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Picnic 2007
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It was definitely not one of those usual days: Jonathan Palero Unveils his Project at the UU.
By Basco Fernandez
It is one of those very rare occasions to see Filipinos entering that august and imposing building in Utrecht. The Academiegebouw at the Domplein is meant to project just that impression. It is a building meant for the handful of doctoral (PhD) students who successfully finish 4 to 5 years of research work, and who must now defend their dissertation in front of a full panel of professors from the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht and from other prestigious research institutions in the Netherlands.
Wednesday, 11 July 2007. I saw Marlene,
who works at the Utrecht University entering with Lulu Altamirano and Charito
Ramirez who were there to represent the UPAA. Yes, I expected them there – after
all Jonathan is a true-blooded iskolar ng bayan, an individual
that will surely bestow honor to our premier state university
wherever he goes. Jonathan finished his BS and MS in
Physics at the University of the Philippines, garnering the
2002 Gawad Chanselor "for his work on the Development of a Raman
Light Source" For those who want to know more about the achievements
of this young man, take a look into Cynthia de Castro's article
at http://www.asianjournal.com/?c
It must be one of those unsual days to see the Senaatzaal filling up with people from all walks of life, with Filipinos literally coming from different corners of the Netherlands entering those huge wooden doors and joining us at our front row location. There were a mixed group of young professional accountants who took the day off just to be here for the occasion -- Lea Velasco & Grace Mingoa from Ernst & Young-Rotterdam, Roy Santillan & Joy Simbe from Ernst & Young- Eindhoven, Marc Daracan from PWC – Amsterdam, and Aileen San Jose & Leslie Endrinal from NXP-Philips, Nijmegen
Damayan regulars also came en force with Tess Selibio, Alice Devera, Doris Alfafara, Thibaut & Bing-Bing Panizal, and Ederlyn Gallo (Rodelyn's younger sister taking ICT at the UU) . They were there, they told me jokingly, "to back up Onats" (as he is fondly called). Jonathan certainly deserves such die-hard support, having served Damayan as officer in 2005, as president in 2006, and as secretary in 2007. He has brought in a younger look and verve since joining the Midden-Holland-based organization in 2004. Tess Selibio, current Damayan president tells us: "We are just all proud to have such a socially minded person achieve so much so early in life. We feel proud to be his family here in the Netherlands, and feel privileged that he has given time for our endeavours."
Then, materializing from the back door, the mighty Philippine brain-gain delegation came to complete our lively Filipino crowd -- bringing with them a classical guitar as their collective gift to Jonathan, and their latest glitzy SLR cameras to document the occasion. Since 2004, these creme dela creme of our schools have been recruited by the Dutch academic system (with the waning interest in natural sciences in Holland ) as a way of developing while tapping into the potentials of our highly skilled intellectuals. The Filipino scientific community in polderland were represented by Marites Labora Violanda, a PhD student from UU; Renante Violanda, a PhD student at Groningen University, Marian and Edcel Salumbides, PhD students at the VU in Amsterdam. Dr. Arni Sicam who recently obtained his PhD in physics at the VU was there with his whole family.
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It was definitely not one
of those ordinary days as the bedel shocked us with
the tapping of the staff signaling the start of the
dissertation defense. The PhD committee composed of
Prof.
Dr. Ton van Leeuwen, Prof. Dr. John Kelly, Prof. Dr. Alfons van Blaaderen,
Prof. Dr. J. Wolter Oosterhuis and Prof. Dr. Casper J. Erkelens ( the
chairperson) marched into the silent hall resplendent in
their toga's. Jonathan takes his place near a lectern facing the
committee, behind him were the two paranimf's Henriette S. de Bruijn and
Yolanda Y. Villanueva.