ artists in the past 2 years and the Philippine Graduation Ceremony we started last year in 2019 with the Philippine Consulate General in Houston to send off our community’s next leaders in the professional world.
– We developed and presented Kilusan Workshop Series (movement through culture, history, and time) to educate and develop future leaders at University of Texas at Dallas, Texas A&M University, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at San Antonio, Rice University, and Baylor University.
– We started a summer Mentorship Program where we hosted virtual workshops to educate about Filipino history, culture, current events, and had a capstone project to challenge our mentees and build upon their leadership abilities. We also brought in guest speakers to expand their opportunities and network. We established the Bayanihan Scholarship where we supported promising mentees to attend Conferences throughout the US. Our Mentorship Program received positive feedback from participants with growing numbers each year.
– All of these, led to the success of our Annual Leadership Retreat in partnership with Southern Intercollegiate Filipino Alliance, this past year hosted at Baylor University. We facilitate workshops to student board members encouraging collaboration, innovation, and change inside and outside the college space. We strengthened our relationships with one another and built them as leaders. Within the fourteen universities, we cultivated a more supportive collegiate community. From last year’s retreat we saw at least 6 attendees assume presidential positions at their University’s respective FSAs including, UNT, UTD, UST, TX ST, Baylor, OU and many more filling up Board positions throughout SIFA.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
– We’ve had our fair share of growing pains and learning lessons with our events.
– We have to meet our community where they are and beginning from there. The Filipino community is not as united / visible as other states despite having the 3rd highest Filipino population.
– Volunteer-based – so funding for our programs comes from grants, our events and support from our partners. Burnout is real, we learn to self-care and support one another in times of need.
– We’ve hosted, co-hosted, and participated in over 50+ events statewide and nationwide. We’ve had members come and go. We’ve had to diffuse situations before they escalated. Overall, what grounds us and brings us together is our mission statement and understanding that the work that we do is bigger than ourselves.
UniPro Texas (Pilipino American Unity for Progress Inc.) – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
– About UniPro: We meet the needs of the community through easily accessible and engaging events. Further educating, uniting and empowering our Filipino Community. We do so through workshops, community dialogues with food, virtual workshops, art showcases, and community celebrations. We are most known for Lumikha Arts Showcase – highlighting artists; Leadership Retreat with SIFA – building our next leaders, and Handaan – bringing together community leaders, families, business owners, and students at the table.
– Specialize:
**Co-President (Mark) – I specialize in external relationships and am much more visionary when it comes to direction. I have the great ability to connect people together and help guide them in the right direction. I have a great sense to understand necessary steps to reach goals professionally, organizationally and in general, helping folks individually and as a chapter. I am also very detail oriented and analytical when I need to, helping track stats and communicate them in ways so our board, staff, and even other organizations can understand (tracking impact through numbers). I established Financial protocols and processes to help secure $45,000+ funding for UniPro Texas projects. I hope to help create sustainable change and find ways to inspire future generations and empower the Filipino community.
** Co-President (Rea) – I specialize in the internal development of the team and external collaborations. I provide the performance/arts-based interdisciplinary lens for education, and learning for staff and our programs. I direct, oversee, conceptualization of the quality programming of student/staff retreats, workshops, and accessibility of resources for our community. I orchestrate detailed processes so that the vision/goal for the entire year is reached. I work in close collaboration with the team on regulating the program pipeline and event timeline for our community, staff and mentees and of our chapter. The practice behavior analysis and performance evaluations to determine the flow and connectivity between the events, team, onboardees, and mentees. We are then able to project and execute the steps for growth and sustainability. Under my leadership, this has led to the recruitment and development of our 24 staff members. I hope to pass down this staff culture centered on transparency, support, professionalism and love for the community.
– Most Proud of: Team Chemistry, diverse board with various professionals in Media, Healthcare, Business, and in the Arts. Filling the need for workshops and events centered around the Filipino American identity and community development.
– Stand-out factor: At all of our events, or audience members always take away something. We always emphasize safe space and dialogue and have the ability to foster relationships. We’ve impacted over 1000+ community members over the course of 3 years. All of us volunteer community leaders, finding ways to create sustainable change and help our Filipino communities grow and flourish.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Experiencing firsthand and hearing testimonials our impact in the next generation and inspiring them to do incredible things.
-Leadership Retreat: Hearing feedback from the student leaders their desire to expand to host a conference to dive deeper into conversations about Fil-Am, AAPI, and minority group issues. Witnessing last year’s attendees ascend into presidential and leadership positions in their respective university FSAs
-Lumikha Arts Showcase: Hearing from one of the artists, Royal Sumikat, one of her friends’ young child started drawing, creating art, and playing music after attending our event.
Pricing:
- Donate Here: https://bit.ly/3aAhtbz
- Go to unipronow.org and click the Donate Button
Contact Info:
- Address: 2526 Monarch Terrace Dr.
Katy, Texas - Website: unipronow.org/texas
- Phone: 972-904-2064
- Email: info@unipronow.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uniprotexas/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unipronow
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/UniProNow
- Other: https://www.lumikhaartsshowcase.com/
Image Credit:
Trisha Morales, Christian Toledo, Chanelle Billones, Mark Sampelo
Suggest a story: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
