The revival of the Filipino American Association started with a game of ping-pong. Two Filipino students looking for a community on campus hit it off and decided that instead of waiting to find one, they were going to build one themselves.
The Filipino American Association is a student organization dedicated to connecting Filipino students at UT and educating others on Filipino culture.
The organization is currently led by President William Nicholas Benedict, a sophomore studying mechanical engineering, and Jed Baso, a sophomore studying finance with a minor in economics.
“What I wanted coming to UT was to find a group of Filipinos,” Benedict said. “I went to the engagement fair but didn’t find a table for a Filipino organization, despite hearing about it before.”
After asking around various other Asian student organizations, Benedict discovered that the Filipino student organization had been inactive with the graduation of its previous leaders. Benedict got in contact with the former leaders of the organization via email and ended up taking the reins.
Eventually, he crossed paths with Baso.
“One of my friends challenged William to a ping pong challenge because he was known as the Dogwood demon last year,” Baso said. “So I decide, you know what? I’m going to go watch this happen, why not? So I pull up on Saturday, and after the match, ask him if he’s Filipino. It’s kind of a Filipino thing, but you can just get a sense of if someone’s Filipino or not.”
Both students have the goal of forming a deeper connection with Filipino culture.
“I got to go back home to the Philippines this past summer, which was really cool,” Baso said. “From that experience, I took away that I’m really not that plugged into Filipino culture.”
Benedict felt a similar way.
“I’m honestly kind of white-washed,” Benedict said. “I’ve met a lot of people whose goal is to expand Filipino culture, and I want to do that at UT.”
“I feel like a lot of Filipinos here, even though they grew up in a Filipino family with Filipino parents, feel like they’re missing a lot of the culture as well because they were raised here in America,” Baso said. “A lot of people in FAA are also not even fully Filipino. Some are half-Filipino, some are a quarter Filipino. So there are a lot of people who have a connection to being Filipino in some way, but they’re really disconnected from that part of themselves.”
The organization hosts club meetings and community events that serve both an educational and entertaining purpose. Baso plans to host a Filipino 101 session where students can learn the basics of Filipino culture, including the language.
“I’m really passionate about history, so I would also love to teach a Filipino history lesson,” Baso said. “The Philippines was once an American colony, so it has a unique history intertwined with the U.S.”
The organization is also gearing up to collaborate with other student organizations. Baso revealed plans for a collaboration with the Vietnamese Student Association for a Halloween panel. The event surrounds Southeast Asian mythology, complete with clips from different movies.
“It’ll be a movie night with educational bits,” Baso said.
The event Baso is most looking forward to is a Christmas karaoke night potluck in collaboration with multiple organizations.
“Filipinos love Christmas,” Baso said. “It’s a massive thing, and so is karaoke. We’re hoping to bring a lot of Filipino food and collaborate with a bunch of other Asian organizations on campus. It may just be our biggest event of the semester.”
Though Baso has a lot of ideas for the club, he stated that he doesn’t think the club would be what it is today without Benedict.
Through Benedict’s efforts to connect with the wider Knoxville and UT community, the Filipino American Association has participated in events such as the Asian American Association’s Big 865 Night Market and the Student Engagement Fair. They are also planning to table at the upcoming campus International Festival in October.
In the future, Benedict hopes to collaborate with Filipino organizations across different campuses as well as the greater Tennessee community.
“We went to the Knox Asian Festival this past month and were able to connect with the people running the booth for the Philippines,” Benedict said. “It was a great connection to make, and they invited us to community events in the future.”
Both Benedict and Baso hope that students who participate in the organization can leave feeling better connected to their own identity.
“I think the whole point of an organization is to connect you with people who are like you,” Baso said. “I want FAA to help people get in touch with their identity and I hope they can take that with them when they graduate.”
On Sept. 11, the Filipino American Association will be hosting a movie night in the Art and Architecture Building, where they will be watching a Filipino original movie titled “She’s Dating the Gangster.”
“Even if you’re not Filipino, we just want people to know that we exist,” Benedict said. “We’re here to have a good time and we want people to have a good experience with us, something that’ll give them stories to pass down to future generations.”
This story has been modified from its original version, published on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. The original version stated William Benedict-Nicholas’ name in the wrong order. It has been change so that Nicholas’ name is correct.
