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New Stockton school to be named after first Fil-Am teacher in California

A new elementary school in Stockton City would be named after the first Filipino-American teacher who served in the Stockton Unified School District (SUSD) during a time when anti-Filipino sentiment was rampant across the state.
In a report by the Asian Journal, the Stockton-based Filipino-American organization ‘Little Rising Manila’ campaigned to put the name of Flora Arca Mata for the new K-8 school as a nod to the groundwork that the teacher had prepared to accept Asian-American educators.
“WE DID IT! The new K-8 school in Quail Lakes will be named after Flora Arca Mata! Thank you to all of you who filled out SUSD’s naming survey and reposted our campaign, Little Rising Manila wrote in a Facebook post on Dec. 17.
“Thank you for being such a beautiful community and standing up for one of our own. Your voices matter.” LRM added.
Flora Arca Mata was the first Filipino-American to graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) at the time when anti-Filipino sentiment was spreading across the state.
She broke many barriers and showed everyone that Filipinas can rise above any challenges during her time.
“To be first is not that important, it’s what you do after that’s important,” Mata told The Record in 1975, the Stockton-based news organization.

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