An Introduction To Our Conversation Series
Starting November 17, 2020, the intention for this conversation series is to document our experiences, make connections and centre Filipina Hamilton voices through interview-style conversations to start discussions about issues affecting us and considering the many ways we can work together.
Kelly-Anne
Kelly-Anne is a second-generation Filipina-Canadian born in Toronto, currently living in Mississauga and studying at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a 5th year (Honours) Life Sciences and Psychology student. Over the 2020-2021 term, Kelly-Anne is serving as one of the Co-Presidents of the Filipino McMaster Student Association (FMSA). FMSA is an organization close to her heart that unifies the McMaster community to celebrate Filipino culture through charitable, social, and cultural events.
Robin Lacambra
Meet Robin Lacambra, a social justice advocate and empowered embodiment educator, blending practices like Pilates, yoga, somatics, and mindfulness; sharing them from anti-oppression, trauma aware, and eating disorder informed frameworks. Through all-body-loving movement classes, teacher training + personal development programs, individual somatic soul coaching, executive coaching, workshops + speaking engagements, and empowers to SERVE the collective good. Robin is the founder of GoodBodyFeel Movement Studio in Hamilton, ON. She shares her triumphs and tensions growing up Filipino, how she reclaims her identity through radical acceptance, and more.
Robin is Community Champion Nominee for the YWCA’s 2021 Courage of Covid Awards. To see more of Robin’s work, head over to https://www.goodbodyfeel.com/ which she founded.
Vera M.E. Velasco PhD
Vera, our guest for this episode, is a plant biologist who finished her Ph.D. at McMaster University in 2017. She is currently a senior research fellow at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. Vera received the Mitacs Globalink Research Award in 2019 for her project with the title, “Hybrid RNA sequencing of Douglas-firs exposed to simulations of future extreme climate events.” Vera is serious about plant science, building healthy habits, and encouraging Filipina-Canadians to pursue a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career. But this scientist is not only about serious stuff. Listen to her as she shares how her brain stops thinking in English by 6pm!
Head over ficars.ca to see Vera more as she leads the Filipino-Canadian Researchers and Scientists which she Co-Founded.
Jennie Hamilton
Jennie Hamilton is our guest for this episode, and yes, that is her real name. Jennie came to Canada in 2007 and has lived in Hamilton since 2008. Jennie is a BA Communications graduate from the University of the Philippines and is currently doing her MA in Library Science. She works for the Hamilton Public Library and has been there for 10 years. She says, “I came to Canada to find myself and wasn’t really intending to stay until love found me, and the rest, as they say, is history.”
Mariel Lopez
Meet Mariel, a communications major at McMaster University. Mariel divides her time between the Philippines and Canada. She shares her love of reading Filipino/a-authored books, which allow her to understand more about different immigrant experiences, and reflect on her own as relatively less daunting. Listen to her as she relates how she is riding through the COVID-19 pandemic.
WE WANT TO FEATURE YOU
We are inviting you to join us in our Conversations with the Filipinas of HamOnt series. Please register below for your availability and we will contact you shortly.