VICKY WENCESLAO-ACORDO | SME Awardee | HS 1986
Saint Marie Eugenie’s influence has been quite strong in my own life, even today. Her mission of educating others remains a core part of my life.
Right after college in 1990, I taught English Literature and Composition to freshman high school girls at the Assumption College, SLV. The following school year, I decided to continue my teaching journey at Assumption Antipolo. Here I taught Grammar and Composition to the seventh grade class as well as helped in their formation as Assistant Class Adviser from 1991-1992. These initial three years of teaching were very fulfilling for me. I loved being a witness to the lives of my students and being a part of their formation as young women. As a teacher you realize that one’s influence goes beyond the lesson plans and syllabus. It’s those conversations with students in the halls and more so when they seek out your company or advice outside the classroom that truly made my vocation as an educator so inspiring and meaningful. Witnessing their lives now, as mothers, wives, career women, etc. gives me so much pride and joy. I consider them my extended children and their children my extended apos.
Years later, with my own three children, I once again took inspiration from St. Marie Eugenie’s educational vocation as well as i being a woman who had the strength to break from convention to create positive change arou. Because of certain significant deficiencies in the schools in our area, I took it upon myself ,between the years 2008 – 2016, to educate my own children through a home school program. I wanted this endeavor to be a comprehensive process of learning with the values of goodness and kindness and of being responsible citizens of our country. I wanted to equip them with the necessary skills and paradigms to prepare them to be global citizens. With the steady support of my husband, I decided not only to home school my children but to overhaul our family’s way of life and no longer have any household help. This way, we would build a strong community and support system within our family and prepare our children for various levels of skills and outlooks for their lives ahead. These eight years were doubtless very challenging years for me. I navigated the roles of mother, teacher, activities coordinator, driver, etc. for my kids as well as being a wife and home maker. Indeed, one of my sources of strength and inspiration was St. Marie Eugenie’s philosophy as a woman of transformation during her era. She too found a number of grave inadequacies in how women, particularly, were being brought up and held back during her time. She strongly felt that as a woman, if more were given the gift of a good education, then they could bring about a greater and more positive transformation of society in their immediate communities and in the world as a whole. I would never change anything I did during those years. I know St. Marie Eugenie would probably feel the same, as she faced the many challenges and even opposition to her mission of education.
Now, as my children go off on their own, I continue to remain open to my vocation of education in the near future. I believe I’d like to teach or tutor students from a public school in spoken English and Composition. This is where I feel my educational vocation will best serve others in the years ahead; this is where I will go.
And thus, St. Marie Eugenie’s philosophy of education rings loud and clear in my being:
“To educate is to set a person free.”
“ To educate is to transform society.”