Sportsfest 2014

If you ask any student what excites them most in the school year, they’d probably tell you either one of these things: the last day of classes before vacation, or the annual, week-long affair called Sportsfest.

Sportsfest 2014 was held last February 3 - 7 in St. Francis of Assisi School of Silay City!

On Monday morning they gathered neatly at the covered court as the prayer song played, shiny pompoms and props carefully put aside. They heartily cheered as their representatives performed the symbolic torch run and raised the flags, each a different color.

But of course the parents and family friends and students had something else to really cheer for: the real fun starts with the series of cheer dances -- stunts and all -- performed by the high school classes and some grade school levels.

We had sophomores sporting silver hair…

freshmen with braids and face paint, midriffs gleaming with silver dust…

upperclassmen riding motorcycles and waving bright banners, boys playing the drums, popping party poppers…

Five days of different sports (from basketball to volleyball, football (or soccer), and track and field), competitive cheers, no class work, and more games – Sportsfest is always enough to keep everyone busy and in high spirits amidst the lectures and paperwork throughout the academic year.

A Day at Work

One Thursday in November 2013, forty one high school seniors went their own ways to join teachers, software engineers, mechanics and technicians, cooks and hotel management workers, book keepers and sales clerks.

For roughly 8 hours, these graduates-to-be took a glimpse of what a working day in their desired field is like.

Anjo Tingson at Baldevia Pension House in Silay City

This one-day career immersion is part of SFAS’ career orientation program headed by Ms April Suating of the guidance office. It was only launched in 2012.

Gleanne Sola at Silay Tourism office

Jake Canag at the Akubo Software Philippines office in Bacolod City

Every month the SFAS high school welcomes a visit from either a professional or a fresh graduate and a representative from various schools. These guest speakers tell stories of their experiences and work and of the courses or programs in other colleges and universities.

Miguel Belonio, Ken Rey Pabale, John Nino Busel, Keith Monge, Miguel Lavilla, and Claude Corudga
at Hacienda Tinihaban's farm and "shop."

Occasionally our students also visit school campuses for a brief career talk and a tour by a representative. 

Christine Diaz with SFAS's school nurse

Some seniors spent the day with Ayala Office’s marketing team, at the Akubo Software, the Baldevia Pension House, the Silay Tourism team, and with teachers at SFAS itself.

The school hopes the students not only find a deeper appreciation for education, but also “for the work that their parents do every day,” Ms April said, “so that they can have this education.”

The 49th Foundation Day

On October 4 of every year, we all come together – students, teachers, staff, parents, and alumni as we celebrate the foundation day of our school and the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

This also happens to be the birthday of our founder; she would have turned 99 years old this year.

The late Marietta Ledesma, whose family was no stranger to the thriving sugarcane landscape, could have simply basked in the family fortune. Yet in 1964, just outside Silay City, she opened a small private institution. Bordered by sugar lands and bathed in the shade of trees, Marietta Ledesma’s school valued Christian education. Here, they taught children of farmers for free.

She had only lived long enough to see barely fifteen years’ worth of growth in the school. When she passed away, it was her husband, Edgardo Ledesma, who took over until the early 1990s.

For many years, the school gave free education. But SFAS can only do so much for the kids of Hacienda Tinihaban – that eventually became clear to the rest of Marietta and Edgardo’s family. The realization led to the start of Tapulanga Foundation. It led to more scholarships, more support for facilities, more smiles and more lives uplifted.

The SFAS that Marietta Ledesma started feels different than it did forty nine years ago. And yet its vision remains: the vision to give children a chance for a better life thru quality Christian education.

Come October 4th every year, we all gather and celebrate – our foundation day, our founder's birthday, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi. Beyond the greetings, the colorful banners, music, and well-rehearsed dances, October 4th is also a simple celebration of education.

The 4th Graders' Educational Trip to Bago City

Now and then, donors of Tapulanga Foundation go beyond paying for the tuition, or school books, or the lunch meals of students. On the birthday of the donor herself (last September), her fourth grader scholar, Francielle Acuesca, and her classmates went on a day trip to the southern part of Bacolod – a trip funded by her donor, Mrs. Ria Rochvarg, all the way from Maryland, U.S.A.

Led by tourist guide Miss Betsy Gazo and escorted by several parents, the class went aboard a Cebro bus and visited Bacolod City’s main landmark first – the Capitol Lagoon, which sits right in front of the Capitol Building.

They shortly headed for May’s Organic Garden and Restaurant – a rising agri-tourism spot in the province. The kids were introduced to the abundance of organic livestock, herbs, even ducks and cattle, and the fresh fruits and vegetables harvested straight from their gardens.

Next stop – the OISCA Bago Training Center. The Organization for Industrial, Spiritual, and Cultural Advancement (OISCA), a Japan-based NGO, has been in the Philippines for almost 30 years.

The group stopped by for lunch at the Bantayan Park. What sets the place apart from most parks, however, is that it sits right next to Bago River – a wide stretch of water with a riverbank that people could easily mistake for a beach.  They enjoyed a free meal of spaghetti, chicken, rice and drink!

The last stop was at the relatively new Tomiko’s Vintage Glass Museum, owned by Tomas Claridad Casiano. A retired florist from Beverly Hills, he recently returned home after more than twenty years.

Here, the kids found to their amazement the extensive collection of over 2,000 glasses pieces – vases, Victorian lamps, decorative objects, Depression glasses.

Needless to say, the trip was a great experience for Francielle and her classmates, and introduced them to some of the province’s upcoming tourist-worthy destinations.  Thank you Mrs. Rochvarg for making this possible!

The SFAS Daycare Kids Learn Beyond the Classroom

Last August 27, 2013, the SFAS Daycare children, headed by Mrs. Maricel Navigar, earned a chance to learn beyond the classroom. They embarked on a day trip, funded by their donors (of Tapulanga Foundation), to the Capitol Lagoon and Robinson’s Place.

The kids were supervised by two teachers and three parents throughout the field trip.

The Capitol Park and Lagoon, a major landmark of Bacolod City, sits at the heart of the city. The kids got to see the fish, the famous carabao (water buffalo) sculptures, and the Capitol Building itself.

After lunch, they headed off to the mall. Here, most of the kids, who didn’t know what an elevator or an escalator was, had their first ride.

The kids also had their first cinema experience with the Disney-Pixar film Planes.

Mrs. Navigar believes that kids do not easily forget things they learn through real things and experience. This notion, she says, was the main purpose of the field trip.

Buwan ng Wika 2013

Students and teachers, all clad in traditional Filipino costumes, gathered once again at the covered court as the St. Francis of Assisi School of Silay City brings to a close the Buwan ng Wika celebrations last August 30, 2013.

The culmination activity started off with a live band performance and was a series of dance performances. Students from various grade levels competed in different areas: native creative dance, pop dance, folk dance, and chorale poem.

From "Manong" to Sir Romnick

Born 26 years ago, Romnick Sadio and his family lives just a tricycle ride away from the St. Francis of Assisi School of Silay City.  His older siblings never finished school, and neither did he.  After two years in high school, he had to stop, due to financial problems.

Romnick Sadio was fifteen when he joined his father at the ponds, where thirty other people also worked. He worked there in the afternoons, wondering if this would end up as his career after three, six, maybe even ten years. He thought about his nonexistent diploma, and the other half of high school that he missed. Life at the fish pond was tough. Yet this place, he later realizes, led to an opportunity.

Romnick knew of SFAS. A few kids, scholars of Tapulanga Foundation, from his neighborhood studied there. He knew of the Ledesma family — he should, because they owned the land where he worked. They also happened to own the school. This thread of connection found him being called to the school one day.

It had been almost four years since Romnick left high school. He admits he hesitated for a moment. To finish high school now meant he would be an eighteen-year-old among a class of fourteen-, fifteen-year-olds. To just his classmates he would be "Manong" Romnick, he thought, and it bothered him.

But one does not find himself given an opportunity every day. Romnick knew very well the hardships of someone who belonged to a family that had never seen any of its children on stage, with a diploma in one hand and the principal shaking the other. Next to this, being Manong Romnick in class was nothing. So, at eighteen, he took the exam, received a scholarship, and became a student once more.

Romnick Sadio earned a college grant in 2009. He never met her in person, he says of his sponsor. All he knew was that she was called Mrs. Ada Ledesma-Mabilangan, and that her support fueled his way into college.

He’s blessed, he says, very blessed to have been given a chance to study again. Romnick feels as if everything was a dream – the last two years in high school, his student council presidency, the youth congresses and seminars he was sent to, his college diploma, his bachelor’s degree.

It has been six months since he earned a degree to his name, three months since his first day at St. Francis of Assisi School. He had started to teach cooking, drafting, even arts, to the high school students. The man who stands before the students is no longer Manong Romnick, an upperclassman, their old school president. He is Sir Romnick, the teacher.