president of that chapter at the age of 15. That was when I learned the rudiments of working with peers. While my mother sharpened my abilities to lead, she carefully set the foundation and the mantra for that leadership: “Everything we’re doing is service to God, so we must thank Him for every good thing in our lives.” After I graduated from the Dongalo Elementary School, a consistent first honors from Grades 1 to 6, Mama took me to take an entrance exam for a scholarship program at the American School, then located on Menlo Street, Pasay City. After passing the written exams, I was interviewed by a panel of school officials; I must have done well because my mother hap- pily announced to everyone that I had been accepted as one of 10 Filipino scholars, from a field of hundreds of applicants, to receive a full six-year scholarship at the American School. That was a major feat in my academic life. I spent the next six years imbibing an all-American curriculum and interacting with Americans and other foreign nationals. It was my first taste of a global education. My world at the American School was far removed from my girl- friends’ conventional schools like Assumption, St. Theresa’s and St. Scholastica’s, where they were very restricted compared to my environment at the American School, where my 13-year-old classmates were into makeup and dating. Given my conservative upbringing and church background, I felt like I was a foreigner in my own country, the “minority” in this school. Looking back, I could have easily been influenced by and adopted the more liberal ways of my foreign classmates, but thanks to my mother’s close guidance and example, she kept me grounded on the values of modesty, decency and upright- ness. Thanks to my mother I did not end up rebellious or
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