photocopied. Professor Mendoza’s measure of passing was the knowledge that you’ve learned and the efforts that you exerted. She wanted you to learn the lessons by heart. She was fair when it came to giving grades. She did not play favorites; she did not have teacher’s pets. What we got was what we deserved. Her best assets were her passion for teaching, the personal touch she gave to her lectures. She encouraged us to ask questions, to ask for clarification. Teachers, she believed, don’t impose rules and policies to inculcate knowledge; they are in academe to mold future professionals, understanding them, nurturing them.
She taught us to think out of the box and
see the bigger picture: that we were not only thinking for ourselves but for the common good.
Her technical skills were excellent and so was her work ethics. She was never absent. One time she had an allergy that almost killed her, she was choking and gasping for breath. Guess what, early the next morning she was in class ready to rock and roll. Professor Mendoza believed in karma: if you do harm to others, harm will also come to you three times over. “Respect others so that others will learn to respect you,” she would say. Cleanliness in one’s surroundings was very important to her: she implemented the “5S” rule (sort, systematize, sweep, sani- tize, self-discipline) to the letter. She preached a strong sense of community belonging, and she inculcated in us the values and
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