Top graduates undergo training

ABOUT 200 high school valedictorians from Cebu Province met yesterday for a three-day leadership training sponsored by the Cebu Provincial Government and the Department of Education (DepEd) 7.

During the opening program at the Ecotech Center in Lahug, Cebu City, the topnotch students got to know each other through fun-filled activities that had them dancing and singing.

“This training aims to develop the leadership skills of our valedictorians, so they can contribute to nation-building,” DepEd 7 Assistant Director Carmelita Dulangon told Sun.Star Cebu.

Capitol consultant on labor market Mathea Baguia, in her speech, urged the students to continue their achievements in college.

“You have great opportunities at your doorsteps,” she told them.

The training will take the participants to Capitol, where they will observe a meeting between Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and Capitol’s department heads.

Although it’s not her first leadership training, Krizan Grachelle Andrin hopes to learn many things from the three-day activity.

“I want to be a leader. It’s my passion,” said the 16-year-old valedictorian of the Lambusan National High School in the northern town of San Remegio.

Andrin, who will pursue a degree in education at the Cebu Normal University, admitted she has no plans of entering politics but she dreams of establishing a foundation for street children.

Giving alms

“I admire children. Although people say that giving money to children on the streets will encourage them to remain as beggars, I still offer them money,” she told Sun.Star Cebu.

Andrin, who served as president of her school’s Student Supreme Government, said her passion to help children stems from her being the only child in the family.

John Clefford Jotojot, 16, the valedictorian of Looc National High School in Lapu-Lapu City, said the training will help him enhance his potentials as a future leader.

Like Andrin, he does not want to become a politician but he wants to help the people by serving as a doctor.

Whatever they want to become in the future, Capitol consultant on international relations Ester Velasquez, in her speech, asked the students to keep in mind that “we are ordinary people who can do ordinary things extraordinarily.”