A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an old Colbert episode where he was interviewing Amy Schumer (my two favorites, by the way), and they talked about their rebellious (almost deplorable) antics as young hormonal pre-fame students. At the end, they apologized and acknowledged the profound effect these professors had on them, which I think was actually really sweet and classy. It made me wonder which among my many teachers through the years actually had a "good" lasting effect on me. Not that I'm such a successful person today, but I'd like to see that I have been poised by many incredible educators to have a future they'd be proud of being part of. As appreciation to these mostly unsung heroes, I have decided to list down the teachers who had held a special place in my heart especially after graduation.
There are a lot of these professors, there is no doubt. The average college graduate in the Philippines goes through at least 20 professors in his academic lifetime, so I'm just going to run down the top 5 that I can still remember to this day.
5. Sir Aldrich Co, CS professor, UPM
This is actually an unlikely entry. He was a part-time teacher, he wasn't particularly emphatic with his teaching, and we didn't have much interactions during the four years I was in college. But it was his character that captivated me. He was a young, clean-cut, cool and attractive IT professional, and that was honestly the look I was aiming for back in those days. He was well-spoken, and his presentations computer security, object-oriented programming and XSLT are so ground-breaking (for me) that they still haunt me to this day. All the other professors taught us how to become computer scientists, but Sir Aldrich inspired me to be a programmer. Shortly after I graduated, I heard that he stopped teaching at the university and has been active with his full-time career in the field.
4. Ms. Joy Ramirez,
3. Ms. Menalyn Bantug, High School Science Teacher, SdSJ
2.
1. Sir Roland Florendo "Mong" Llarenas, Math Professor, UPM
Sir Mong could not be further from the Robin Williams character in Dead Poets Society, but he had the same effect on me.
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