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Pharmacist Ruth Avegail Capapas wins Green Product Award in Berlin for ‘Bebot’ soap
A Filipino-American pharmacist from Mississippi is bringing Filipino-inspired innovation to the global stage after winning a prestigious international sustainability award in Berlin, Germany. Ruth Avegail Capapas, founder of Bebot Simple Soap, was named a winner of the 2026 Green Product Award, an international competition recognizing products that combine innovation, sustainability, and environmental responsibility. Her soap […]
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Beauty queen Maria Victoria Ginter’s quiet, low-key campaign for breast cancer awareness
By Cristina DC Pastor Maria Victoria Ginter was in her teens when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother discovered a lump in her breast and underwent surgery, but the disease had already progressed. After years of treatment, including chemotherapy, the cancer reached Stage 4. “She was only 45 years old when she […]
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‘The Pitt:’ Addictive TV drama where the nurses are portrayed by Filipino actors
By Wendell Gaa “The Pitt” is a supremely excellent and highly addictive TV medical drama. I find it to be one of the most innovative series in its genre in succession to its classic predecessors “St. Elsewhere” and “ER.” Just like the latter series, “The Pitt” stars “ER” alumnus Noah Wyle as Dr. Michael “Robby” […]
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Filipino couple among those charged in hospice care fraud allegedly taking money from patients who were not dying
Nita Almuete Paddit Palma, 76, a thrice-convicted health care fraudster now incarcerated at a federal prison in Seattle, and her husband, Adolfo Catbagan, 68, of Glendale, are charged in an 11-count indictment with operating at least three fraudulent hospice care facilities, according to an April 2 press release from the U.S. Department of Justice Central District of […]
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Newborn care specialists (AKA baby nurses): Guiding families through the 1st months
By Cristina DC Pastor For many new parents, the first weeks after bringing a baby home can feel overwhelming: sleepless nights, constant feeding, and the quiet anxiety of making sure everything is right. Stepping into this delicate moment are newborn care specialists — also known as “baby nurses,” — whose steady presence often becomes the […]
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Feeling hopeful at Radburn school’s Philippines Culture Day
By Marissa Bañez “Happy Culture Day!!!” Students at Radburn Elementary School, a public school in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, echoed that greeting while marveling at Filipino artifacts and other items during their Philippines Culture Day. They put on bamboo conical hats and Filipino clothing, and decorated a cardboard jeepney. They ate Filipino food – pancit, […]
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Faith and family help a Filipino nurse at YU’s Katz School achieve a dream
By Dave DeFusco On September 19, 2005, Sarah “Cheeky” Arnaldo Arciaga, a clinical assistant professor in the Bachelor’s in Nursing program at Yeshiva University’s Katz School of Science and Health, boarded a plane for New York for the first time. The moment should have felt triumphant—she had just earned a rare opportunity to pursue a […]
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AFTA’s Balik‑Turo at 33: How FilAm teachers built a quiet movement of diaspora-driven learning
By Ricky Rillera On a humid August morning in Manila, a group of teachers gathered inside a classroom at the Philippine Normal University. Some have traveled from remote provinces; others have flown from New York, New Jersey, and California. At the front stood a Filipino American educator who has spent decades teaching in the United […]
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A Filipino community center can be both a blessing and a burden
By Ricky Rillera For decades, Filipino Americans in the New York–New Jersey region have dreamed of a permanent home — a place where our stories can be told, our elders can gather, our youth can lead, and our culture can breathe without apology. That dream has flickered, brightened, dimmed, and revived again through generations of […]