Tuesday, January 23, 2007 | MANILA, PHILIPPINES
News
Koronadal City — Ma. Concepcion Ureta is giving the Internet a "human face." Hundreds of poor students in a university run by the Marist Brothers are benefitting from her project, which allows working students to connect with Filipinos who are working in different parts of the world.
Called "Big Brother, Big Sister," the project allows student-beneficiaries of the Notre Dame of Marbel University to be mentored by willing benefactors through the Internet.
Now on its fifth year, the project has caught the interest of many Filipinos in the United States.
It is a pioneer in the local academic scene because students can be part of the project for free.
Ms. Ureta, who works as director of the university’s Student Assistance Program, has been taking charge of the school’s working students in the last several years.
These students clean comfort rooms, classrooms and teachers’ lounges, dust or arrange books in the library, or serve as assistants to the school’s various departments — they juggle work and study during the semester.
Ms. Ureta said she started the program after a street child killed himself. "He was probably bored with life or even got tired of it. I realized that like him there are more students under my supervision who simply want a friend, a big brother/big sister to listen, care and nurture them," she said.
She also said the mentoring program "goes beyond academic discussions."
"It tries to hone the values of the students to become disciplined and responsible individuals. To guide and motivate them [students] to become the best that they can be," she told BusinessWorld.
"Life experiences of the mentors are good enough subjects to teach the youth. It’s actually a give-and-take process, where mentors also learn from their mentees’ life experiences," added Ms. Ureta, who is also the university’s head of personnel.
Under the project, students are not allowed to ask for money. Ms. Ureta believes financial support "is not anymore the responsibility of the mentors but of the students’ parents." But some mentors still send some financial help to the students even without being asked.
Ms. Ureta also said she has "no problems" if mentors send the students books, but added that beneficiaries are discouraged from asking.
Stressing the impact of the project, Ms. Ureta recalled one particular mentor abroad who wanted to send his mentee some educational compact disks, only to be turned down by the student, whose home did not have electricity.
Ms. Ureta said the mentor instead sent some books to help the student.
Through the online mentoring project, Ms. Ureta admitted she gets to know the students better, courtesy of the mentors who tell her about their exchanges.
She described her pet project as a total departure from traditional mentoring since it does not follow a standard format. "It is easier than a face-to-face meeting since there is no schedule to follow, no tense moments when one has to face a teacher or a mentor. A mentor’s experience is usually more than enough to set the pace. Everything else will flow," she said.
Ms. Ureta also said that because the project makes use of the Internet, mentoring could be done anytime, in any place, through e-mail exchanges or chat sessions.
Working students who could not afford the rates of Internet cafes can utilize the surfing time that the school allots for each student.
No tuition is needed for students to avail of the one-on-one mentoring program, but Internet literacy and the ability to communicate in writing are a must.
Ms. Ureta said she screens mentors, giving preference to older persons who are either retired or have less daunting tasks.
"Giving of time is very important to sustain the momentum between mentor and mentee... that’s why old persons are preferred [as mentors]," she said.
She said there were always people who would help in the project.
"Surprisingly, I never ran out of people who just wanted to do something good for other people. People from here and abroad answered my call for the project," she said.
She also said that some mentors even came to this city despite its image as a hostile area.
One of them, Dr. Greg Bowden, a principal of the Running Springs Elementary School in upscale Anaheim Hill in California, came over last year to witness the graduation of his mentee.
"I was proud to see [my men-tee] walk across the stage to get her diploma, as I felt I truly knew the obstacles she had overcome to reach this goal," Mr. Bowden said.
For Ms. Ureta, this was a touching and rewarding moment.
"The Internet is a powerful tool to reach out to others. It breaks barriers, changes lives," she said.
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