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Sgt. Winston Fiore’s Smile Trek

I met an amazing U.S. Marine Corps sergeant, Sgt. Winston Fiore, a few weeks back and his story is amazing because he is on a 5,000-mile trek across Southeast Asia to raise awareness (and funds) for corrective facial surgery on children, young adults and even adults in the developing world.

Sgt. Fiore’s trek is taking him through countries such as Vietnam, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Thailand and Laos. He has never been to this part of the world. This trek was an idea born in 2007 in Senegal where he was stationed for 3 weeks. He got the idea of dedicating a year off from military service to see parts of the world he still hadn’t seen and do this on foot. And walk for a cause.

Back in New York, he began searching for a cause. His father sent him a newspaper clipping of Dr. Jeff Williams who had a comfortable lifestyle as a plastic surgeon but who would volunteer 1-2 weeks in a year with volunteer groups. Dr. Williams had grown disappointed with some of these volunteer groups so he decided to found International Children’s Surgical Foundation (ICSF)  in 2005. Sgt. Fiore took a closer look at ICSF and decided to work with Dr. Williams.

His cause became children with cleft palates.

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Take online free classes with Ivy League universities!

I never imagined it would come to this but it brings me such delight to find out that the university where I earned my MBA degree, University of Pennsylvania, is one of several leading Ivy League schools in the U.S. that signed up with Coursera, a new venture that offers online classes for free. Yes…FREE!

 

So far, here is the list of top universities signed up with Coursera. Imagine, you can take a course from, let’s say, Stanford University, then take another course with John Hopkins or University of Michigan.

And here are the general course topics. Under each of these general categories are specific classes you can choose to take.

In their About Us page, the Coursera team describes themselves this way:

We are a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. We envision a future where the top universities are educating not only thousands of students, but millions. Our technology enables the best professors to teach tens or hundreds of thousands of students.

Through this, we hope to give everyone access to the world-class education that has so far been available only to a select few. We want to empower people with education that will improve their lives, the lives of their families, and the communities they live in.

The methodology being employed by Coursera is adapted to today’s busy lifestyle. Unlike a classroom approach where you need to be physically away from your work and devote time to class work, the Coursera approach, which by the way, is developed and taught by world-class professors, allows you to learn at your own pace, taking into consideration that you can only study in bits of time. The lessons are designed in such a way that you can read and reread till you master the course material. Interactive exercises will test your knowledge as well as reinforce concepts. And, you can monitor your own progress so you know exactly when you are considered to have mastered the subject.

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Pinay & Proud celebrates the modern-day Filipina

Who or what is a modern-day Filipina?

I am a Filipina and yet it is so difficult to quite put into words what the Filipina of today really is because she is many things. We see her in our female overseas foreign workers in all corners of the world, working as nannies, teachers, scientists, physical therapists, factory workers and even executives. We see her as an advocate, an artist, a mother, a social worker. The Filipina is in her elements in the 21st century.

Human Nature, in an effort to showcase the different facets of today’s Filipina, came up with the Pinay & Proud campaign to give tribute to the uniqueness of the Filipina woman.

They identified 4 traits that embody the Filipina:

1. Nurturing – one who encourages others to reach the full potential of their God-given talents

2. Courageous – one whose inner strength goes beyond selflessness and enables her to make sacrifices for family and country

3. Inspiring – a role model

4. Beautiful – not just outside but inside as well and who shines her light on everything and everyone around her

The result of the Pinay & Proud campaign was a roster of 15 outstanding women who have shown these 4 traits. The 15 women chosen came from different backgrounds (and ages). They had different skills, causes and goals. But they were all proud to be a Filipina.

But beyond just showcasing these admirable women, I think the message that we should all be taking in here is this: Every Filipina has the capacity to be like them. EVERY FILIPINA. No matter what age we’re at, it’s never too late to give of ourselves for others. These women never went out seeking recognition or reward. They just went out and did it when they discovered the need. We, too, just need to become sensitive to our surroundings because where we’re needed may be just there. We just are not SEEING.

From June 26 to August 5, 2012, the portraits of these 15 Filipinas will be found in different mall exhibits throughout the Metro. Try to catch it when you go shopping. The mall exhibits are:

Powerplant, Rockwell (June 26-30)
Trinoma Mall (July 2-8)
Shangri-la Mall (July 9-15)
Greenbelt 5 Mall (July 16-22)
Eastwood Mall (july 23-29)
Alabang Town Center (July 30-Aug 5)

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Kidney stones now hitting more teens

We spent Christmas Day 2011 in the hospital with our youngest son. The ordeal started out with excruciating pain. When M pointed out where his pain was coming from, I had a bad feeling it would be kidney stones. I knew. Because years ago, I also had the same pain. In that same area. I felt so helpless seeing him writhing in pain in the emergency room, knowing exactly what kind of pain he was going through. I wouldn’t wish it on my enemy.

Hospital personnel who attended to my son often had the same reaction upon finding out he was just a teen. “Ang bata pa!” (“So young!”). And I would agree because during my time, only people past their prime and approaching senior years were diagnosed with kidney stones.

To make the long story short, M had a stent placed inside him for months. His physical activities in school were cut down to barest minimum. We had to finish his graduation and summer classes before going for a procedure called Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL) which used sound waves to blast the stones lodged in his ureter. A month later, he underwent another ESWL – this time to target the 2 stones in his kidney.

 

(photo courtesy of Kidney Stone 911)

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Earth Hour 2012

Since Manila joined Sydney and the rest of the world a few years back in turning lights off for an hour, my family has been doing the same at home.

In the last few years, the signs of climate change have become more obvious and scary. Severe flooding and landslides, more dangerous typhoons, weird weather patterns. So many lives have been lost unnecessarily and sadly. No one can turn a blind eye to the immediate need to do something in one’s own backyard. NOW. Earth Hour is one way of showing the world that an hour of darkness can save that much energy. So we’re trying to do our share…

Yes, the kids get fidgety about tuning out of the internet but after a few minutes around a dark living room with just candles giving out light, conversation starts up and before we know it, we have reclaimed our lives offline.

Today we will continue tradition but with a twist. I will join a free yoga class by Rianna Gatus as part of her birthday celebration. We will do 26 Surya Namaskars or Sun Salutations to celebrate her 26 years of life. Afterwards some lady bloggers and I are heading off to a restaurant nearby which is observing Earth Hour to celebrate another birthday – fellow yogini Ria.

I will post some photos later.

How about you? How are you observing Earth Hour?

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My First TEDx Experience at Xavier School

Let me just start out by saying that TED talks have really caught on with me. I enjoy watching talks on various topics, especially talks that have to do with life, technology and health. I even have the TED app on my iPad!

Recently, a blogger friend, Jay Jaboneta, was invited to speak at TEDxMontpellier on his Yellow Boat Project – providing yellow boats for children in villages isolated by bodies of water and where children had to SWIM just to get to school. It was quite an experience for me to listen via livestreaming to someone I actually knew who was in the company of other illustrious speakers as well.

A few days after TEDxMontpellier, I got wind of a TEDx talk even closer to my heart. Xavier School, my boys’ school, was going to host its own TEDx talk in just a few weeks. I quickly registered for the talk which happened last Feb. 18, 2012.

Six (6) speakers were lined up for TEDxXavierSchool (click on their names to view their TEDx talks posted on YouTube):

  • Raynard Raphael Lao — a Xavier High School student, who is also a champion public speaker at both local and regional competitions
  • Brian Maraña — International Programs Coordinator of Xavier School who has transformed the way students learn from the world
  • Tony Meloto — Founder of Gawad Kalinga, providing countless homes to the homeless and building them into communities, and speaker at the World Economic Forum
  • Dodie Ng — Games and apps creator who also founded a robotics organization and team for the youth while also being a Xavier High School student
  • Mark Ruiz — Co-Founder of Hapinoy and Founder of Rags2Riches, providing social business enterprise and microenterprise development as a living means to some of the poorest people
  • Brian Tenorio — Internationally-acclaimed, New York-based designer who has altered the way development is done through Design
With Tony Meloto of Gawad Kalinga and Mark Ruiz of Hapinoy

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