Today, I checked out the Narinig Ko Sa UP (Overheard at UP) Facebook group and chanced upon a post about a conversation

between two conyo girls in the bathroom. After reading through the comments, I felt that this was something I needed to write about. To be honest though, Im afraid that, by putting my thoughts into writing, Im validating every stereotype there is about students from the College of Business Administration. I know there will be people who will vehemently disagree with me, but, I publish this in the hope that it will spark discourse or, at least, make even just one reader change his mind about the UP Conyo. Dapat siguro bawal sa UP ang conyo?Mas dapat sa UP yung mga cant afford na may utak. This is a popular opinion among UP students across all campuses, and I can understand why. UP is lauded as the countrys premier university. Were proud to have produced successful alumni in business, engineering, medicine, law, the arts, and the academe. We are the countrys national university. We consistently rank among the best in the world, and to call the admission process selective would be understatement. As a publicly funded university, our education is subsidized by taxpayers. They are investing their hard earned money in our future so that we can put our talents in the service of the nation. UP, at least in theory, democratizes education, by giving everyone, regardless of socioeconomic background, the opportunity to have a quality education. Thats why I chose to attend UP in the first place. In UP, I expected tolerance and acceptance for all students. I imagined UP to be a place where everyone - rich, poor, gay, straight, Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, atheist, communist, capitalist - lived harmoniously in one huge melting pot of cultures. UP discriminates only on one basis - intelligence. If you pass the UPCAT, youre in. Yes, the formula for admission is adjusted according to geographic location and your parents income, but, in essence, intelligence is and always has been the primary determinant for admission. But, after almost three years here as a student, I can say that this picture of tolerance is far from what reality has to offer. Its an oft quoted saying that UP is a microcosm of Philippine society. If thats true, we live in a fractured nation, where different groups and identities clash on so many points on an almost daily basis. When someone remarks that all UP students are militant activists, godless heathens, communists, and/or fratmen, the UP community is so quick to react and say that the UP community is diverse. Not all UP students are like that, we claim. But the moment someone goes, Can you turn on the electric fan please? Its so, like, init., people rush to make negative comments. Mga ganyang tao, di nila deserve pumunta sa UP. Why dont you go to like, you know, Arrneoh? Wala silang paki sa mga importanteng bagay puro party party, ADHOC-ADHOC lang mga yan. Puro mga Bracket A na ang mga freshmen ngayon! Whats with the double standard?

Can someone please explain to me why, in a university where an annual spectacle is made of naked men running around the Acad Oval, a girl in posh clothes can attract so much hate? The thing that confuses me so much is that: these people didnt choose to be born to Bracket A parents, but they take so much flak, as if they are the cause of the TOFI. Yes, the number of Bracket A freshmen has exponentially grown because of the tuition hike, but, are they to blame for the privatization of UP or any of the other issues that plague our beloved UP? Didnt they take and pass the same UPCAT as everyone else? If anything, theyre as much victims of the flawed systems as the rest of the UP community. Thats the only life theyve been exposed and are only guilty of being afraid of that which is so unfamiliar to them. Perhaps thats the same reason a lot of UP students suffer from a case of reverse elitism. We fear and despise what is different and unfamiliar to us. Thats the irony of it all. I chose UP not only because of the amazing professors and the rigorous academic discipline it demanded but because it would give me the UP experience of having friends from all walks of life. UP has allowed me to become friends with a Filipino who spent his whole life in Hong Kong, a daughter of an OFW who spent her formative years in the Middle East, a gifted girl from the province here on scholarship money, and, of course the sheltered guy from an exclusive all-boys school here in Manila. And those are just four out of the hundreds of people Ive met in UP, who Im sure have their own unique stories to tell. What many UP students forget is that the UP education is more than just the classes we take. The UP education is one-of-a-kind precisely because were exposed to people from backgrounds completely different from your own. Each person has something to teach us because of their unique life experiences - even that conyo kid who speaks Tagalog with a weird accent in your Socio 10 class. To say that all UP students must dress or speak a certain way is an affront to the true nature of being an Isko - which is being anyone you want to be. In fact, many Mass Organizations (MOs) antagonize the UP conyo especially during the election season. To them, they represent all that is wrong with the administration. They lash out at them, mock them, and alienate them. They are the fuel for their passionate and fiery rhetoric. They arent real Iskos and Iskas, they shout, as if the title of being a real Isko was one they had they had to authority to confer and take away. How can the graduates of UP expect to change the world through collective action when, even as a university community, we are divided? You are not, and will never be, defined by how much you or your parents earn. Just as your gender, sexual orientation, or creed do not define you. You are not your STFAP bracket, and UP students need to realize that. This kind of reverse elitism has to stop. Diversity can only be regarded as a value, if and only if, it unites rather than divides us. Rather than focusing on what makes us different, we should be paying attention to the common ties that bind us. Only then can we take our first step toward real progress.

My tibak friends label me conyo, but they accept me all the same, so I dont get all the generalizations here. Its a joke, and itll always be, okay? If you want to get rid of that conyo stereotype, why dont you pay attention this time? Pay attention to the people. Keri. The thing is, the point isnt that we are all UP students. The point isnt about diversity. The point isnt about if you were born into a Bracket A family or what. The issue isnt about you being rich, its about your actions as a rich person. Its about my actions as a lower-middle class person. Its about our actions as UP students. We get that the upper class can pay for their tuition. We get that we all deserve to be a UP student because we passed the UPCAT (Or not. Very debatable topic) But do you get that there are those who also passed the UPCAT (legitly) but still cant afford UP education? A reason, in my opinion, the upper class are usually the butt of the jokes, is because they fail to remember what the point of UP is. Do you really, truly, whole-heartedly understand what being a UP student is? Honor and excellence in service of the Filipino people. Emphasis on the last part. Its not enough to label yourself an isko/iska, you must live it. Its easy to say that, Hey, Im a UP student too. But again Are you really? Batman said it perfectly, But its not who you are underneath, its what you do that defines you. Okay, its the premier university in the Philippines. Its also the university of the people. Its a national university and its basic duty is to provide the best education to all classes that in turn the students can contribute to the national industrialization of the country. Now, with the whole privatization of education, only the upper-middle class can benefit from UP. Now, the demographics have changed. Now, the mindset of many students are to graduate, earn money, travel and work abroad, etc. Now, lots of people believe that they can be nationalistic and contribute to their country in their own LITTLE way. UP doesnt only give the best education in classrooms. Ive learnt this in my four years. I used to care so much about the technicalities of school: not being late in class, getting perfect grades, not cutting class, etc. Grades dont define me, my number of absences dont define me, whats more important is what I got from the classes and how I can put them to use. UP teaches you to think, to question, and to act. Very important things that even if people graduate from UP, some still dont know how to think and question, what more then to act? This is sad. Did you really question why the conyos are a laughing stock sometimes? Did you really question whats up with UP nowadays, why it isnt what you thought it would be? Did you really question or did you just settle with generalizations? A simple post isnt going to change anything. You must act. This I never learnt inside the classroom, experience was my teacher. I was proud when I was a freshie to be called an Iskolar ng Bayan. But I never felt it until the latter end of my third year, when I learnt to think, question, and act. Means so much more than I thought. UP taught me to think for the people. Its a given that not everyone can afford education. But here I am, here we are. The people need us for their voices to be heard. Why do you think there are rallies? People dont rally just for themselves, these UP rallies arent just for UP students, but theyre rallying for the rights of every SUC, every young person whose right to education was taken away. Get it? Where were you? What did you do for the people? UP taught me to question. Why is this happening? Whos responsible for this? Why did they end up with that decision? Where were you when all these happened? Never settle, keep asking.

This is what always, always, always gets on my nerve. When people fail to see the needs of others around them. When people grow apathetic. When people dont question. When people dont listen. When people dont see. When people settle. Its never too late to still get your UP experience.

With Honor
Excluded Middles
By AVERILL PIZARRO March 21, 2012, 4:09am

MANILA, Philippines Let me just come out and say it, so we can get it out of the way already graduating with honors is overrated. I graduated from UP Diliman a year ago with a degree in Philosophy, magna cum laude, and this is a lot less impressive than it sounds. For one, my class, the Class of 2011, produced 21 summa cum laude, 215 magna cum laude, and 794 cum laude. The feat isnt exactly extraordinary if 1,000 other people in the same room can do it too. At the University graduation, only the summa cum laude get to sit on the stage with their parents, along with the members of the Board of Regents, former presidents and faculty. Magna cum laude get to sit in the front rows, but it is not a big enough achievement our parents have to sit at the back under the hot sun like everyone else. Of course I wanted to graduate with honors, and it felt good when I did. Sometimes, it still does. My parents like telling their friends about it, and so do my aunts and uncles. Fortunately, as far as I know, none of them had a tarpaulin printed out and hung at the municipal hall. I have to admit magna cum laude looks very good on paper. Most people are immediately impressed when they hear about it and one of them, my current boss, was impressed enough to offer me a job. But thats about as far as graduating with honors has taken me. It got me into a job, but staying in the job, and performing well in it, is a different mat ter entirely. Thats a fact that people often miss: it doesnt make you better or smarter than anyone else. It means you got better grades, but it says little about your intelligence, ability, or lack thereof, because most people who graduate with honors intend to graduate with honors but dont intend to learn. Its easy to go through college taking all the easy professors and getting all the free unos, and graduating with a summa or magna or cum laude following your name. But this doesnt mean you learned well, nor that you made the most of your opportunities, and this does not prepare you in any way to meet real challenges. Most of the time its an investment in image rather than in substance, and it is a dishonor to the University that took time and money to teach you. It is easier to graduate with honors than to graduate with honor. This is a lesson I first learned in UP. On the first day of class, a Literature professor had asked us to introduce ourselves to her by submitting a list of all the real books we had ever read in our 16-year lives. Dont tell me you were valedictorian, or an awardee this or awardee that, she said rather crossly. Dont tell me you were editor -in-chief of your high school paper. Guess what--

we all were. Now tell me the books youve read when nobody asked you to and I will judge how well -prepared you are for this class. We were all frightened. Today, though, she is still one of my best teachers, and that was still one of the best classes I ever took in my life. I find that working is much the same. In our office especially, my boss has a habit of hiring honor graduates. Everyone is summa, magna or cum laude. Or a lawyer. Or has a masters degree in something from prestigious universities here or abroad. It doesnt make you special. It doesnt determine the quality of your output. I came in as a fresh graduate, armed with honors, and I had to start from the bottom of the food chain, learn everything as I went along, and learn fast. Sometimes, the philosophy has helped me. The books I read in my spare time have helped me. But I find that what has helped me the most in my job is not the cerebral knowledge I gained in my fours years in college, not the stuff that got me through exams and gave me good grades its all the things and disciplines surrounding that, outside that, beyond that. Its the coolness under pressure, the habituation to deadlines, the initiative and foresight picked up from doing volunteer work that you get through experience, and by watching older people do something well. Its the clarity of mind and the determination to work well and hard even when a professor is discouraging or angry or aloof, and you dont hope to get a good mark anyway, but you want to be able to say you gave it the best you have. Its the willingness to get your hands dirty and to give more than the minimum because you believe in the innate value of honor and excellence. Its all of these and more the elements of a good education, about how well you learned, including, especially, from your failures and such things just cannot be measured by numbers.

With Honors
iThink
By JAMES SORIANO March 21, 2012, 4:09am

MANILA, Philippines What does it mean to graduate cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude? Literally, the Latin phrase cum laude means with honor or with praise, the latter being a more direct translation of the word laude. Similarly, magna cum laude means with great praise, and summa cum laude means with the highest praise. So whenever we say, in a tone fraught with respect for the depth of meaning and gravitas that the original Latin term offers, that a student is graduating cum laude, magna cum laude,or summa cum laude, what we are saying is that the student is graduating with praise, great praise, or the highest praise. The meaning of the term really says very little, so that perhaps it is a little disappointing to work so hard for four to five years to attain those famed Latin distinctions, only to find that they add very little, if at all, to the obvious. But perhaps that is the beauty of it: that it says so little about who you are to the world that there is so much room for you to determine what it really means for yourself. To the outside world, graduating with honors is the mark of an exceptional graduate: gifted, hardworking, intelligent, with all the tools to succeed in life and career. Yet all that graduating with honors really means is that one has performed well in the classroom: that one scores well on tests, participates in class, and makes good presentations. If one goes to school to study, then graduating with honors proves that one has been a good student. On the one hand, there is good reason to believe that students who graduate with honors are likely to become successful.

On the other hand, if it is true that the classroom is an entirely different setting from the workplace, the community, and even the home, then graduating with honors might mean very little. In that case, to go from exceptional student to exceptional individual is a huge logical leap, and it cannot predict whether one will find success or meaning in his or her life. In the so-called real world, we find that this is the case. While there are many honor graduates who end up becoming rich or famous or otherwise successful, there are just as many graduates who may not have earned special academic distinctions at school, but have become just as successful as their honorable peers, if not more so. This suggests that in the bigger picture, there are multiple other factorsthat affect a gradu ating students chances of success apart from academic honors. To have academic honors is to have a certain incentive or added pressure: one must succeed if he or she is to be worthy of the distinction. For some it might be nice to have, but it is a pressure or incentive that one can do without. Graduating with honors means that one has a mind well-versed in logical thinking and critical analysis, tools that enable one to get ahead. But it does not measure whether one can engage in creative or divergent thinking, communicate well, or lead and inspire others, tools that enable one to get to the top. These are skills that are developed in a bigger way outside of the classroom: through extra-curricular activities, leadership positions, competitions athletic and otherwise, and engagement with peers and outside communities. Graduating with honors in no way insures ones moral character or scruples. Many honorable graduates have shaped and shifted industries and communities, for better or for worse. Many a valedictorian has impacted the history of this nation, for better and for worse. Those of us who are graduating with honors cannot assure, by the mere fact of our graduating with some sort of a laude, that we will turn out to be honorable people. But what cannot be doubted is that graduating with honors is a tribute to all those who have helped or contributed to get one to his or her standing. From experience, consistently getting high grades the only prerequisite to graduating with honorsis a tricky business, one that is just as much science as it is art. Individual merit and motivation is one part of the equation; the other parts are the nature of the course, the teachers skill, perceptions and expectations, conditions within the project group, the barkada, or the family, and even political and economic conditions at large. So that when one goes up the stage to receive his or her diploma, medal and five seconds of applause, one represents, in a very significant way, the confluence of factors that have made the d istinction possible. Ones individual achievement, in a broad sense, is actually a collective effort. After all, no one ever makes it alone. So when one graduates with cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude, one can be proud that he or she has a very particular kind of achievement: a successful career as a student, at least partly the result of a favorable confluence of factors and conditions, which may or may not promise future success. It is something, but it is by no means everything.

When things are at their worst, keep on going, this means they can only get better from here. Love doesnt make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. I love you, not for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. "if they don't respect, appreciate, and value you, then they don't deserve you Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out Love is friendship set on fire True love stories never have endings. They last forever.

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. The best part about a picture is that it never changes, even when the people in it do. I don't wish to be everything to everyone, I just wanna be something to someone. Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts. And we are never the same. If you were happy with the wrong one, just think how happy you will be when the right one comes. God doesn't require us to succeed, he only requires that you try Above all else, guard your heart for it affects everything else you do. To anyone that ever told you youre no good; theyre no better. When you stop chasing the wrong things, you give the right things a chance to catch you. Dont rely on anyone to love you. Love yourself and get motivated to be the best you possible. Because the truth is, it doesnt really matter who I used to be. Its all about who Ive become. A lot of problems in the world would disappear if we talk to each other instead of about each other. Worry about your character and not your reputation, Because your character is who u are, And your reputation is only what people think of u. Its better to have nobody, than to have someone who is half there, or doesnt want to be there. Never let people get to you. They can only pull the trigger if you hand them the gun. Dont let one person be your world, when youre just an option in theirs. Life is just one of those things that you take as it comes. It might be good to you one day, bad the other, but you love it, cherish it. Seeing people change isnt what hurts. What hurts is remembering who they used to be. Id rather have an enemy who admits they hate me, instead of a friend who secretly put me down. Sometimes you gotta shut up, swallow your pride and accept that youre wrong. Its not giving up, its called growing up. Good relationships don't just happen. They take time, patience, and two people who truly want to be together. It's amazing how a person who was once just a stranger, can suddenly mean the world to you. Someone who really loves you sees what a mess you can be, how moody you can get, how hard u are to handle, but still wants u in their life.

Over-thinking ruins you. Ruins the situation, twists things around, makes you worry and just makes everything much worse than it actually is True friendship isn't about being there when it's convenient; it's about being there when it's not Love me right, I'll love you better. People make mistakes, so forgive and forget... but if it happens again, be smart. Look at how far you've come. Now imagine how far you can now go