Mentors

These past few nights had been a super bonding moment with my former professors in college.

From L-R: Telai, Mrs. Marte, Ma’am Michelle, Ma’am JM, and Sir Anton.

It was great hanging out with my mentors. I’ve already mentioned in previous posts how much I’ve learned from being part of the panelist from a few classes of Mrs Marte and Sir Anton.

Looking back, one of my favorite classes in college was Mrs. Marte’s. Despite the everyday quizzes and seemingly unforgivable nature of our prof, I really learned a lot from her. I love how she requires no less than Magis from her students. In the end, my paper in Service Marketing/TQM was one of my proudest output ever. My friend Charlene can attest to that because it was her, Leonard and I who really spent sleepless nights over that paper. Too bad I only had classes with Ma’am Lyn on my last semester in college. And I wish she made us do what she requires of her classes now!

Ma’am Michelle, I’ve only known her last Tuesday. It turns out she’s a prof of my brother for a management subject. Small world.

One of the two professors who were with us in almost our whole college life was Ma’am JM. She was my professor in 3 finance subjects, for 3 consecutive semesters since starting on our second year. I don’t know what it was with our class but for those 3 semesters, Ma’am JM cried in our class 3 times, and walked out 3 times! But we love her anyway! We had so much fun in her classes!

And of course, my most fabulous professor ever is Mr. Anthony Aguelo, or better known as BEBE GANDANGREYNA! Yes everyone, he’s gay and proud of it! I got my highest grade ever from his classes. For two semesters, his classes were like an extension of our practicum activities. Two major events, music videos, promotional plans, and other nitty-gritty activities and voila! LOVE LOVE LOVE.

Often, I wonder why I have always had a close relationship with my teachers. I guess I used to suck up to them from time to time, but who doesn’t right? I mean, I still talk a lot with my former 4th year High School moderator, I chat with my 3rd year High School moderator, and I still talk with a few other teachers I had from high school. Oh well. It’s the charms. ROFLMAO. But seriously, I never really thought about it before but now, I think I can see teaching in my future. OH THE HORROR FOR STUDENTS!

From the activities these past few nights, Ma’am Marte whispered to me how the groups asked if I could be booted out of the panelist because I was too strict. I guess I was really “walang patawad” when it comes to my criticisms, but what was I supposed to do? Besides, they were meant to be constructive. However, as I personally know most of the people I criticize, it’s really so awkward for me, and I guess, for them. Actually, whenever I give criticisms, I think of what I could still do if I were in their group, and most importantly, I take points from what the other teachers were discussing outside the “huddle” with each group after every activity. OH WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT BEING DEFENSIVE AND ALL?!?! Haha. Whatever. I love what I’m doing! I learn from the expert (ehem, Mrs. Marte, ehem)! HAHAHA. KEEP THEM COMING!

okthxbye

Behind The Teacher’s Desk

Tonight, I was lucky enough to feel how it is “behind the teacher’s desk.”

Earlier today, my former Marketing professor, Mr. Anthony Aguelo, called me up to ask me to be a part of the panel for his Mktg310 classes for tonight. I was hesitant at first because really, what do I know about being a panelist? I just graduated last year and I still don’t have that much background in the field. But I eventually gave in so after work, I found myself sitting in one of my old armchairs in school – this time not a student, but as a guest of my former professors. I paneled along with one of my favorite teachers in college, Mrs. Lynith Marte. YES. I LOVE MRS. MARTE. NO SARCASM HERE. I REALLY LEARNED A LOT FROM HER. MAGIS! (I had a chat with her tonight and I’d like to say more but that’s for another post really)

What was weird about it was that I was schoolmates in high school with one of the presenters. She’s a really close friend of my PBF, and though we don’t really talk, we do know each other by affinity. And for the second group I paneled for tonight, one of the presenters was a “friend” of mine from waaaay back as we were playmates when we were kids, we were carpool-mates, and most of all, his house is just a house away from mine. Also, one of the students from the second class who came to observe the first group was a childhood friend of mine from the province – our dads works in the same company, and our families often see each other. HOW CRAZY IS THAT?!

While I was only supposed to panel for Sir Anton, I found myself going with him and a couple other teachers to the “final presentation” of 2 groups from Mrs. Marte’s class. For their retailing final grade, the have to do an actual promotional event for their chosen product/service. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! I was bummed coz we didn’t have it back then – Mrs. Marte made us do a paper instead. That was the end of her comprehensive exams, and the beginning of her innovative final presentations. So going back, the first two groups held their “exams” at a bar in Jacinto Ext. YAY FOR FREE DINNER! The food was really great, and desserts from Anniepie!

I hope these students realize how  lucky they are to have experienced this kind of practical learning. I’m sure I’d have loved it during my time.

As a panelist, I’ve learned a lot. I used to think that it was only us students who learn from the comments and guidance of our mentors, but it’s really a two-way learning. From this experience, I’ve come to appreciate the role of my teachers more, and the roles of a student. My experiences in college are still fresh, and while doing the deliberation and all the interactions I had with the students and teachers alike, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s really not easy for teachers to fail the students – but if they don’t deserving a passing mark, then what choice is there left for the teachers. Honestly, I love how objective and technical Mrs. Marte approaches things. On the other hand, I also love how Sir Anton mothers (for the lack of a better word) his students and encourage then. Today, I sat beside two different sides of a coin and it’s a very informative place to be.

So yeah, cheers to MAGIS, and cheers to AWESOME TEACHERS! I met two other professors tonight, Ma’am Rhea (who I heard is a terror prof) and Ma’am Michelle (who, I learned only on our way home, is a teacher of my brother Karl.) And even more awesome, they invited me for another “defense” this weekend. CHEERS!

 

okthxbye

 

P.S.

I’ve also learned how much we’ve done right (and wrong) during our time as students. We as in me and my groupmates of course. Having been trained under the terrorizing hands of Mrs. Marte, and the “fly-little-bird-fly” technique of Mr. Aguelo, really takes its toll. There is really no excuse to mediocrity. And yeah, BEING CHARMING is a great weapon. *bow*

Vintage Photo Booth

Dan randomly uploaded super old photo (well, not really super) booth pictures from his laptop earlier today!

I love this one! Everything looks nice except for Leonard. LOL.
I just made this photo my profile pic in Facebook. YAY.

This one with May is so pretty with the snowflakes and all.

And for this photo, I realize I’d look better if I had a smaller nose and mouth.
*thinks about plastic surgery… NOOOO! LOL*

This last one is funny. And cutesy to death with the hearts and all! HAHA

The last three photos were taken during one of our shooting sessions for ISM final project at Leonard’s place in my last semester in college. The first one is a very random photo while we were in the Food Court. I MISS COLLEGE AND ALL ITS RANDOMNITY!

Hit Me Up

I saw this video again of me and a few blockmates doing our presentation for PE 4, back in 2007.

We took Social Dances – not as if we had a choice – and we had to perform a Boogie in one of the exercises. In all our performances that semester, we tried to be different in terms of our music and our choreography. For our Swing exam, we performed a mix of modern dance and swing to the music of Pussycat Dolls’ “I Don’t Need A Man”.

One of my most favorite though is our Boggie performance of Gia Farrel’s “Hit Me Up” from the Happy Feet OST. We didn’t want to go with the usual Footloose, and all the others, so even if the beat was kinda fast, we pushed through with this one.

Here’s a vide of that perf:

So what did you think of the performance?

Flashback: March 2009

It’s 7 months too late, but as the saying goes: “Better late than never” right?

I was doing my congratulatory post in Tumblr for my good friends Telaw Quimpo and Joseph Bulao (who just passed the October 2009 CPA Board Exam) when I happened by my graduation photos and the celebrations thereafter. Those were the good times so I’m sharing that experience with you my dear readers.

After our last exam, a few of my classmates and I decided to spend some time together at the beach. We stayed overnight at Paradise Island Resort in Samal. It was a night full of swimming, laughs, getting drunk, playing games, and sharing horror stories! It was such a great way to culminate almost 4 years of being classmates and friendship.

The days flew by very fast after that. We had to deal with completion, running around to know our final grades, thus determining if we could graduate or not, or if we’d graduate with honors or not. We were excited, but at the same time we were also scared of what’s in store for us afterwards.

For the class pictorials, my friend Karlo and I got ready in the SBG Office so we had a chance to take pictures with our college administration whom we worked with during our past years in the college.

The class pictorial was a riot. It was hot in the school gym and our togas didn’t help much in keeping out the heat. We were hot, we were sweaty and yet we were one of the noisiest crowd in the bunch.

In a heartbeat, it was already Day 1 of our graduation, the beginning of the end. We had the Baccalaureate Mass at 5pm on March 20. My parents and I just made it there on time for the march. And the moment my dad put on my hood was, I guess, a turning point in my life. I didn’t realize the hood was symbolic until that moment. Moreover, we received quite a remembrance from Fr. Hogan during his speech when he gave everybody Tootsie Rolls. How sweet!

And then it was time for the big day to come! My graduation ceremony was so special and eventful! In the middle of awarding of honors (fortunately, after I got my medal!) the power went out and Fr. McNamara had to use a useless megaphone to recognize the said students. Talk about POWER FAIL!

To tell you the truth, the graduation ceremony itself was a blur. The best part was afterwards when we were busy looking for our friends and the best spot for picture taking (and not necessarily in that order).

Here are snippets of my photos with college classmates right after the graduation.

And now, photos with my friends and family after the ceremony:

After the ceremony, my family prepared a little party for me at home. We had family and family friends over. I’d post the photos but I couldn’t find the link so let me move on to the parties of my friends that I had attended.

Joseph, the Batch Summa Cum Laude, invited me to his place that night. Although I don’t know many of his classmates, it was a comfortable enough party because of our friends from High School.

And then the next day, I saw the same faces – and then some more — at Kuya Caloy’s Beach Celebration.

A week after graduation, I started my summer adventure so I missed the rest of the parties hosted by my friends. Now, 7 months after, I look back on my graduation and feel both happy and sad. You’d think I’d be happy to be rid of school after 16 years, but I really do miss the friends and activities I had. It’s just not the same after school. But oh well, at least I ended my schooling with a bang! Welcome to the real world.

Reminiscing

I was rummaging through gazillion of my CD’s looking for old school files that Charlene needs. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find the Powerpoint Presentations she wanted but I found this instead:

It’s a video of our 1st major project for Advertising class. We made a music video for our Prelim exam and we decided on Rivermaya’s Ulan because it had really nice lyrics.

We shot this video for almost a week, not because it is so elaborate and amazing, but because we were all very busy having more fun than working – so we procrastinated much.

The truth is, we never really knew what the final output would look like as we just put a rough story together and just handed everything over for the editor to worry about.

What I really love about this MV is the fact that the editor used cuts that were originally meant as bloopers. It reflects candid moments in our friendship. Yes, what you see in the video is what we really are. I guess you could call it a 6-minute preview of how me and my friends are in real life.

Aww. I miss school and my former carefree and useful self.

Unplanned

Impromptu gatherings are just the best. No one has enough time to say “no” and so since everyone’s out already, all goes with the flow.

This afternoon, a few of us batch mates from the Ateneo Marketing Class of 2009 had a mini-reunion at the lobby of Unilever Philippines. I was there to discuss my terms of employment while the rest of my peers were scheduled for a job interview.

I kinda got my camera out a little late already. If it hadn’t been for Don Marko, I would’ve completely forgotten that I brought it!

Being the gregarious people that we are, the office was of course turned into a mini party place what with all the noise and endless laughter. There was actually another guy waiting to be interviewed but we didn’t get to catch him on camera. Too bad since Ysa fancied him. I could just imagine the horror the guy felt when he encountered our crowd – he must have felt left out from all the noise we were making.

 

In the midst of the job interviews/chaos, Janine and I pulled a prank on Leonard. I saw his wallet lying around in the sofa and decided to hide it in my bag. It took Leonard a good 20 minutes to find it in the outer pocket of my ginormous bag – well 20 minutes and a lot of moving around, and asking other people to move and stuff. It feels like we’re back in college and stuff as I always used to pull prank on Leonard by keeping his stuffs.

The interviews took a looong time. Each of them (in order of appearance Janine, Leonard, Marko, Ysa, Kim, Vince, Apollo – and Mon. LOL) took at least 30 minutes for interviews. I finished at around 5pm, but I had to wait for about 2 hours for all of them to be done.

 
After the interviews, everyone was hungry and so we decided to have dinner at Lachi’s. Don Marko, Ysa and Dorina already made plans the night before but we all decided to join forces while we were at the office. We picked up Louie from his ED, and then met up with the D’s at Lachi’s already. It was fun fun fun! We almost didn’t get enough seats in Lachi’s but we made it, and had a nice dinner and funny conversations.

After dinners, we went our separate ways. Dorina, Ysa, Dweyne and Soy, I think, went to Torres to meet up with their other friends, while Louie, Leonard, Janine and I went to Kasagingan so that Louie could use the WiFi there for his job.

We all left past 10pm already. My gosh. It was a long day but it was sooo worth it to be with my college friends!

Here’s a clip from dinner time at Lachi’s. Enjoy!

Eskwela Blues

A few days ago, some of my classmates and I decided to spend the time waiting for our Tax Class by doing a pictorial. We were supposed to be studying for a quiz, but we got tired and messed around instead. These pictures are the by-product of our laziness to study.

I was once a model for…

Holiday Lite Ice Cream!

Well, I wasn’t exactly the model since I was just the extra, but still. It kinda feels weird to see my huge body on screen without my face. Hahaha. Nonetheless, I had so much fun making this commercial.

This TV Advertisement for Holiday Lite Ice Cream was the final course requirement for my Advertising Class last semester. This Ad was featured at the Ateneo Advertising Expo 2008 at the Gaisano Mall of Davao Atrium last September 27.

Holiday LIte Ice Cream is a low-fat ice cream that is primarily marketed to health-conscious individuals who want to enjoy eating ice cream without the guilt. Holiday Lite Ice Cream is exclusively distributed at Holiday Gym and Spa, F. Torres St., Davao City, Philippines.

Credits:

Model:
Joy Cosare, AdDU, BS-Psych (4)

Extra:
Telai Jarabelo

Director and Voice Over:
Charlene Cheong

Photography:
Daniel Ong

Hair and Make-Up:
Karla Singson
Jewells Genobiagon
Leidee Almonte

Set Directors (Props):
Leonard Betanio
Louie Rebuelta
Joel Bueno
Kirk Mojica

Location:
Brgy. Eden Bayabas, Toril, Davao City

Production Crew:
Simply Gray Studio

I Rest My Case

What would they do without me? 

Only someone as egotistical as me would think this. And this time, my ego got a heavy blow when I realized that they could do a lot of things without me. 

I wasn’t really sure how much I have influenced my peers in the past few months that I’ve been totally active in a lot of extra curricular activities. Though I don’t like not doing anything, I really hope that they have picked up something from me that have inspired them to do something without me. (Huh? Did you get that?) 

Today will be the last day that I will be taking part in the enrollment of the B and M Division (Not that I am taking such an active part right now that I am in bed and ingurgitating what little time I have left before hitting the road for the Undas celebration). I have finally decided to let go of the reigns and unmount the horse, and finally let the trainees try it for themselves, without my guidance. And they are doing a very good job out of it too! I’m just so proud that these people didn’t know squat when they started volunteering, and now… look at them! (Hahaha. I sound like a hyped-up mother hen!)

Without that much support from the Senior members of the team (how can they be so apathetic in their seniority???), I’m glad to have lasted through the semester. One more to go and then I AM OUT. Hehehe. It feels kinda bittersweet, but that’s what I love about dark chocolate though.  

Thank you to everyone who have inspired me and supported me with my best efforts; for giving me a chance to prove my worth as a student leader. Thank you to the people who’ve listened to what I had to say, good or bad; to those who have supported me despite the lack of finesse of my leadership; and to those who I have inspired/influenced, thank you for allowing me to touch your hearts.  

At the end of the day, it all boils down to touching the lives of others. Even if I don’t get recognized for my actions, I’d be happy if I know that I’ve touched someone’s life through my words and example. Finally, I am entering a new chapter in my life where I’ve decided to prioritize my studies and let others handle the burdens that have helped me become a stronger person. With that, I rest my case and move on!