Episode 174 – The Value of Community Colleges with Dr. Lily Ann Villaraza

Community colleges are the biggest bang for our buck, and yet there are so many Filipino Americans out there who do not respect such schools.  With the higher education landscape rapidly changing, the notion of what constitutes a “good school” should be reconsidered.  Moreover, there are some schools that provide a more relevant education for Filipino Americans than most four-year institutions.

In this TFAL episode, we talk to Dr. Lily Ann Villaraza, Professor and Chair of the Philippine Studies Department at City College of San Francisco.  In our discussion, we talk about the value of community colleges, the large stigma of this branch of education in the Filipino American community, the unique student life of community college students, and how the City College of San Francisco has provided Philippine Studies course to its students for more than 50 years.  In addition, the TFAL crew discusses what our impressions of community college growing up and how we all need to check our perspectives and biases during the intro.