Day Two: ME Uncut

Day Two – Day One of the Prep Course

May 26^th, 2011

Okay, so I feel like crap.

The day didn’t start off that bad, which makes the ending even worse. I woke up at the scheduled time, left earlier than planned, and got to the Escaler Hall at the SEC Building. I sat on the benches by myself for a while until some fourth years came up and introduced themselves (I already forgot their names) and dragged me over to two other girls, Mon and Catherine (I’m quite sure this is not the spelling of her name, but I don’t know the real one and I like this way better). We had awkward chats about what High school we were from.

And oh, one of the BEST feelings I’d had all day—and take note how low this is—was when the fourth years who approached me (I think one of their names rhymed will ‘Gel’) asked what High school I was from and I said O.B. Montessori and they asked if I was the only one, and I said ‘Yes’ in a sad voice and they said they knew a girl from O.B. named Kimi David and I’m like ‘Yeah!’

That was pretty much a high point of the day.

EDIT: The name of the girl whose name rhymes with ‘Gel’ was Tel Ang, President of the ME Association (MEA) hahaha. That was somewhat of an honor.

So I chatted with Mon and Catherine for a while. I found out that Mon was from Eastern Visayas and when I asked where she stayed during the weekdays she said in Cavite and, I’m no expert at Philippine geography but I’m sure that’s still far from Ateneo. She said she was just waiting for her dorm application to push through or something.

So when it was time to register we lined up and paid the P580 fee and signed our names. Written beside our names were our ‘teams’ (later to be called ‘families’) and I saw that mine was Star Wars. The other movies were: Mean Girls, Harry Potter, Twilight, 300, Up, Avatar, Rush Hour, Pirates of the Caribbean, Grease (no idea why), Toy Story, Transformers, Zoo… something Zoolanders, I think, First Love (I don’t know what that movie is), and… I think that’s all of them.

EDIT: The First Love team was actually based on a McDonald’s commercial. The TLC there was kinda cute haha.

So it began with an introduction from some guy whose name I forgot, and a girl who, I think, is the president of the MEA (EDIT: Yeah, no… it was Cam Ang and Rafael “Paeng” Valenzuela, they were the Prep Course heads haha).

The one with the mic is Tel Ang, MEA President. The laughing girl is Cam Ang and the guy in the suit is Paeng.

But they weren’t our hosts, our hosts were 3 students: Kim (that’s a guy), uhm… a girl, I forgot her name (EDIT: Paui), and a gay guy with a manly name (EDIT: Mark, and I'm not saying gays can't have masculine names). I only remembered Kim because it’s a girl’s name and it was a guy… I think the girl host’s name ended in an ‘ee’ sound (EDIT: Yes, I just said her name a while ago).

(L-R) Mark, Kim, and Paui)

So when we registered and found out our team names, they have us a puzzle piece of a poster for that movie, I got a piece of Count Dooku’s head. Oh, and this was another coincidental moment for me, because the only movie on my iPod is, well, Star Wars! So I watched Star Wars while I brushed my teeth earlier this morning, and it seemed fated that I would be in team Star Wars.

So inside the Escaler Hall, I sat beside Mon and Catherine until they asked us to group ourselves according to our teams by completing the puzzle. The first person I met on my team was Jamie. The next was Rommel. And I just followed the two of them. When we finally got our piece done, we were asked to sit and all the talking began.

The first speaker was Kenneth something, I’m not very good with remembering names, sorry.

EDIT: It was Kenneth Abante. This was his description in the booklet they gave us at the end.

Kenneth Isaiah Ibasco Abante

Currently studying BS Management Engineering

Ken Abante said that he simply wants to be introduced as an ME student and the Coucil of Organizations in the Ateneo President.

Okaaay… that really wasn’t useful information haha.

He talked about ME and how he almost shifted out because he didn’t feel like he was doing what he was really passionate about, but then he realized that ME was not about the cold, hard numbers, but it was about helping other people by finding the meaning behind the numbers. He talked for a while and it was very inspirational and I could relate to it because he knew every single point of fear that I had entering this course.

In the beginning, he actually asked us who of us entered ME not knowing what it was, and a couple of us (including me) raised our hands. He also asked who of us were valedictorians and salutatorians because it was also one of his insecurities when entering ME. A lot of the students who get in ME are the top students of their respective schools. I didn’t feel uplifted or proud when he said that, considering my high school (no offense to my high school).

So he talked it through and I finally understood that this was the perfect course for me. He also said that he thought of ME as a way into a corporate world of cold, bloodthirsty businessmen, but he realized later on that he was helping a lot of people because employees from other courses, when they work, they show you the profits, the costs, etc. But an ME graduate shows the possibilities of many other choices, like providing jobs for 5,000 people while earning a profit… or something like that. That was many hours ago, I forgot already.

Kenneth made it seem so easy. He never told us about how hard it would be to stay in the course.

The next speaker was Dr. Darwin Yu, he was the head of the ME program, I think, and had something to do with its curriculum.

EDIT: This was his description in the booklet:

Mr. Darwin Yu

Graduated as cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1983 with a degree in BS Management Engineering

Mr. Yu is an Assistant Professor for Finance and Accounting under the JGSOM. When he graduated in 1983, he worked with the National Economic Development Authority for 2 years. In 1986, he went to the United States of America and worked there before going back to the country in 1991 and since then, Mr. Yu has been teaching in the Ateneo under the Finance and Accounting Department.

He talked about the retention requirements. I need to maintain a grade above 1.8 in my Math subjects… the only way I could be asked to leave the program would be if I got more than 2 D’s, or an F or a W. And some other stuff I don’t want to bore you with.

EDIT: This is what the booklet says about Retention Policies. I’m posting this to give you an idea of how hard I have to work, and also as an explanation to why I won’t be seeing much of my High school friends anymore.

EDIT#2: I got Darwin for ACC20. I must say, he makes things appear harder than they should be just because you're in ME. :\

Ø Any student who receives a grade of ‘F’ or ‘W’ in any subject, major or non-major, during the screening periods, shall be asked to leave the program.

Ø An ME student may incur at most one D in any subject. A student who gets a second D will be asked to leave the program.

Ø No one is allowed to unload in any semester.

The rest are not important and unlikely to happen.

Also,

During the first sem of freshman year, the first two LT’s in MA18 are crucial to students’ stay in ME. One has to garner at least half of the total points or 100/200 for both tests combined. If one fails to reach this minimum, he will be asked to take the basic track as opposed to the normal track of MA 18.

Once in the basic track, one has to reach at least an average of B for both MA18a and Ma 19 in second sem to be able to get back into the course. If he is unable to achieve is, then he is forced to shift out to another course.

It was a really scary talk haha.

Oh! But one thing he said really got to me, and right now, feeling this crummy, I think it really helps me:

“The fact that you’re here right now, means that you can do it.”

*Okay, so those weren’t his exact words, but you get the point. The fact that I was sitting there, in that Hall, made it clear that Ateneo thought I could do it. I can take ME.

The next speaker was this guy I already forgot his name, who attended the JTA program.

EDIT: Rafael Cruz

Currently studying BS ME

Fael Cruz is an incoming senior who went for a JTA. However, he is a good example of a student who manages to balance his academic and extra-curricular life. Case in point, Fael is a guitarist for the Blue Repertory. Aside from this, Fael is also the team captain of the rowing team.

He talked about his stay in France and his travels in Western Europe. It was okay. He didn’t tell me things I didn’t know already about the JTA.

The next speaker (yes there were this many) was Chris Tiu, the famous basketball player who also took ME. He told us a lot of fun stuff about his experiences in Ateneo.

One of the annoyingly funny bits was when he said that his friends who attended the JTA program had QPI’s of like, 3.75 and he said he was very far from that.

He said his QPI was only 3.3.

The whole hall was like, “Whaaaat?!” and he was earnestly saying, “ Yeah! Malayo pa yun!” and he related experiences like, when people say to him, “Oh, you’re a basketball player for the Ateneo Blue Eagles, right? What’s your course?” and when he replies, “ME” they all go, “ wehhh, yabang mo!”

EDIT: Chris Tiu

ME graduate and all-star basketball player

Is a Filipino professional basketball player of Chinese-Filipino descent. He currently plays for the Smart Gilas team and is also a TV host, commercial model, and politician. He got his collegiate education at the Ateneo de Manila University where he finished his two major courses, BS ME and Bachelor of Science/Master of Applied Mathematics, Major in Mathematical Finance, Minor in Chinese Studies.

Wow.

So after Chris Tiu was a lady named Florence.(EDIT: Her name isn’t in the booklet hahaha!) She works at some office and she talked about careers. She said something really cool at the beginning of the talk:

She showed pictures of hands and we were asked to guess whose hands they belonged to. There were Michael Jordan’s hands, Moses, Steve Jobs, some other people, and Jesus Christ. The cool thing she said was, “You put nails in my hands, it means nothing. You put nails in Jesus’ hands, it means everything.”

Florence, with a list of companies where ME graduates get recruited

I don’t really remember why she said that… You may be noticing a pattern here; yes, I probably do have short term memory loss. I will only remember what she talked about days or years from now.

So let me tell you how the day started going downhill. Or wait, to make you understand how I felt, let me just say: let me tell you how the day began to plummet to its death at 5 billion miles per second.

After lunch we had this Amazing Race-like game (EDIT: It was actually a mini-Amazing Race, the real one would be on the third day) where we go to different parts of the nearby campus and ask people to sign on our paper, and occasionally we have to answer questions or do challenges. At first, I thought this would be fun, running around, getting exercise. But it was when we had our first question did I start feeling bad.

It was a Math question, something about finding the critical points of this equation. Since there were about 10 of us (EDIT: 13 actually, plus the two TLC’s) crowding around the tiny piece of paper, I really couldn’t see anything. I just saw a bit of the equation that went something like this: (X^2 + 4x + 4)(x+?)(x+?)

Upon hearing the words ‘critical points’ I knew there was nothing I could do to contribute to this question. Although… now that I think of it, I do remember there being critical points during our review class last summer. But whatever, it’s too late. They were going about naming points, and one of my teammates, Rommel, asked “Can you factor this?” to my other teammate, referring to the (x^2 + 4x + 4) equation. I could do that, but after that, I didn’t know what else to do. They were all saying stuff like “Negative two, positive two, negative one, positive four” and I’m like, clueless to what they were saying. Well, I knew they were naming points but I had no idea how they got there.

***(EDIT after almost a year: OMG! I feel so stupid right now hahaha! The critical numbers in that equation are soooo f-ing obvious!!! Dr. Garces breezed by that lesson in two minutes. Oh, God, I wasn't as smart as I thought I was then hahaha! I'm pretty sure any O.B. high school student can answer that by now... jeez... I am an idiot.)

***(EDIT in 2015: HAHAHAHAHAHA I still can't believe how dumb I was! Jesus H. Christ!)

So after that I started lagging behind. The next challenge was to dance and sing a romantic song, but we managed to persuade the judging lady to just let us sing while Rommel danced, because he was a dancer (like, street dancer, not ballroom). After that, we had another challenge, to perform an 8-step dance thingy that will be pictured.

After that we had to do this thing where you’re sitting on the floor back-to-back with another person and you have to stand up without pushing off the ground with your hands. After that there was another question, I think and this time there was an equation and I heard my teammate Jamie say something about “synthetic division” and I just felt even more stupid because I didn’t know what that was.

So, as you can imagine, for the rest of the day, I sulked around and didn’t really pay attention to everything anymore. I just kept thinking about how maybe I was one of the smartest people in O.B., but in the outside world I’m just a regular student.

Then I remembered what the first speaker, Kenneth, the speaker whom I connected with the most, said. He said that he felt humbled after taking ME. He felt humbled because he was finally able to accept that people were better than him in many things, especially in Calculus. The trick was to be open. That was his underlying statement: to be open.

I now realize that I have set unrealistic goals for my future. I dreamed of being Summa Cum Laude when I know I have really poor studying habits. It’s not bad to dream but I know I should be looking at this logically. I should just start by focusing on getting through the first semester of my first year. And then focus on completing my first year, and so on. Baby steps.

I began this blog feeling very bad about myself, because I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was. And after typing this all down I remembered what I felt the last time I felt this way and how I solved that problem. I remembered that I didn’t have to be the best at everything, as long as I did my best. So, yeah, there are a lot of things that I don’t know. I may not be as good at Math in college as I was in High school. But that just means that I have to study more.

I finish this blog feeling excited. I can’t wait to ‘begin with the end.’ More than once during the talks did they ask us to begin with the end; to ask myself: Who am I doing this for? When I realize that, everything starts to fit in place. Hopefully I will be able to focus on my studies, and not on my internet life, or reading, watching TV.

P.S. Remember to inform my high school friends of the possibility that I may not see much of them anymore, except during breaks.

P.P.S I realize I never really explained the team system. It’s basically like this, we were all grouped into different teams (the movies) and each team had 2 main facilitators called TLC’s which stand for Teaching and Learning Catalysts. Our two TLC’s (I call them facis, it’s shorter) were Bea Crisologo and Aldrich Alcantara.

At the beginning of the event, there was this short play, all the facis were dressed up in costume. There were two girls and one guy in a red wig that played Charlie’s Angels. Charlie asked them to gather 14 pairs of TFC’s then the show started. Our TFCs were Star Wars themed, so Aldrich played Anakin Skywalker (the dark version when he’s wearing black, but still with a blue lightsaber) and Bea played Padme (the white outfit and the gun).

The Mean Girls vs. The men from 300

The guy playing the redheaded Charlie’s Angel was really funny. He had a really high voice and kept saying bad words. When the two facis from Transformers went on stage there was an Optimus Prime head gear on the floor and the redhead kicked it and said “Bitch, get out of my way!"

Another funny moment was when the phone was ringing because Charlie was calling, and there was a mix-up so the redhead and the tall Charlie’s Angel both answered the phone and were talking at the same time. The redhead turned around to the other Angel and said, “Bitch, I’m on the phone!”

The redhead did a lot more funny things that I can’t put in words.

[Photos courtesy of Miguel Sanchez, STEPS Docs]