School of Hope
My students taught me humility…
Turning withered buds into bloom…
Entering through the gates of San Pedro College (Davao City, Philippines) for the first time as a Community School instructor (June 2006), barely two months after my graduation from Bachelor of Science in Nursing made me anxious on what kind of world I am about to encounter in my job. As a previous student nurse in this institution, I seldom recognize the existence of the Community School and had poorly understood the nature of the department. Ironically I have found my self applying for the job on post for the Community School and have been accepted. Most of us if not all may have not given a thought about Community School, hence this article to give light to it. Included are excerpts from my own experiences for the past two years of service.
The Community School is a department under the Community Extension Services division that provides technical/vocational courses to marginalized students who lack financial capability to acquire Baccalaureate Degrees as well as to college graduates and working individuals who wanted to earn health care skills in addition to their professions. The Community School is currently offering a Caregiver Course and the Nursing Assistant Training Program. Students were divided into two categories: the Regular Class are those high school graduates or college level students with less than 72 units earned in academics and the Weekend Class also known as the professional group whose classes fall on weekends.
The first time I entered the office of the CES-Community School, I was warmly greeted and welcomed by the staffs and in no time felt comfortable with my fellow colleagues. They made me feel at home in the department. I believe one of the unique characteristics of the CES-Community School that have developed among the staffs is the strong sense of family bond as a community, probably because of the nature of students that we encounter in our everyday lives as mentors and counselors. In return we have learned to value life and relationships better.
The spectrum of our students is extreme basically because of the varied backgrounds that they came from. If one wants to experience life in the Community School he or she should be equipped with a lot of patience and understanding to cope up with the demands of mentoring students whom most are lost on tract in the direction of their lives. We encountered students that entered the school out of desperation to rise above poverty, hoping to turn around the seemingly hopeless situation of their families. We have students who were victims of inappropriate treatment over the course of their lives that greatly lowers their self-esteem. We have students who came in the school forced by their parents hoping that their children will turn away from questionable lifestyles. On the other hand, we have students despite their low socioeconomic status in life were the motivators of others to continue pursuing better lives by getting good grades in the Community School. We have working students ranging from being a house helper, gasoline boy, fast food crew, security guards, and tricycle drivers to name a few.
Learning in the community school is clearly in both directions. While I taught them knowledge and technical skills, my students taught me humility. I am humbled because of the privileged to influence a lot of seemingly lost hopes only to be surprised that one day a student will give you a letter with a message of how grateful they are from the bottom of their hearts. Others are bold enough to say to you that because of their teachers their lives have been better from yesterday. However, the truth is we cannot take all the credit because in the real sense nothing that happened was left to us alone. Human effort is a futile attempt to brag about this kind of transformation from our students. But this is what I believe, everything happened through the works of God through us that made it possible to turn withered buds into bloom - full of promises and hope. I have proven that I have done right in the Community School to allot time with my students to share to them the Word of God, giving them encouragement, but at the same time corrections and discipline which at times hurts. As it has been told, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” - Hebrews 4:12. If anyone desires real change from everyone, it should start with oneself using His Word, for no one can give what he or she doesn’t have received. Some of the greatest wisdoms that I have learned were contributed partly from my experiences with my students.
First, hurt people will always hurt people. Deal with the wounded first by showing compassion and they will do the same.
Second, people do not care what you know, unless they know that you care. Win their hearts first to trusting, consolidate their lives into bonds, disciple them to the ways of the righteous, and in just the right time we will be sending them as agents of change into their communities and into the nations of the world.
And third, with the right process the product is always guaranteed. It means that with the right way of mentoring and teaching we can assure success.
With these wisdoms that I have learned and applied in the two years of service I have finally understood what it means not to underestimate small beginnings. Truly, all greatness started small.
In the end, I can therefore conclude that in the Community School it is not only surface knowledge that we share, more than that but wisdom. Not only technical health care skills, more than that but love for God and for people which brings out the drive to do our best. It is true that our students are far from perfect, yet we gave them hope that competence is possible even to the most challenging student we have. Now the time has come for me to leave the Community School which honed me to be a better person. I will always remember to look back in time when I was a teacher as I move forward in my career. I can now proudly say that the purpose of my life is to become a missionary - who happens to be a nurse - properly trained and equipped in the “School of Hope.”
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