Dear Super Student,

As you go through your life as a student, may you put to mind and heart these things:

Be responsible. Be it in taking down notes, doing your homework, or contributing to a group project, always do your share of the work. I would often depend on my trusty Pilot mechanical pencil to jot down notes, ideas and things to do.

Read and ask questions. These two skills will enrich every aspect of your life. While reading I enjoy using my reliable Stabilo highlighter to emphasize facts that I would like to remember.

Do not be afraid to make mistakes. Mistakes should not define you. What’s important is you learn from them and that you muster enough courage to try again. I am reminded of this every time I use my favorite Dong-A correction tape and do my best not to commit the same mistake again.

With that, I wish you the best school year, ever!

Keep learning,

Teacher Cesca Tolentino-Amurao

“Teacher Nanay” to daughter Mika

Kindergarten Coordinator at St. Theresa’s College, QC

 

Dear Students,

White intermediate pads are my delight. Their pages are your pen’s paradise. That’s where I wrote drafts of basketball stories when I was a high school campus journalist—the first drafts that led me to a journalism-oriented career.

The yellow pad is quite long and hard to store in your bag. The size of the intermediate pad is just right for me.

The professional journalists I knew started off their careers with their school papers. Back then, before printing my output for the school paper, I would use my intermediate pad. When there’re some extra sheets, you use the pad for your quizzes. Reserve extra sheets too, for tearing into half when teachers say “get one-half crosswise” or generously giving to classmates when they say “Penge papel!”

Coupled with one’s perseverance in studying, the intermediate pad is the launching pad to test your knowledge, to build careers, or even to show your love. Fill that pad up with dreams about you and your future.

Jeremaiah Opiniano

Assistant Professor of Journalism

University of Santo Tomas

 

Dear Students,

When I was a kid, we lived in a small house in the province with my parents doing their best every day to provide for us. I was in Grade 1 and I had my baon—a jug full of water and a sandwich with a very thin layer of plain mayonnaise. I envied my classmates who had chocolate milk and ham spread as a filling for their sandwich and my classmates who had money as their baon. I’d see them buy teks cards or pogs wrapped in plastic packaging with popular cartoon characters. I tried asking my mom for money instead but she said I was too young to have money as baon.

So next day, at recess, instead of taking out my baon, I spent 30 minutes drawing on plain sheets of paper with crayons. My classmates gathered around me as I created characters from Voltes V, Bioman, Ultra Man and Mask Rider Black. They got my drawings for free. After a few free samples, one of my classmates asked if I can draw his favorite character and in exchange, he’ll give me one peso. Of course, I agreed! I think I made five pesos that recess.

After school, when I was done with my assignments, I drew the whole afternoon. I folded each drawing and gift-wrapped it to look like the ones I saw my classmates buying. I was able to make a lot.

The next day, I announced to the whole class that I had drawings for sale. One peso per pack. My classmates asked, “How do we select the drawings we want eh you wrapped everything in gift wrapper?” I said, “Then you have to buy more. That’s the surprise.” And they did. After recess, my entire inventory was sold out.

My teacher learned about this, confiscated some of my merchandise from my buyers and sent me to the principal’s office. The following day, my mom with my lola were at the principal’s office. My mom was reprimanded for allowing me to sell to my classmates at such an age. She said to the principal, “I would even entrust my 7-year old son to watch over our tindahan as I do my daily chores.” My lola took all the confiscated merchandise for her keeping. I continued to sell discreetly. Each recess, I drew and sold, and when I ran out of pad paper and crayons, I used my earnings to buy another pad paper and set of Crayola. It was when I got older that I realized I was already an entrepreneur when I was just a kid.

Today, we own the biggest chain of takoyaki franchise in the Philippines with more than 100 branches nationwide. Last year, I started a takoyaki restaurant chain and in less than a year, we have more than 35 branches in Luzon alone. Very recently, we had a family reunion in our province. My lola whispered to me, “I still have the Crayola drawings you sold when you were just a kid.”

You see, I’d like to think that what we are born to do would, most of the time, resurface from within ourselves if we allow it to happen. When it does happen, let’s do our best. Not to be recognized by the people around us. Instead, let our best be the cause of recognition. When recognition starts, even from the few people who believe in you or—if there are none—from yourself, keep doing your best amidst all odds, persecutions, doubts, and hardship. Little by little, you will notice people gathering around you, watching, cheering, and believing as you create marvelous and beautiful things.

Ganbatte this school year! :D

Mark Anthony Villaflor

 

Dearest Pepe and Pilar,

Reading and writing are complementary activities that you cannot get away from as students, whether you are in kindergarten or in graduate school, and the proper development of both skills ensures your success in the academic world and beyond. Reading, in particular, increases your knowledge of the world and its various aspects, since all subjects require you to read something, whether it be in the form of a textbook or manual, monographs or handouts.

You might be wondering, “But how can we remember all the information, the facts and figures, the formulas and equations, etc. that we acquire from these reading materials when we have between 5-8 subjects per quarter or semester?”

This is my answer: since high school, the use of highlighters has been indispensable in my studies. I realized when I was a freshman in Philippine Science High School that I could better remember the important data from the various reading materials I had to study if I used highlighters in different neon or pastel colors to mark them on the printed page.

I still use highlighters up to now as I pursue a Ph.D. in Literature in the UST Graduate School.

Yours truly,

Sir Galán

Assoc. Prof. Ralph Semino Galán, M.A.

Assistant Director

UST Center for Creative Writing and Literary Studies

 

Dear Students,

I am the youngest in our family. My father is a bet taker and my mother is a housewife, and I’m so proud that because of my father’s job, we all graduated. Your status in life is not a problem if you work hard.

As the youngest in our family, I promised my siblings, who have supported my studies since high school, that I will finish my studies on time. I did that and God gave me an unexpected blessing—I graduated cum laude.

My college journey was not easy. I was an irregular student because I was a transferee. Being an irregular student shouldn’t hinder you from achieving your goals. It can even help you improve your personality and develop your character.

I was a university scholar since freshman year and it was my responsibility to maintain my grades. That’s how I helped my parents and my siblings finance my studies.  God helped me survive my four years in college. He is my source of strength because He is my savior. If you put God first in everything that you do, God will do the rest.

I express gratitude toward God and to my family, my mom Delia, dad Fausto and my siblings, Sucat Bible Baptist Church, my friends, my college friends (a.k.a irreg friends), my professors, and my inspiration Billy Navaira. This is for us.

Yasmin O. Sapin

Cum Laude, Batch 2017

BS International Travel and Tourism Managament

Lyceum of the Philippines University-Manila

 

Dear Students,

Anyone who was my classmate in high school or college can attest to the fact that my grades were always in the bottom ten percent. That said, I am proud of the fact that my work ethic and number of study hours have always been and continue to be in the top ten percent. I can objectively say however, that I am the farthest thing ever from what someone would define as a gifted student.

For one, my short-term memory is truly deficient. Given that most Philippine schools grade using tests measuring this memory type, that pretty much leaves me in the dust. That said, I managed to graduate from an allegedly top high school in four years (okay, I did summer classes every year, but still). I finished Civil Engineering and somehow found a way to pass my board exams. I went on to get a Master’s degree abroad, in Civil and Environmental Engineering. In July, I take my comprehensive exams towards a Ph.D. in Psychology.

These are tips on how to do better in school, written by someone with zero natural academic proficiency, something that some readers may be able to relate to.

Don’t be lazy. The name of the game is finding a way to become the tortoise and not the hare. You have to keep the fire burning constantly for the duration of each term. Learning is like building blocks. If you don’t understand the start and plan to cram everything in before finals, you will never make it. Maintain regular study hours from the beginning. To do this, you need a physical planner and you need to add tasks to this planner every single day. I use a pen and an actual planner, not something virtual. My planner is my boss.

Keep a daily notebook. I transfer all my tasks from my planner to a daily notebook first thing every morning. This helps me schedule the limited hours in the day. I make sure to do the more difficult tasks first, so I can do the tasks I prefer last, when I have less energy.

Do not procrastinate. When the teacher assigns a task, I try to do it within three days, regardless of the deadline. Working early decreases my stress and gives me the best chance to do the assignment with excellence. Whatever you do, do not cram, because for most people, the quality of your work when you do things last minute really suffers.

Study group only with people more serious and smarter than you. Many so-called study groups do more harm than good. Thus, only study group with people who consistently get better grades than you, and who actually care about the grades they are getting.

Care about learning. Make sure your teacher knows your name and realizes that you actually care about his or her class. At the end of the day, teachers are people too, and want to help students that they believe are making a real effort in class.

Go to YouTube and listen to many people teach what your teacher is teaching in different ways. Studying in the age of the internet gives you endless tools.

Make note cards. This is how I study, regardless of the subject. Physically writing things down outside of the classroom helps to engrain these thoughts in your head.

Doing well in school means leveraging your strengths and minimizing your weaknesses. Your particular strategy would be guided by your specific set of strengths or weaknesses. My ultimate strength is that I am willing to do the work and not just wing it. I try to do everything in life with excellence, especially if I am not naturally gifted at it.

Come up with your own strategy and experiment. Even as a student you need to teach yourself how to think critically, and what better experiment than figuring out how you can learn, and grow, and succeed academically by creating the most efficient, personalized process possible.

Lex Ledesma

Entrepreneur and Professor

 

Dear Students,

Education is not only a rewarding privilege, but a fulfilling pilgrimage. The journey towards graduation is far from a silk road. Obstacles and doubts are inevitable, but what truly matters is how we rise above by believing in ourselves and allowing others to tread this expedition with us.

Here are some tips on how to make school a worthwhile experience:

1. Explore beyond the four walls of the classroom. Grades are tremendously important, but extracurricular activities such as joining clubs and organizations and playing sports help foster holistic growth.

2. Have a goal and discover how to reach it. There are various paths you can take to get to your goal, but keep in mind that there is no one path that is “right”.

3. Make friends with your classmates and teachers. In a competitive landscape such as academics, we sometimes take it upon ourselves to flawlessly execute everything, thus leaving in hindsight other people essential to our development. Our fellow classmates and school officials are beyond willing to lend a helping hand when we need it, and we must never be afraid to ask for help.

4. Take time to breathe. At times, we become overwhelmed by the influx of academic requirements that we fail to make time for ourselves. What ultimately matters more, however, than gold medals and straight A’s is a sound mind and body, as these render us physically and mentally capable of excelling and achieving our goals.

Sincerely,

Mica Foronda

Ateneo de Manila University

Graduate of 2017

 

Hello dear students,

I hope you’re all very excited for the coming school year. One of my most favorite memories growing up is going back to school—buying brand new school supplies brings back so many warm and fuzzy feelings.

I remember making lists ahead of time and planning my ‘theme’ for the school year because I love color-coordinated items. But my school supplies shopping spree was changed forever after my dad died before I even started high school. I still remember my mom constantly reminding me and my brother that we should just buy the things that were absolutely needed because we just couldn’t afford the same things anymore. This didn’t make me love school supplies less though. If anything, I had learned several valuable things from this experience, most of which I apply even in my daily life today.

Resourcefulness. I only had a few notebooks bought for a discount so I cut out my favorite quotes and pictures from old magazine covers to spruce them up.

Conscientiousness. Because I didn’t have a lot of things, I put a lot of thought into taking care of what I had. I was obsessed with putting plastic covers on my own and my siblings’ books, spending hours on them and trying to make sure I don’t run out of adhesive tape in the process!

Resilience. Let’s be honest, I still wanted nice stuff so I took on part-time jobs as an English tutor throughout my high school and college years, which gave me some extra pocket money for school supplies and books. I was fortunate to learn how hustling and saving up will reap benefits in the long run.

Until now, I am still very much obsessed with collecting school supplies, even though I may not need them as much anymore. I have a particular fascination with notebooks — nothing beats the feeling of prying open a brand new one and writing on it for the first time.

My notebooks and other school supplies then and now serve as a reminder of the things I treasure the most and the values I have learned from them, which I have taken far beyond the confines of the classroom. I realized that in life, it’s what inspires you that drives you.

May you find your own inspiration this new school year—perhaps it will start with a notebook? Or a set of colored pencils? I encourage you to discover what motivates you to get up and learn something new every day, however ordinary these things may seem. And one day, I’d also want to know your story.

Always finding joy,

Belle Baldoza

Public Relations Professional