Commencement speaker shares own CMULHS journey with SHS graduates, JHS completers

Dr. Cherry Mae R. Balingit, the current Director of the University’s Office of Instruction and an alumna of CMU Laboratory High School (CMULHS), delivered an insightful commencement address as a guest speaker to the senior high school graduates and junior high school completers during the CMULHS 70^th Commencement Exercises, 9^th Moving Up, and 7^th Senior High School Graduation Ceremony.

Dr. Balingit shared how she came up with her message for the graduates and completers.  She scoured the internet for TED Talks and commencement addresses and even prompted CHATGPT to make an interesting message, but nothing seemed to resonate.

Hence, Dr. Balingit decided to use the acronym AMBOT after consulting her nephew, one of the graduates, on what message their batch wanted to hear to which he replied, “AMBOT,” (I don’t know). Dr. Balingit thought, “Well, that’s a great idea! He’s right. AMBOT.”

Reflecting on her high school journey at CMULHS, Dr. Balingit shared her associated meaning of the five letters of the word “AMBOT” with the class of 2024. According to her, this word somehow describes high school life.

A – Adventure

According to Dr. Balingit, high school life is an adventure. “When we, our parents, decided to take the ULHSAT and study at CMULHS, we did not know what lessons we would learn or what experiences we would have,” Dr. Balingit said. She also pointed out that the pandemic may be the biggest adventure for this batch.

 M – Making Mistakes

Dr. Balingit described CMULHS life as also about making mistakes and learning from them. “Because high school life is an adventure and we often don’t know what to expect, we will inevitably make mistakes,” she added.

B – Blue Book

“Because we make mistakes, we have our prefect of discipline to reinforce the rules and guidelines of the school,” Dr. Balingit asserted.

CMULHS keeps a blue book containing the record of the students’ violations of the school’s guidelines. As a result, “Aron (the nephew) gets a haircut regularly, comes to school on time, and participates in Bayanihan actively,” she remarked.

O – Overwhelming

High school life, according to Dr. Balingit, is also overwhelming. “We were overwhelmed with class work, with school activities, with wanting to fit in, with the choices of food in the school canteen,” says Dr. Balingit.

T- Trusting the Process

Dr. Balingit emphasized patience as an important character throughout her high school journey. “Especially when we are impatient with others, or with our seemingly slow and little progress, we remind ourselves to wait. Trust the process,” she affirmed.

Furthermore, Dr. Balingit highlighted that learning always starts from humility in saying “I don’t know” and recognizing that there are far many things that are yet to be discovered.

Dr. Balingit ended her talk with another encouraging acronym, SURE. “In a world full of AMBOT lang, it is worthy to be SURE,” she uttered.

S- Solve

Service is about solving, according to Dr. Balingit. “We serve our community by looking for solutions to its problems. Solutions most of the time require analytic and rational minds,” she stressed.

U- Unlearn

She motivated the graduates and completers to be open to unlearning. “Be curious about others’ ideas. Also, learn to say, I was wrong,” she said.

R- Resilience

She further encouraged the graduates and completers to learn to be resilient. “While academic excellence prepares us for the unknown future, we are more resilient when we are rooted to the right attitude and values,” she added.

She reminded the graduates and completers to embody the core values of the university: Commitment to Excellence and Service, Moral Integrity, and Unity in Diversity.

E- Empathy

Dr. Balingit also urged the graduates and completers to seek to understand other people. “It is easy to be knowledgeable these days, but what sets the best people apart is their ability to empathize and empower others through kindness and encouragement,” Dr. Balingit emphasized.

The CMULHS 70^th Commencement Exercises, with the theme “Global Citizenship through Lifelong Learning and Innovation,” confirmed 103 senior high school graduates from the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) track and 201 junior high school completers on June 14, 2024. ^{[Mary Jane D. Bravo]}