Story By Reijana Denise Ferraren, Grade 12 – NSS, ICIA Silver Medal Winner
Photos From Ms. Marinell Ocampo, LPT, PhD and Ms. Stephanie Ann Remada, LPT
Going to Vietnam for the International Creativity and Innovation Awards competition was a total surprise. We didn’t even think we’d get in! It felt like an impossible dream. It all felt like just luck.
One day during class, Charisse Gonzales told Raff Quindo that she wanted to join ICIA this year because it was our last chance to show that our research was important. Raff had just been to UP for the ALCHEMES, where he presented our idea and innovation for the first time. As our group leader, he encouraged us, saying that we’d definitely get selected at the national competition in Dumaguete. It was in Silliman University where our research landed fourth place—a spectacular finish considering that we had a really hard time coming up with ideas. Still, it was not enough to get us a ticket to Vietnam.
Then something truly unexpected happened! We earned a wildcard to Ho Chi Minh City. First came the happiness, the super excitement of it all and then came all the planning. It was tough. We only had one day to send the requirements for our research to be reviewed by the international selection committee.
At my level, I had to get my travel clearance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which was far from smooth. This took so long that we all thought I probably wouldn’t be able to go to the competition, but on the day before my flight, the clearance arrived! After that, we saw ourselves, luggage in tow, already flying to Vietnam.
Vietnam felt both familiar and very different from the Philippines. Ho Chi Minh City felt otherworldly with its buildings cut out from totally different moulds compared to Philippine structures. The night markets were fun! There, we had a crash course in bargaining. Though we managed to get scammed by some vendors, I’d like to think it was part of the package, and that the shopping part was definitely the best.
Perhaps, that could only be paralleled by our school tour run. This meant that we slept in, missed our alarm, woke up and arrived at the breakfast table, and ate in under a minute in order not to miss the school bus to the University of Education, which had 15 floors! Yup, 15, and those floors glittered with advanced technology. It looked like the home of the most talented innovators in Asia.
Then came the day of our exhibit. Can we perhaps skip back to the good part?
We were not given the chance to know who the judges were, but whoever came to our table, whether it was probably a judge or not, Yessamin Parel, and Charisse gave our all to the presention. We also made friends with the people stationed beside us. There was this one group from Pagadian. Making friends with our kababayan helped me calm down. In the end, exhaustion crept in and our legs hurt, our throats were parched, and our brains were squeezed dry after four hours of mingling with people.
But that day turned out to be a loop. We still had to dance in front of people that night for our cultural show. It was kind of funny and overwhelming because many people cheered for us just because we were from the Philippines. Filipinos have a remarkable way of extending support to one another.
On the next day, the winners were announced.
I was nervous and worried that we would not get a medal. But in another unexpected turn of events, we won silver! Overcome with surprise, we three shed tears on stage. It was such an emotional ride. We were all so happy. We were so honored to have represented Colegio de Sto. Tomas-Recoletos, Inc.
We would not have made it if our parents had not supported us. I owed this one to them as much as I owed my groupmates: Rafa Dellomes, Trazara Agraviador, Kyle Presquito, and Kerstine Quindo. The entire paper that we submitted for the competition would not have been a complete manuscript without our adviser, Ms. Sophia Tabares. It was her patience that made all the difference. We also had the school administration backing us up from Rev. Fr. Cristopher C. Maspara, OAR, school president, to Ms. Marinell Ocampo, school principal, and Ms. Stephanie Remada, research officer, who accompanied us to the night markets.
It was just an impossible dream. A goal, maybe. An aspiration of graduating Thomasians. The impossible suddenly became our reality. But even now that we are back home, I sometimes pinch myself or try to bite the silver medal I brought home. Is this real? Yes, it is.
