The Conference Directors’ Opening Remarks for CYFAM’s 6th Annual Conference
CYFAM’s 6th Annual Conference • Bawat Bituin, Bawat Kuwento: "Every Star, Every Story"
Saturday, March 14 – Sunday, March 15, 2026
Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine at the University of Houston
Houston, Texas
Lester Andrew Uy –
Executive Chair
Good morning. Magandang umaga at mabuhay, CYFAMilya.
To those joining us for the first time, welcome. To those returning, welcome back. Whether this is your first conference or your sixth, you belong here.
In Philippine mythology, Lisuga was the daughter of the wind and the sea. Her body was made of pure silver. When conflict erupted among the gods, she went searching for her brothers. As she approached the sky, she was struck down, and her silver body shattered into thousands of pieces across the heavens. The gods wept, but gave each fragment a light that would shine forever. Lisuga became the stars.
Bawat bituin, bawat kuwento. Lisuga gave us the stars. But stars do not only shine. They carry stories. Every fragment of her still holds memory, purpose, meaning. That is the invitation of this conference: to honor the light we each carry and the story that makes it ours.
When CYFAM was founded in 2020, we faced a different kind of darkness. A pandemic had scattered us. We were isolated, grieving, holding onto connection through screens. We built CYFAM because we believed that kapwa could hold us together even then, and it did. Now, six years later, we stand at a very different fork in the road. The ground keeps shifting. Funding for health equity feels precarious. Questions about whose health matters sit heavily in our exam rooms. The challenge is no longer about isolation, but rather, uncertainty.
But do not let the challenges placed upon us dim your light. We do what sparks our curiosity. We do what is in service of others, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it is who we are as a people.
Before I came to the United States, I lived in Quebec, Canada, where every license plate reads "Je me souviens." I remember. It is deliberately incomplete. What do we remember? We remember Dr. Fe del Mundo, who sold everything she owned to build the first pediatric hospital in the Philippines. When bureaucracy stood in her way, she did not wait. She invented a bamboo incubator for families without electricity. She made rounds until she was 99 years old. She did not have all the answers, but she built anyway.
So build. Build before you have all the answers. Practice the skills that feel uncertain. Have the conversations that make you uncomfortable. Offer the mentorship you wish you had received. Your story is being written right now, in this room, with these people… your fellow kababayan.
And know this: every experience you carry, in medicine and beyond, is its own star. When you step back, they form a constellation. Your constellation weaves with others in this room, and theirs with others beyond it. Together, they form a galaxy. Sulit ang lahat. It is all worth it.
What was shattered became the sky. What was broken became the light. And every star still carries a story.
Bawat bituin, bawat kuwento. Welcome to CYFAM’s 6th Annual Conference.
Neil Wingkun, MD – Conference Principal Director
Good morning everyone, and welcome, CYFAM.
My name is Neil Wingkun, and I’m honored to welcome you to CYFAM’s 6th annual conference.
We’re especially grateful to host this event here in Houston, home to the Texas Medical Center — the largest medical complex in the world. It cares for 160,000 patients daily across 61 hospitals, including MD Anderson, Baylor College of Medicine, Hermann Trauma, Texas Children’s, and Houston Methodist, to name a few. Innovations such as the start of immunotherapy at MD Anderson, the first artificial heart transplant with Dr. DeBakey, and the first private air trauma service with Dr. Red Duke at Hermann Trauma started here.
But this conference isn’t just about medicine. It’s about people.
Houston is home to one of the largest and most vibrant Filipino communities in the United States. It’s the third largest Filipino population and host to three Jolibees. Filipino physicians, nurses, and healthcare workers have long played a profound role in caring for patients across this city and across the country.
I think of my parents, who graduated from UST medical school and came to the US with 13 bags, a dream. While they were in residency, they were missing home while trying to fit in and remove all the “namans” from their daily talk.
When I was in residency, I looked to the one Filipino emergency attending, Dr. Robert Lapus, as inspiration for my own training. We stand on the shoulders of their legacy: of immigrants, families, mentors, and community members who believed that service and compassion were worth the sacrifice.
CYFAM exists to carry that legacy forward.
Our mission is not only to support Filipino American medical training but to build something deeper: a community where mentorship is real, where our journeys are shared honestly, and where vulnerability is not seen as a weakness, but as a strength.
Because the truth is, medicine can be isolating. The road here is long. And each of us has faced moments of doubt, setbacks, or barriers that aren’t always visible from the outside.
What makes this community special is the willingness to talk about those moments, to learn from them, and to support one another through them.
This conference is an opportunity to celebrate that spirit of openness, mentorship, and shared purpose.
Thank you all for being here. Let’s continue to build this community together.
