Pasifika Graduation

Pasifika Graduation
Background image: 2023 Pasifika Graduates
2026 Pasifika Graduation program

Admission

While tickets are not required for admission to Pasifika Graduation, seating capacity is limited and a seating chart will be provided. Please note that seating is reserved for graduates, Pasifika Graduation speakers and their invited guests.

Standing room is available for those who would like to join who are not a graduate, a Pasifika Graduation speaker, or a part of their invited guests lists.
For questions and concerns, please email Angel Halafihi at halafihi@berkeley.edu.

Road Closures & Parking

Roads surrounding the campus will be congested throughout the day. Please plan accordingly.

  • Most roads will be closed between 7:30 am - 1 pm.
  • We highly recommend you take public transit. Visit 511.org for train, bus, and other options.
  • If you need to drive, you may purchase prepaid parking spots. If these are sold out, visit the Parking & Transportation website for alternatives.

Parking on or near campus require payment. Public parking lots and garages near the Pasifika Graduation venue (Alumni House) include the following:

Directions from BART

  1. Exit Bart Station onto Shattuck Ave.
  2. Walk south on Shattuck three blocks to Bancroft Way.
  3. Turn left on Bancroft and go up the hill along the south edge of campus—passing by the following streets on the right: Fulton and Ellsworth.
  4. Arrive at Bancroft and Dana St and turn left onto the campus.
  5. You’ll see Haas Pavilion (basketball) on your left.
  6. Alumni House is across from Haas Pavilion. Enter through the back patio facing Strawberry Creek.

Program

  • 2:30 pm Welcome | Kayla Manu & Noelle Patawaran, Pacific Islander Initiative Interns
  • 2:45 pm Keynote Address | Terisa Siagatonu, Inaugural Executive Director for Organizational Transformation, Asian American & Pacific Islander Thriving Initiatives
  • 3:15 pm Honoring of the Graduates | Angel Halafihi, Assistant Director of Asian Pacific American Student Development, Pacific Islander Initiative
  • 4:00 pm Reception | Catered by Understory Oakland
  • Closing
Contact Info:

Angel Halafihi
510-423-8844
halafihi@berkeley.edu

RSVP for Pasifika Graduation

May 16th, 2026 | Doors: 2:00 PM

Saturday, May 16th, 2026

Doors: 2:00pm | Program: 2:30pm

Alumni House Patio | Outdoors (We are expecting sunny weather with temperatures ranging between high-60s °F to low-70 °F. All seating will be on the outdoors patio. Consider bringing sunglasses, and/or sunscreen as well as a light to medium jacket.)

Attire | Cultural

This year, we celebrate:

  • Joshua Alcantara
  • Atheena Keanani Arasoo
  • Henrietta Cakobau
  • Jada Ku'ulei Lee
  • Athan Mallios
  • Adam Mapuatuli
  • Isabel Prasad
  • Jadalyn Tedtaotao
  • Aislynn Unga
  • Ezra Veloria
  • Richard Villagomez

About Our Keynote: Terisa Siagatonu

Terisa Siagatonu (See-ang-gah-toe-new) is an award-winning touring poet, speaker, educator, and community organizer born and rooted in the Bay Area. Her voice in the poetry world as a queer Sāmoan woman has granted her opportunities to perform in places such as the White House (Obama administration), the UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris, the Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, Australia, and the 2019 SF Women's March. Terisa's writing/teaching blends the personal, cultural, and political in a way that calls for healing, courage, justice, and truth. A 2023 Emerson Collective Fellow, her work has been published in Poetry Magazine and The Academy of American Poets and has been featured on Button Poetry, CNN, NBCNews, NPR, KQED, Huffington Post, Everyday Feminism, The Guardian, and more

Offstage, Terisa is a community organizer and creates and facilitates workshops, leads artistic and professional development training, provides mental health support, and delivers keynote speeches across the country on issues that inform her 20 years of community work involving: youth advocacy, educational attainment, mental health, AAPI identity, Pasifika/Indigenous rights, climate change, and others. She’s the co-editor of We The Gathered Heat: Asian American and Pacific Islander Poetry, Performance, and Spoken Word. Her debut children’s book, The Vastness of Us, will be published by Penguin and released in Spring 2027.

Terisa is UC Berkeley's inaugural Executive Director for Organizational Transformation, Asian American & Pacific Islander Thriving Initiatives.