In February of 2002, a group of four UC Davis undergraduates, Julienne Angeles, Thea de Borja, Rosalyn Moya, and Voltaire Sinigayan, recognized the need of a free clinic catering to the Filipino community, specifically the Filipino World War II Veterans. Richard Ikeda, executive director of Health for All, became the group's sponsor, and supported the development of this community-oriented primary care project. During the following months, a name was chosen, a mission statement was drafted, a major fundraiser was held, and a site was chosen for the clinic. In August of 2002, the clinic was designated a non-profit organization by the Internal Revenue Service. 

In October of 2002, the group began its efforts to recruit undergraduate clinic volunteers, and specifically targeted Filipino pre-health students in hopes of encouraging students from this underrepresented group to pursue a career in medicine by giving them the rare opportunity of being able to learn and serve while fulfilling community needs. By 2007, Bayanihan Clinic officially joined other student run clinics affiliated with the University of California Medical Center. The UCDMC affiliation has helped clinic in various ways such as having lab services provided by the hospital. 

The Tagalog (one of many Filipino dialects) word, Bayanihan, was chosen as the clinic's name to capture two essences of the clinic:

• Bayanihan, when translated from Tagalog into English means "a collective group of people working together towards a common goal" 

• Bayani, which is the literal term for "heroes" recognizes the focus of the clinic's target population, the Filipino WWII Veterans.