My relationship with Advancement for Rural Kids began in October 2011. As a senior and the president of TCNJ Barkada, the Filipino-American organization at The College of New Jersey, it was my mission to elevate the club to new heights and make this its strongest year yet. In honor of October’s Filipino-American Heritage Month, we decided to invite UniPro to a general body meeting to facilitate an Usapan Discussion about Filipino-American identity. As UniPro’s mission is to create a network amongst Filipino-American organizations, they introduced us to the work of ARK and suggested we partner up with the non-profit because they recognized that our pro-active energy would be a good fit with the spirit of ARK and its members. In the past, Barkada had not dedicated itself to one specific cause or philanthropic organization. However, we felt that the prospect of devoting our time and energy into an organization like ARK would bring focus to our group and provide the opportunity to shed light on a worthy cause. As a club, our mission is to raise awareness about Filipino and Filipino-American culture amongst our members and the rest of the student body. In that same spirit, our philanthropic initiative this year and every year is to raise awareness about situations in the Filipino and Filipino-American communities that need our help. Thus, the collaboration between TCNJ Barkada and ARK began.