page_title: Pensionado Act
section_title: Implementation
hierarchical_section_title: Pensionado Act / Implementation
caption_attribution_description: English: 100 Filipino students (pensionados) (plus one drawn in individual) standing on steps at the St. Louis Exposition.
context_page_description: The Pensionado Act is Act Number 854 of the Philippine Commission, which passed on 26 August 1903. Passed by the United States Congress, it established a scholarship program for Filipinos to attend school in the United States. The program has roots in pacification efforts following the Philippine–American War. It hoped to prepare the Philippines for self-governance and present a positive image of Filipinos to the rest of the United States. Students of this scholarship program were known as pensionados.
  From the initial 100 students, the program provided education in the United States to around 500 students. They would go on to be influential members of the Philippine society, with many of the alumni of the program going on to work for the government in the Philippine Islands. Due to their success, other immigrants from the Philippines followed to be educated in the United States, in excess of 14,000. Many of these non-pensioned students ended up permanently residing in the United States. In 1943, the program ended. It was the largest American scholarship program until the Fulbright Program was established in 1948.
context_section_description: The program was initially overseen by David Prescott Barrows, the Philippines' director of education at the time. In its first year, 1903, there were twenty thousand applicants, of which about a hundred were selected. Those selected became the first pensionados, students who were accepted by this scholarship program. These early pensionados were chosen from the wealthy and elite class of Filipinos. Prior to taking college courses, the initial pensionados attended high school in the continental United States for the purpose of language and culture acclimation. In some areas of the United States, the pensionados were some of the first Filipinos to immigrate to those areas; as was the case for Chicago, New York City, Riverside, San Diego, and Ventura County, California. As much as a quarter of the initial batch of pensionados went to school in the Chicago region.
  During the second year of the program, the first Pinay (Filipino women) pensionados were chosen, numbering five out of a total of thirty-nine; this created a gender imbalance favoring Pinoy (Filipino men) pensionados.  In 1904, pensionados served as guides and waiters at the Philippines exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition; there they were a contrast to the Igorots, who also represented Filipinos to the attendees of the world's fair. In 1905, only three Pinay pensionados were chosen out of a total of thirty-seven pensionados beginning the program. As the program continued, the number of pensionados steadily increased, with there being 180 pensionados in 1907, and 209 in 1912. Among the pensionados were some of the first Filipino nursing students to come to the United States. Only seven years after the program began, the initial 100 pensionados had all returned to the Philippines. Beginning in 1908, with the opening of the University of the Philippines, the program shifted its focus from undergraduate studies to graduate studies. There was a pause in the program between 1915 and 1917. In 1921, the Philippine government was supporting 111 pensionados, 13 of whom were working towards a doctoral degree.
  From 1903 until 1938, pensionados traveled to the United States to study, with the majority returning to the Philippines. In 1943, the program ended. Pensionados would go on to serve within the government established in the islands by the United States; this was a scholarship requirement, and had to be at least 18 months of government service. Before returning to the Philippines, pensionados began student-run newspapers, which were part of the beginning of media geared specifically to the Filipino diaspora in the United States. While, initially, pensionados were chosen from wealthy and elite families, later pensionados were more likely not to come from wealthy families. Due to the Great Depression funding for the program was reduced. For instance, in 1930, there were but thirteen pensionados, eleven of whom were funded fully by the Philippine government, two of whom were partially funded, and another six were formerly funded by the Philippine government but remained in the United States to complete their education at their own expense. Near the end of World War II, the Commonwealth Government in Exile was offered to have some of the pensionados trained in foreign relations, anticipating the 1946 independence of the Philippines from the United States.
caption: The first 100 pensionados at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition
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