Graduations 2025
I’ve been attending college graduations since my own, way back in 1977, with the numbers increasing each year, as I took on administrative positions and got invitations from within and outside of the University of the Philippines (UP).
This year, I had to decline most invitations to graduations because I was recovering from a long illness. But last Saturday, I did attend one at Guang Ming College (GMC), which I’ve been running since 2021. It was the smallest graduating class I have ever had: all 15 graduating with degrees in performing arts (theater, dance) and Buddhist studies. Next year, we will have a much larger batch with pioneering batches in performing arts, musical theater, and sports science.
Our class of 2025 was small, but it is a class of fighters and survivors, sharing many of the struggles and victories of other colleges’ Class of 2025.
An important difference is that GMC students, all from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, are scholars, paying no tuition, with free board, lodging, and many school needs.
The Class of 2025 entered college in 2021, which was also my first year as college president. We were under lockdown, but we decided we’d push through with the online classes. I was able to ask our supporters to raise money—which they did in three days—to buy laptops and modems for the freshmen.
But last Saturday, our GMC valedictorian, Mohammad Nadzmer “Alab” Usman, reminded the audience that even with laptops and modems, schooling was difficult because many students live in places with weak or no Wi-Fi connections. This time, it was the kindness of people in the areas—public school teachers and administrators, and local government officials—many of whom were themselves facing financial difficulties, who pitched in to help the students.
I had never met the freshmen, but the online classes allowed my faculty and myself to see the difficult living conditions of the students and their families; so I knew what Alab was referring to when he talked about continuing hardships besides Wi-Fi.
Before the school year ended, I knew we had to bring up all our students from all levels to a new GMC campus that was still half-finished in Tagaytay. At least there, we would have Wi-Fi and dorms, where our faculty and staff could take on the tasks of foster parents, through typhoons, earthquakes, and Taal Volcano’s tantrums. Those threats were minor compared to the personal crises the students faced, particularly families pressuring some of them to quit school—even with free tuition, board, and lodging—so they could work
Most of our students held their ground, explaining to their parents that a college education would pay off in the long run. My team was determined, well aware that even some of our supporters were beginning to wonder about the appropriateness of performing arts and sports for the future.
I had approached UP’s basketball coach Bo Perasol, now UP’s director for athletics and sports, to put up a “small and modest” basketball team. He convinced me to aim higher, not just for varsity, but for sports science. In the performing arts, we have among the best of Filipino artists, including National Artist for Dance Alice Reyes, who with her dance group Alice Reyes Dance Philippines, is revolutionizing college dance programs.
Our students and alumni are proving cynics wrong with the awards they are receiving and the jobs our alumni are getting, here and overseas.
A whole new world of ballet, theater, and chorale performances are offered to students, many of whom have never seen a ballet performance or a play before coming to GMC. We worry too much about artificial intelligence and all that but see the way forward in education that crosses disciplines, providing all kinds of skills not confined to their major. For example, the Center for Culinary Studies came to offer a minor in culinary arts. I explained to our students: you’ll find the culinary skills will provide valuable backup, whether you work in a gym, or teach in a school, or go independent.
Our commencement speaker was, appropriately, the young filmmaker, Jose Lorenzo “Pepe” Diokno, who has reaped numerous awards with his films, “GomBurZa” in particular. He spoke from the heart, especially about how he knew from an early age, what he wanted to do, and was able to get there.
Pepe’s speech converged with the graduation’s theme: Dunong-Laya, Knowledge and Light. The message that afternoon, which I wanted to share with all of the classes of 2025, is that amid the world’s tumult, and messages of hatred and ruthlessness, there is still room—lots of room—for dreams and the boldness of imagination, bearing fruit in kindness and goodness.
