SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION. XU Board of Trustees chairman Francisco "Frank" Guerra III delivers his message to the graduates during the 2nd Commencement Exercises of Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan Senior High School on Sunday, March 24, at the Xavier Ateneo Sports Centre. Supplied photo.
Father President Bobby Yap and the President’s Council;
Principal Gawahan and Members of the Senior High School Faculty;
Distinguished Leaders of Government;
Senior High School Graduates of 2019;
Parents of Senior High School Graduates;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Maayong buntag sa inyong tanan.
Sa tinuod lang, mas gusto nakong mahimong commencement speaker sa senior high school, labaw sa college. Sa ako lang, lahi kaayo ang musulti sa mga college graduates.
Sa akong huna-huna, paghuman sa college, murag gahi-gahi na ang sungay, busa mas lisod mamati ang mga college graduates. Sa senior high school, wala pay sungay... kung naa man, gamay lang, busa mas daku ang higayon nga mamati mo sa akong isulti karon.
Fr President, VP Dawang, and Principal Gawahan, lipay kaayo ko sa inyong imbitasyon nga mosulti karon kay duna koy 3 ka istorya para sa atong mga graduate nga intawon mahinumduman nila sa mga musunod nga tuig.
Let me start with a simple survey.
Can I ask Prinipal Gawahan to help me?
There are no right or wrong answers here.
How many of our SHS graduates want to become:
• Doctors
• Nurses or Medical Technicians
• Lawyers
• Pilots or Flight Attendants
• Soldiers or Policemen
• Government Officials like Mayors, Governors, Congressmen
• Businessmen
• Bankers
• Engineers
• Auto Mechanics
• Agriculturists or Farmers
• Computer Experts or Programmers
• Journalists
• Teachers
• Priests/Nuns
Based on our simple survey of today’s 798 senior high school graduates. ... It will be interesting to find out 10 years from now, what our actual career profile of this class will be.
MY FIRST STORY
This quick survey is the background for my First Story about my own college education. I started college in an Economics Honors Program. I took Economics because I thought it would sound impressive when I applied for work. But deep inside, I really wanted to be a pilot and I kept that dream to myself, saying I would apply to flying school after graduation. My first year of college was all the standard courses for Freshmen. When I took my first Economics course in my second year, I realized I was not enjoying myself and was getting bored.
One day, my Math professor told me that my Math grades were very good and that if I shifted my Major to B.S Math, I would be one of only 7 Math Majors and I would get their full attention through my entire college life. I was thrilled with those comments and changed my major to Math. It turned out to be extremely hard work, but true enough, my professors took great care of me and to this day, I considered the change of my major one of my important and correct
decisions in my life.
During the same sophomore year, I discovered my eyes were bad and that destroyed my dream of being a pilot. Having now lost my early childhood dream, I felt insecure as I was not sure what kind of job I would get after college. Although I was discouraged, I decided not to worry too much about that and instead, focused on getting the best learning I could get from the Ateneo so that companies will immediately notice my academic excellence as well as my very active campus involvement.
And sure enough, companies were looking for graduates from the top schools and were grabbing the top students from those schools. I started working one week after graduation. And the job was in Marketing. I had no idea what I was going to do in Marketing with a degree in Mathematics!!!
And my fellow management trainees came from different fields: Journalism, Philosophy, Management Engineering, Business Management, Economics, Political Science. I was surprised by this diversity of university backgrounds.
Although I was very surprised that they got a math major into this management training group, I quickly learned that I used my math disciplines for the immense amount of data analysis, organization and project management; I used my English excellence to influence my bosses either in writing or in dialogue; I used my philosophy and theology to understand how people thought differently; and I used my Ateneo magis and values to earn trust and to lead.
I learned very quickly, that it was not just math I had to offer, but the totality of my powerful, deep and soulful Ateneo education.
What can we learn from my 1st story?
We learn that many of us do not really know what we want when we start college. That is normal.
We learn that it is important to be honest about what you enjoy and what you don’t enjoy doing. College is a good time to discover this and honesty with yourself is so important to making good decisions for the future.
We learn that it is OK to change your mind especially when you are still young and learning. The ability to change your mind will be increasingly limited as you grow older and have more commitments.
We learn that the most important decision you and your parents can make is to choose the very best school for your college education. There is NO second chance and there is NO time to repeat. Remember, when companies choose their new employees, they usually choose graduates from the best schools. It is because they know that a good school provides its students with a great foundation of knowledge, discipline, and life based on principles. I know this for a fact.
In my 40 years as a corporate leader, every time I hired a new employee, especially a fresh graduate, the first thing I look at is his or her school. We learn that employers will train you into the work needed by the company, but your academic and personal formation in college will determine your trainability as a professional after college. In other words, employers are looking for talented, trainable and caring human beings above and beyond the degree you have on your diploma. Frankly, not many schools can do this.
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION. XU Board of Trustees chairman Francisco "Frank" Guerra III delivers his message to the graduates during the 2nd Commencement Exercises of Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan Senior High School on Sunday, March 24, at the Xavier Ateneo Sports Centre. Supplied photo.
MY SECOND STORY
This leads me to my second story about lessons outside the classroom. As a senior in high school (Grade 11 at that time), I applied for an AFS Scholarship and after a difficult interview, I was granted a one-year scholarship to attend Grade 12 in Massachusetts, USA. So in my childhood, I had Grade 7 when most students only had Grade 6, and I had Grade 12 when most had Grade 11. I am so grateful for those two meaningful extra years of education. Many commented that I would lose one year by going on an exchange program and that all my classmates would be well ahead of me into college.
I was nervous about these comments that I would be behind my classmates by one year, but I was also eager for the adventure and learning that cannot be taught in the classroom. For a year, I studied in a strange new school, lived with a strange new family in a strange new country with a strange new culture at a time without computers, internet, cell phones, and cable TV, and when letters would take 3 weeks to receive.
From a very close family with 10 children in the warm environment of Cagayan de Oro and Xavier-Ateneo, I was in that strange new land where for the very first time, I felt completely alone and unreachable. In my American family, I had a 6.3’ father, a 6.1’ brother, a 5.8’ mother and nine-year-old sister who was 5.6’... I was the dwarf in the family! I learned to love them as my own and they, in turn, loved me. My American Dad died last year and I had visited him only a few months before he passed. Today, I continue to be in touch with my American brother and sister who still live in Massachusetts.
The AFS year in Massachusetts changed my life completely and so positively. I already had a fantastic elementary and high school formation at Xavier Ateneo and now I was totally transformed by the experience of a totally different environment that gave me great self-awareness, built my confidence and taught me respect for differences in color, religion, culture, nationality, politics, gender and education. I had become globally competent which means having the ability to live productively in a diverse world.
Besides my powerful Jesuit education, immersion in a totally changed environment is one of the reasons I am what I am today.
What can we learn from my 2nd story?
We learn that life’s best lessons are not in the classroom. The classroom is where our minds are opened, sharpened, challenged and unleashed to seek new adventure, to ask new questions, to discover ourselves, seek new dreams and find solutions. We learn that as you leave senior high school, you have even greater freedom to learn. As you leave Senior High School, you will find out that you will have less parental and teacher control and you will be left alone to discover yourself, make mistakes, spread your wings and explore the joy of living.
We learn that you have tremendous freedom but you will also realize that you are so interconnected and interdependent with others. As you leave the safe halls of high school, you will realize you cannot exist or succeed alone.
MY THIRD STORY
This leads me to my third and final story. When I was a senior in high school, I visited my father’s office about a month before my graduation. He was the head of a large government office in Cagayan de Oro. His office was very big and his desk was very, very big. I was so impressed and inspired. I was so proud of my
father, the big powerful boss behind the big desk, with many people reporting to him.
I asked him: “Dad, what is it like to be so powerful? I would like to be a big man like you someday.”
I can never forget his answer. He said: “Anak, with my position in government, we can easily become very rich, but your mother and I choose to work with integrity because the only wealth we have is our name ... and your only inheritance is your name and your education."
With their small government salaries, my parents put 10 children to school. ... Indeed, for me, my brothers and sisters, an outstanding education and a name associated with integrity are our great inheritance.
My father also explained that since our education was our only inheritance, he and my mother wanted it to be the best, so they saved money and borrowed money to give us the best schools like Xavier Ateneo and pushed us to get scholarships.
This strategy of obtaining top quality education benefited my family through the generations.
What can we learn from my 3rd story?
We learn that our values and principles are learned not just in the classroom but especially from our parents and our elders. If you have not yet done so, talk with your father and mother soon. In fact, as soon as you get home. Ask them about their stories, their learnings, their values, their principles, their fears and their dreams. Ask them about what wisdom they can share with you. I urge you to talk with them soon and often, while they are still here and when you are still here I can never forget my father’s words. I wish I had spent even more time with him and my mother and heard more of their stories, inspirations, and adventures. When I went away to college, there was so much less time to talk and listen. And when I started working, got married and had children, there was no more time to listen to them. And they were gone before I realized how much I valued their wisdom.
In closing, although my comments today are addressed mainly to our graduates, I also address them to you, our dear parents since you have the key to their next big step of learning.
Daghan pang istoryang gusto nakong ihalad sa inyo, pero paigo kining tulo karong adlawa. Simpleng istorya, simpleng mensahe ... sayon mahinumduman.
1. Choose your school wisely. You only have one chance to do it. Don’t compromise on quality. Choose the school that shapes your total personhood, not just your major on the diploma. It will shape your future.
2. Learn outside the classroom. The world outside the classroom is a great teacher. The classroom is supposed to help you learn from the outside world.
3. Speak with your elders and listen to their stories before they are gone. They have great wisdom that is not in the classroom. Do it before you go to college while you have the ears and curiosity of youth.
Again, I am greatly honored to speak before my own alma mater’s senior high school.
Congratulations and get ready for the great adventure ahead!
God bless our graduates, the parents, and this University.
Daghang salamat.∎