 |
| Paul Marion J. Demapelis, a Thomasian - numero uno! University of Santo Tomas - numero dos! |
Amid all the gloom that typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) brought comes a ray of hope for rebuilding: the Filipinos' resilience because of strong faith in God... coupled with the commitment and idealism of budding engineers in the country.
Aside from those disturbed sleeps we've had because of typhoon Yolanda, we have had a few more sleepless November nights, just waiting, waiting... waiting for the results of the November 2013 Civil Engineers Licensure Examination given by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) Board of Civil Engineering. Nope, we weren't doubting our graduates' capabilities, and their commitment to pass the daunting Examination - aw, man, not at all! We were simply excited to see how our graduates would fare compared with their peers from 227 Engineering Schools in the country.
And here's how they did: out of 3,168 passers from 6,584 Exam takers, one of our graduates took the #1 spot (Paul Marion J. Demapelis), and two others shared the #3 (Kristoffer Dave A. Tabong) and the #9 (Randolph C. Camaclang) spots with other passers from other Universities in the Top 10 passers who obtained the highest scores. More importantly, they distinguished our University in that pool of 227 Universities in the country that were represented in the previous Examination. They captured the #2 spot for us in the Top Performing Schools (schools with more than 50 exam takers and 80% or better passing rate) in the country by posting a passing rate of 91.79% (that's an incredible 179 passers out of 195 exam takers) against a national passing of 48.12%. Of course, we are VERY PROUD of them, and VERY PROUD of their mentors in the Civil Engineering Department! :)
And, today, I am proud to see them taking their Solemn Oath as professional Civil Engineers, wearing their Dominican Crosses around their necks... and that renders the oath to be a true vow to practice their profession with honor and integrity, and with firm commitment to excellence - all in the service of those who need their help, and for God's greater glory. May God bless them always!
***
