Each year, the Western Washington University's Sustainability Engagement Institute awards scholarships to students to attend the Washington Oregon Cascadia Higher Education Sustainability Conference. I was fortunate to have received this scholarship in both 2022 and 2023, which enabled me to attend the conference.

My team and I had the opportunity to attend the 2022 Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association Annual Conference as speakers, where we showcased our Urban Planning program and highlighted the collaborative projects our students are working on in partnership with local cities.

Tagalog (/təˈɡɑːlɒɡ/ tə-GAH-log,[4] native pronunciation: [tɐˈɡaːloɡ] ⓘ; Baybayin: ᜆᜄᜎᜓᜄ᜔) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority, mostly as or through Filipino. Its de facto standardized and codified form, officially named Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of the nation's two official languages, alongside English. Tagalog, like the other and as one of the regional languages of the Philippines, which majority are Austronesian, is one of the auxiliary official languages of the Philippines in the regions and also one of the auxiliary media of instruction therein.

Tagalog is closely related to other Philippine languages, such as the Bikol languages, the Bisayan languages, Ilocano, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan, and more distantly to other Austronesian languages, such as the Formosan languages of Taiwan, Indonesian, Malay, Hawaiian, Māori, Malagasy, and many more.

Cebuano (/sɛˈbwɑːnoʊ/ se-BWAH-noh)[2][3][4] is an Austronesian language spoken in the southern Philippines by Cebuano people and other ethnic groups as a secondary language. It is natively, though informally, called by the generic name Bisayâ (Cebuano pronunciation: [bisəˈjaʔ] ⓘ), or Binisayâ ([bɪniːsəˈjaʔ]) (both terms are translated into English as Visayan, though this should not be confused with other Bisayan languages)[a] and sometimes referred to in English sources as Cebuan (/sɛˈbuːən/ seb-OO-ən). It is spoken by the Visayan ethnolinguistic groups native to the islands of Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, the eastern half of Negros, the western half of Leyte, the northern coastal areas of Northern Mindanao and the eastern part of Zamboanga del Norte due to Spanish settlements during the 18th century. In modern times, it has also spread to the Davao Region, Cotabato, Camiguin, parts of the Dinagat Islands, and the lowland regions of Caraga, often displacing native languages in those areas (most of which are closely related to it).[5][6]

While Tagalog has the largest number of native speakers among the languages of the Philippines today, Cebuano had the largest native-language-speaking population from the 1950s until about the 1980s.[7][failed verification] It is by far the most widely spoken of the Bisayan languages.[8]

Cebuano is the lingua franca of Central Visayas, the western parts of Eastern Visayas, some western parts of Palawan, and most parts of Mindanao. The name Cebuano is derived from the island of Cebu, which is the source of Standard Cebuano.[5] Cebuano is also the primary language in Western Leyte—noticeably in Ormoc. Cebuano is assigned the ISO 639-2 three-letter code ceb but not an ISO 639-1 two-letter code.

The Commission on the Filipino Language, the Philippine government body charged with developing and promoting the national and regional languages of the country, spells the name of the language in Filipino as Sebwano.

While it is not widely spoken in Luzon, there are a few Cebuano communities in Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Bulacan, throughout Central Luzon, northernmost Luzon, including Cordillera Administrative Region, and Ilocos Region.