The following is an article from Mind Body n Soul and it just happens to fit the picture we have in mind:

“Those who condemn wealth are those who have none and see no chance of getting it” is a very witty remark by William Pen Patrick. Candidly speaking there is certainly no reason to condemn wealth. Wealth creation is an inevitable necessity and quite worthy at that. Or else how do we propose to mitigate poverty, build infrastructure or develop technology? But mind you it is by no means a dilettante’s job. It is like art, better your imagination more attractive the picture. “Innovation”, the cornerstone of burgeoning business is nothing but a flight of imagination. In this fast paced world, one who has vision for the SEEN and the UNSEEN is the one who emerges victorious.

Going up on the podium to receive “Entrepreneur of the Year” award is a dream most youths see while entering trade and industry. It is a very inspiring dream to begin with. The unconscious dreams that we spin while asleep may have Freudian Interpretation but the conscious dreams like this one need conscious energy and effort to come true. Detailing the color of your suit or wording your thank you speech for the award ceremony is a very gainful visualization. Do not consider it like building castles in the air. This is the gas station where the MIND fuels the body for the journey ahead.

But before your name is announced for the award, there will be challenges, fears and uncertainty to cow you down. Self-doubt is the biggest and the worst challenge with most of us. Why should you doubt your own capability? This is the most pitiable and self-justifying excuse you give to run from the task. “I may not be able to do it” implies “I do not want to do it” because there is absolutely nothing that you are incapable of doing at the command of your mind.

There is no way to lose in the game, because once your mind is fearless and determined you will either reach your destination or go higher. Don’t we know how Columbus set out to reach but discovered? In an investor’s jargon it simply means, “A fundamentally strong mind will not sell your dreams short”.

There is another fact to understand. Do not expect absence of challenges because that is not part of the plan. Since we have the most sophisticated machinery with unlimited capacity (i.e. MIND), challenges should not be much of a problem to handle. Moreover, a timorous man shying from his fears and skeptic about his ability would not make an impressive “Entrepreneur of the Year”. This is part of the game that while you are on the way to realize your dreams, the on-road hurdles make you strong and savvy to deliver a cogent and influential speech on the dais when receiving the award.

When we say that businesses succeed with the vision of the SEEN and UNSEEN, there are lots of interpretations about it. The foremost Seen vision is to have a dream and the Unseen is to look for the opportunities to fulfill it. The next seen vision is to choose a product line or service you think will be productive and profitable enough and the Unseen is to let your imagination afloat to innovate the chosen product because product differentiation is a vital tool in launching yourself.

The cardinal Seen Vision is abundance and success, the Unseen is the unknown challenges and twists. The mind is the key player in optimizing the UNSEEN vision. Wealth creation is possible only when the known and the unknown, the SEEN and the UNSEEN can be balanced together. And the mind is amazingly capable of achieving the winning amalgam.

Also our Self has a SEEN body and an UNSEEN spirit. The objective of wealth creation gratifies the Seen Body. But the Unseen Spirit has its own longing. It desires for a sense of serenity, time for quiet contemplation and some time to indulge in leisurely delights. An incessant concentration of material abundance will only content the SEEN part of your existence ultimately leading to the soul’s collapse. And if the soul breaks down, all pursuit of wealth and reward will go null and void.

Even wealth creation will be a more enthusiastic and pleasant task if you gratify your body and soul equally. The mind is again of prime importance. It is just like your broker who strikes a winning deal for both his parties, satisfying them simultaneously. Now that mind is an indispensable link, it will surely pay rich dividends by investing rightly in it. A wise investor always asks three fundamental questions before parking his money anywhere viz. where to invest, how much to invest and when to invest? Correct answers to these questions are valuable for windfall gains but the answers keep changing with market conditions. But in relation to mind, these questions have a constant answer to reap a fortune. The answer being, “Invest heavily in positive thoughts in all trends for long term”.

Your mind is a blue chip company, invest POSITIVELY in it and your market value will keep escalating. Let it create equilibrium of all SEEN and UNSEEN to make you build a colossal castle on land. You own a blue chip establishment (MIND) already, so setting up another one and receiving “Entrepreneur of the Year” award for it is not tough proposition.

But first, an intuitive clarification:  “eBANGUI OVERSEAS” refers broadly to those folks from Bangui working and/or residing overseas–in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, South America, the United States, etc.– and united primarily through the electronic medium–the Internet–hence the “e” in eBANGUI.  As we believe in the dynamics of inclusion, we also count these folks as eBangui:  (a) those by affiliation (spouses and other relatives), (b) those by their roots, and (c) those souls interested in our cause and therefore may be adopted as eBangui.

We have broadened the area of interest which we would like to promote and recognize by including “exceptional entrepreneurial achievement” in our crosshair.  In a pragmatic sense, we firmly believe that more and more entrepreneurial achievements will be needed to change the socio-economic face of Bangui.  We, therefore, dedicate ourselves to stimulating growth in this facet of our development as a municipality.  We will bring some more details of our role as we go along…

Suffice it to say that our high school students are our first line of potential entrepreneurs, innovators, and movers who, working by themselves, with their peers, or with members of the local and/or overseas community, will bring about a new entrepreneurial climate to effect the much sought for socio-economic well-being of our town.

At the moment, the entrepreneurial education will not come directly from their classroom.  Rather, we’ll try to show them how to extrapolate their classroom learning with what they can learn outside and from the Internet–complemented with some large doses of common sense and some insight into recognizing and reducing risks–to eke out some measure of success.  Seriously, this is not within the realm of the impossible, considering we have a long list of high school students–a number of them dropouts–who became successful in business or in their personal endeavors.  The operative words:  persistence and innovation.

But first, let’s get together.  The Internet provides a can-do venue where we can meet.  Let’s connect and unite!  Together we’re going to do something…..  To the United Banguenians of California and similar organizations around the world, we await you.  We believe Jose Rizal’s “Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa paroroonan” still appeals to you…

RA9258 defines Guidance and Counseling as “a profession that involves the use of an integrated approach to the development of a well-functioning individual primarily by helping him/her to utilize his/her potentials to the fullest and plan his/her future in accordance with his/her abilities, interests and needs.” In other words, the law wants to ensure that every student receives an objective review of academic progress and counseling related to educational options.

[The results of the first Board Exam given on August 2008, and released on September 1, 2008, list 84 successful examinees. This is a miniscule number considering the number of schools who urgently need them to provide professional guidance and counseling to their burgeoning student populations. They will augment those who qualify to be “grandfathered” into the list of licensed guidance and counseling professionals.]

Citing secondary school students’ developmental needs, the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) says:

“High school is the final transition into adulthood and the world of work as students begin separating from parents and exploring and defining their independence. Students are deciding who they are, what they do well, and what they will do when they graduate. During these adolescent years, students are evaluating their strengths, skills and abilities. The biggest influence is their peer group. They are searching for a place to belong and rely on peer acceptance and feedback. They face increased pressures regarding risk behaviors involving sex, alcohol and drugs while exploring the boundaries of more acceptable behavior and mature, meaningful relationships. They need guidance in making concrete and compounded decisions. They must deal with academic pressures as they face high-stakes testing, the challenges of college admissions, the scholarship… application process and entrance into a competitive job market.”

In a 2002 survey in the United States, of the four program goals of guidance counseling, helping students with their academic achievement in high school was the most emphasized (48%), fewer schools reported that the most emphasized goal of their guidance programs was helping students plan and prepare for postsecondary schooling (26%).  Fewer still reported their most important goal was helping students with personal growth and development (17%).  Only 8% reported that the most emphasized goal of their guidance programs was helping students plan and prepare for their work roles after high school

Although we thought that helping students plan and prepare for postsecondary schooling would be the most important goal of guidance counseling, it does make sense that helping students with their academic achievement in high school trumps the rest.  After all, quite a large percentage of high school graduates don’t even have the wherewithal to go to college and so it’s vitally important that they make the best out of their secondary education.

The Academic Decathlon written questions shall be from the following knowledge areas:

1. Philippine History/Geography (10 points)
2. World History/Geography (10 points)
3. Fitness/Nutrition/Physical & Sex Education (10 points)
4. Human Relations (10 points)
5. Reading Skills/Comprehension (10 points)
6. Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, General Science, Physical Science) (10 points)
7. Algebra (10 points)
8. Geometry/Trigonometry (10 points)
9. Business/Consumer Math (10 points)
10. General (Economics, English, Psychology) (10 points)

English Essay: This portion of the Scholarship Examination shall only be considered as a tie breaker in the event there is a tie in the highest total score from the Academic Decathlon between any two of the three Academic Teams from the Banban High, Poblacion High and Lanao High. The essay shall be evaluated and graded by the Foundation Scholarship Examination Coordinator according to organization, use of logic, grammar, and general collective creativity and imagination of the members of each Academic Team to bring life to the given topic. Each Academic Team from each campus may collaborate in writing the essay. The decision of the Foundation’s Scholarship Examination Coordinator shall be final.

The Valedictorian[s] and Salutatorian[s], acting as an Academic Team from each high school campus, may collaborate with and help each other while taking the written Scholarship Examination to enhance the Team’s overall score. Each Academic Team will be appropriately sequestered or seated at a distance from the other teams to avoid any Team overhearing the other Teams.

The Valeditorian(s) and Salutatorian(s) from the winning Academic Team shall share the Monetary Award equally.

In addition to the Monetary Awards, the winning Academic Team of Valedictorian(s) and Salutatorian(s) shall be presented the Valedictorian Medal and Salutatorian Medal (as seen here on the sidebar), respectively. Each will also be presented the Academic Excellence medal.

We firmly believe these are good reasons to get high in Bangui… Don’t you think the high school campus with the winning Academic Team would like to exercise their bragging rights by hoisting the prestigious ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE CHAMPION banner with “Sponsored by the FELIX SORIANO SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS” emblazoned in it (of course the banner will be provided proudly by the Foundation)–at least for the next school year?

Following is an article on the Rigor/Relevance Framework from leadered.com/rigor.htm. The ideal educational program or curriculum should be anchored on the precepts within this framework. To the “learn to earn” students and those who place a premium on academic excellence, the journey from Quadrant A  to Quadrant D ultimately should be made a personal program to follow.  Those students who make it their business to be aware of the framework principles and are able to complement their curriculum from external sources such as the vast resources of the Internet, from their peers and elders, from street smarts, etc., should have a better chance at coping with life, or better yet, succeeding in their goals.

The Rigor/Relevance Framework is a tool to examine curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  As it is, students have practically no input in the decisions to implement the Rigor/Relevance Framework concepts. However, from the standpoint of the student, an understanding of the four quadrants of the Rigor/Relevance Framework is imperative:  it helps the student understand how far he or she is going to use the bits of knowledge and information acquired from the classroom (Quadrant A).  Some are good at “applying” (Quadrant B) what they learn in the classroom.  There are those who are good at “assimilating” (Quadrant C) in which they use their classroom learning to automatically and routinely analyze and solve problems and create solutions. The more creative ones are good at “adapting” (Quadrant D) by thinking in complex ways to apply their classroom learning in even unfamiliar situations, further developing their skills and knowledge.

To the students and teachers of the Bangui National High School, we invite you to hop along because we hope you get high in Bangui.

Rigor/Relevance Framework

The Rigor/Relevance Framework is a tool developed by staff of the International Center for Leadership in Education to examine curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  The Rigor/Relevance Framework is based on two dimensions of higher standards and student achievement.

First, there is the Knowledge Taxonomy, a continuum based on the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, which describes the increasingly complex ways in which we think.  The low end involves acquiring knowledge and being able to recall or locate that knowledge.  The high end labels the more complex ways in which individuals use knowledge, such as taking several pieces of knowledge and combining them in both logical and creative ways.

The second continuum, known as the Application Model, is one of action.  Its five levels describe putting knowledge to use.  While the low end is knowledge acquired for its own sake, the high end signifies use of that knowledge to solve complex real-world problems and to create unique projects, designs, and other works for use in real-world situations.

The Rigor/Relevance Framework has four quadrants.  Each is labeled with a term that characterizes the learning or student performance at that level.

The Rigor/Relevance Framework is easy to understand.  With its simple, straightforward structure, it can serve as a bridge between school and the community.  It offers a common language with which to express the notion of a more rigorous and relevant curriculum.

The Rigor/Relevance Framework is versatile; it can be used in the development of instruction and assessment.  Likewise, teachers can use it to measure their progress in adding rigor and relevance to instruction and to select appropriate instructional strategies to meet learner needs and high achievement goals.

When the idea to establish a pair of annual scholarship awards for Boy was broached up to Jane, she wrote:  “I think this is such a wonderful idea!  I’m sure my husband will love it.  I am all for it and would be more than glad to assist in the next steps…”

That positive response from Jane Rioga-Soriano was such a high to me because she is, for all practical purposes, the woman behind the FELIX SORIANO SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS.

Chosen by Boy Soriano to be his partner in life, Jane believes in the importance of education and scholarship.  As specifics for the Scholarship Awards have actually not been developed yet, she even suggested a collaborative site on the Internet to flesh out the details, hence, this blog.

“I’m looking forward to talking about this at the 40-day anniversary. Till then, let me know your thoughts and what I can do to help in any way I can,” Jane wrote.  Coming from The Prime Mover, that was an order to action. I immediately got her on the phone to discuss some initial issues. I’m happy to report that Jane means business:  it’s a go!

I then emailed her that I was hoping she would make herself available to go and personally present the award to the recipient at his/her high school’s graduation ceremonies some time in March 2009. “I’m all for appearing in person to present the award to the worthy recipient in March,” she wrote back. “It’s important to me that the recipient know the meaning of the Scholarship Awards…”

Houston:  we have ignition!

– Joe Padre

Apart from being a memorial to Boy, this blog aims to provide a forum where we could discuss academic issues and even growing-up concerns.  Relevant pictures are okay.

Things like proper study habits/techniques for the high school student, test-taking strategies, some frank and basic sexual education issues, self-help stuff, CliffNotes-like stuff, sample questions as appear on the SAT, guidance/career counseling issues, even stuff on how to control acne(!), and such other matters affecting high school students should be par for the course.

Guest blogs pertinent to promoting academic excellence in general are welcome.

If there was a young role model I would have wanted to emulate when I was growing up, that would be Boy, my cousin, my neighbor, my friend, my partner in crime. Born 4 months apart—I’m older—we entered grade school at the same time. Yet, he exhibited skills far superior than mine. He was a bright kid in school, but mind you, he had other exceptional skills that both he and I took advantage of.

For instance, he was excellent at sonay or turumpo competitions, otherwise known as “kinnelkelan”, wherein each player took turns trying to split another player’s turumpo by unleashing his turumpo via a string wound tightly about the toy to cause the top to spin. A turumpo, by the way, is your basic top which is carved out of wood. Way back then, we fashioned it with a steel or nail stem sharpened so it could do maximum damage on another’s turumpo. In Boy’s case, when he attacked someone’s turumpo with his, it was with the fury and precision of a laser guided missile.

In the game of tatsing (or “touching”?), the object was for each player to fling his own coin to dislodge the coins contributed in equal amounts by each player as the pot and placed inside an approximately one-foot square drawn on the ground. Each player took his own turn trying to move the coins out of the square. Whatever coin a player dislodged out of the square was won by that player. Boy was very skillful in the game of tatsing and as far as I was concerned, it was as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west that he would clean out the competition. We depended on his winnings for our lunch money and I don’t recall ever not having lunch whenever Boy decided to earn our lunch money through tatsing. We used ten centavos to buy 2 monays, a type of sweet roll, and 20 centavos to buy 2 bottles of TruOrange soda for lunch so we didn’t have to walk home.

In those days, we didn’t have tricycles and neither did we have a road navigable by jeepneys from Banban to Baranobon. We walked barefoot over rice paddies. If the ricefields were swollen from a heavy rain, you could imagine the degree of difficulty walking atop those rice paddies increase somewhat exponentially. However, life was so simple then. When Boy had won enough money for our lunch, we normally hung around Manang Caring’s place which was only a few hundred feet from school. After drinking our TruOrange, I could remember how we said “Ahhhhh…” simultaneously and as long as our young lungs would allow; we thoroughly enjoyed burping as loud as possible from the carbonated soda drink.

Boy and I attended grade school in the early 1950s, but even that early, Boy was already a consummate practitioner of the art of networking long before the word “networking” became a fashionable corporate buzzword. Although he didn’t have an actual physical database (I don’t know if IBM even had one for personal use then), he had in his head the rudimentary incarnations of MySpace, FaceBook, Friendster, YouTube and all those yummy digital social networking tools we now seem unable to do without. What made networking extremely useful to Boy was that he understood perfectly well the importance of massaging the network periodically to maintain some level of loyalty. The sum total of all the people present here, even in death, is living proof of Boy’s exceptional networking skills.

Another special quality which Boy possessed even at a young age was his ability to come up with very mature observations or expressions. Occasionally, he would surprise us with a real zinger. It was in the afternoon when we in third grade were just dismissed for the day. Boy waited for me because, like brothers, we used to go home together. We were about to meet Ms. Balbina Marcelo, the third grade teacher, in the hallway up front when she bent down to pick up a pencil which she accidentally dropped. Whereupon Boy whispered to me: “Nakitam tay let-ang ti barucongna?” At that very moment I said goodbye to the age of innocence, thanks to you, Boy. To those who are even vaguely familiar with Miss Marcelo, Boy’s mature observation spoke volumes about her generous endowments.

Ah, those games of discovery and escapades when we were young. I remember way back when we were still in grade school how Boy enjoyed the team game of patalunton. Patalunton was basically a game of tag on three levels. One moonlit night, Boy and Manang Mely and I and three other boys in our neighborhood were playing patalunton. We played late into the night, past bedtime already because Boy kept insisting we played another set, and another set, and another set. Then out of the bansag came Nana Ayyang’s voice, screaming for Manang Mely to come home that very moment else she was going to hang her blossoming daughter with a carabao rope. From the tone of her voice, I knew Nana Ayyang meant business so I ran home as fast as my legs could carry me because I just got scared with the visual of Manang Mely hanging on a rope, perhaps upside down.

I realize now how strong Nana Ayyang’s unconditional love for Boy was. Because Boy could do anything that he wanted and it was perfectly alright to his doting mother. There was always Manang Mely to blame if something went wrong. In hindsight, I now understand Nana Ayyang’s trying to maintain a short leash on Manang Mely at the time because some of the boys we played patalunton with were way past their puberty. In addition, one could easily make a case for the older boys’ unnecessary roughness when they tagged Manang Mely at patalunton.

There was one quality that Boy had that made me jealous. Without doing anything perceptibly special or exerting any observable effort, Boy was very popular with the opposite sex. They had a crush on him. They loved him. It was not his fault. He had a magnetic personality. Of course, it helped that he was good-looking and a very smooth operator. So he got to choose the best and the most beautiful—and was I green with envy. From Lanao to Nagbalagan to the poblacion to Manayon to Banban and on to Dadaor, Boy got what Wall Street or the Chicago global commodity futures exchange call “the market cornered”. So those of us who were his contemporaries were forced to look outside of Bangui.

In spite of his successes with the opposite sex, Boy was actually a keeper and when he made a commitment, you never questioned his loyalty and fidelity. Thank you, Jane, for conquering my cousin’s love and devotion.

So, it came as a surprise when I heard some of us claim that Boy was a shy kind of guy. I didn’t know how it happened that Boy was so grossly mislabeled as shy. I would like to vehemently protest the accusation that he was shy and hereby declare his innocence of these inappropriate charges. Because the evidence to the contrary is incontrovertibly strong. It’s an open and shut case that Boy was absolutely not a shy dude but a cool, aggressive, smooth operator. With my apologies to Jane, how else do you explain Boy’s successful rate of negotiating to navigate quite a few “let-ang ti barucong” of the opposite sex? If he was shy, ah, let lightning strike my shadow…

See, I can testify to any of my fellow males that, during our youthful time back in the early 1950s when arranged marriages were still a fixture in our culture, negotiating any kind of male-female relationship was not for the faint of heart. Even if I bathe myself in a tub of male pheromones, the opposite sex would still get more favorably attracted by Boy. He didn’t have to do anything special—Boy just made it look easy and casual. Boy was just enjoying his feast while the rest of us were suffering our famine.

I didn’t want to leave you hanging on what I said about Boy and I being “partners in crime.” You see, in grade school, we had these annual provincial meets wherein a few athletes from each school were chosen to represent the school to compete in Laoag, much like the NCAA March Madness. However, while so many would-be corporate sponsors such as Nike, Coca-Cola, MacDonald’s and so forth are tripping over each other to pay big bucks to sponsor this sporting event with their television commercials, there’s absolutely no such thing for our provincial athletic meets held in Laoag. In fact, our teachers had to beg for volunteer contributions such as cash, rice and vegetables and other produce from us, students, to feed our athletes.

Problem was on one such provincial athletic meet, Boy and I forgot to tell our parents about the volunteer contributions. On the deadline for contributions, Boy and I realized we didn’t have anything to contribute. Then it happened: on our way to school, Boy and I noticed a neighbor’s eggplant patch. We noticed the beautiful new crop of long purple fruits dangling from the eggplants. We looked south, east, north and west if there was anybody around, and seeing none, Boy and I decided unilaterally to exercise our somewhat spurious sharecropper’s rights. Each of us picked 5 eggplants for our contribution to the provincial athletic meet. Only to be rudely interrupted by Lacay Pedro Coloma, the owner of the eggplant patch who came barreling down out of nowhere shouting for us to stop picking his eggplants. He gave us a chase for a little while but our young legs were no match to the old guy’s as we disappeared into Banban.

Boy and I decided to lose the eggplants right away because they sure were prima facie evidence of our indiscretion—something we later renounced as if it was moral turpitude. So, Boy and I quickly made up our minds to drop by the house of Manang Caring—the first house we passed on the way to school—and offered her all of the eggplants. She was extremely grateful.  Boy and I appreciated it, too, that she was so tactful for not asking any questions. We didn’t mind.

That afternoon after school, Boy and I waited till dusk and took the long route to go home to Baranobon. It must have been more than 5 times the regular route over the rice paddies. We went all the way down to the Banban River Bridge, took a left turn by the river, followed the riverbed upstream in no hurry just to make sure it was dark when we got home hoping Lacay Pedro Coloma would be tucked up in bed then. If I remember it correctly, Nana Ayyang and my mother looked so proud when we told them we were late going home because we were asked by our teachers to stay late in school to help pack the rice and vegetables for the provincial athletic meet in Laoag. We were sure as hell that our parents were worried sick waiting for us; unfortunately, Nokia or Motorola or Samsung or iPhone or Blackberry didn’t even exist then.

The one huge benefit of being Boy’s friend is guaranteed protection from the bullies in the entire municipality of Bangui. The bullies and riff-raffs didn’t dare touch a friend or relative of Boy. I am not sure how this came about but I now suspect it had something to do with the fact that Boy was the younger brother of the well-known Soriano Twins, bless their souls. The twins must have done some brave and valiant deeds in the past that made them as feared and revered as Don Corleone’s army of enforcers.

As you can see, Boy and I had such a special relationship. He touched my life. Later, whenever we had a chance to get together, we enjoyed reminiscing all the things we did together. And it was on these occasions that he always surprised me with a new, delicious zinger. It was like a magic thread that bonded our lives together.

And so I grieve deep in my heart because you will be gone, Boy, though the many memories you and I shared will remain forever here in my heart. Yet, I celebrate, as well, because you are now liberated forever from the infirmities and imperfections in this life. I celebrate because you now embark on your next journey. With God’s blessings, I hope your journey from hereon will be a good one. In fact, if there’s something I should expect, your ingenuity and excellent networking skills bode well for an even more exciting journey.

Be well and godspeed, my dear brother and friend.

The FELIX SORIANO SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS (heretofore referred to as the “Awards”) is established to promote and reward academic excellence among students at the three campuses–Banban, Poblacion, and Lanao–of the Bangui National High School.  The annual awards which will be determined and presented to the best academic all-around students as determined by a written examination to be administered to the topnotch senior students (valedictorians) from the three campuses.  The Award shall be awarded to the lucky recipients at their school’s graduation ceremonies.

There is a set of officers, initially chaired by Jane R. Soriano, widow of the late Boy Soriano, and initially presided over by Roy S. Padre as the first President.  The funds for the Awards shall be deposited in an interest-earning account.  Contributions from all sources shall be duly accounted for and the records shall be published accordingly in this site.

The initial officers, who will not receive any monetary compensation, are:

Jane R. Soriano, CEO

Roy S. Padre, President

Nida Rioga & Pedro S. Alupay, Jr., Executive Vice-Presidents for Scholarship Fund Raising

Mila P. Valdez, Secretary-Treasurer

Mely S. Padua, Liaison Officer

Sadiri S. Padre, Legal Counsel

Joe S. Padre, Scholarship Exam Coordinator

The officers shall convene at least twice a year–in person or by digital means–to discuss and promulgate policy, determine the annual student awardees and arrange for the monetary award to be delivered to the topnotchers of the scholarship examination (taken by senior valedictorians and salutatorians from all BNHS campuses that academic year) at the recipient’s high school graduation ceremonies.

The first scholarship award is for the academic year 2008-2009.