Seven years at BSU

Today marks my 7th year at BSU, my home, my alma mater, now my workplace. BSU was where I graduated elementary, high school, and college. I was a loyalty awardee.

My last seven years at BSU were jampacked with experiences that can't be had even in my 21 years at my old institution. I entered BSU in 2014, was assigned to the Office of the President and designated Assistant IRO Director in 2015, worked at ORS in 2017, designated director of the Institute of Social Research and Development (ISRD) from 2018-2019, resigned after two years, and designated as R&E Publications Office (REPO) Director from 2020 up to the present--14 IPCRs in all. 

As IRO Assistant Director, I managed to put BSU in the Erasmus Participant Portal and inked MOUs with at least three universities in Spain. Today, some fruits of those experiments are mobility programs with the University of Huelva and the University of Oviedo. A spillover benefit of being visible in the Erasmus participant portal is that currently, there are 4 Erasmus ongoing projects at BSU. I also remember being tasked by then VPRE Luciana Villanueva to fill in the application for the Lithuania University and today, BSU also has a mobility program with that university. My major International Relations101 learnings: 1) there is value to networking events; 2) don't discount small unknown universities, they just might be the ones who will consider you for collaboration, and that is okay; 3) you cannot box processes in the internationalization of higher education.

At the Office of the Research Services, I drafted a registration form and pushed for the system of registration of researches when they were revising the REMO. We also managed to produce a small compendium (small coffee table book) of technologies developed at BSU as part of the Centennial Celebration in 2016. As part of the monitoring and evaluation, I was actually also pushing for the proper coding of programs/centers and projects, including external projects, so that monitoring and evaluation would be easier, including project-based budget allocation... but maybe it was still not time because budgets per project and studies are so small and there are so many R&D centers and directorates.

At the Institute of Social Research and Development (ISRD), where I am really supposed to have done more, I only managed to start a policy brief series called "Informing Policy and Practice (IPP)" which I hope will be sustained. Maybe I was inspired by the late Dr. Abastilla (my first employer), who was always telling me before that so much information from research are not being disseminated. Since for social research, there are no technologies, but only information and policy recommendations, the IPP hopefully will help pitch these recommendations to concerned stakeholders. I think I also managed to put across the importance of impact evaluation of programs, projects or interventions. I should mention that part of my major learning while at ISRD is an increased appreciation of qualitative research, which I didn't quite appreciate early on in my researcher life. 

Now at the R&E Publication Office, I have not actually given justice to my role as information officer "kuno", partly because I am a researcher by heart, and I need to complete some researches which I have started at ISRD. I hope we can manage to produce on-time the online version of volumes and issues, and have it indexed with DOAJ this year. We are also working on increasing the number of external author submissions so that hopefully we can have the journal indexed even just with ASEAN Citation Index for a start. We also hope to be able to start another journal on humanities and languages, since 1) articles on these fields are quite far off to include in MJSIR, and 2) they have high enrolment in their graduate programs, and there is an impending guideline for graduate students to publish research articles.

One interesting thing in my last seven years is it was a period where I probably wrote the most application letters --two for my application as faculty, one for Supervising Science Research Specialist which I managed to get, confirmed by the BOR and took oath for, only for the HR to say that it is CTI position, and one as Information Officer IV, a position I really do not like but will allow me to gain the SG level I left at PhilRice. 

So I guess that completes the account of my 7 years at BSU. Seven is often said to be the number of completeness. While I am not particular about that, it just feels good that I have completed seven years at BSU, and I thank God that He has allowed me to accomplish things for His glory. More importantly, these last seven years reinforced and strengthened my belief in God's sovereignty and grace, which allowed me to walk triumphantly and accept and cope with my share of life's trials and frustrations while at BSU. Finally, that I am able to serve my dear family, and get to see my mother almost every day, except when I am on travel are blessings enough which I didn't enjoy much while at my previous workplace. Every now and then, I still miss PhilRice, its people and culture, my home of 21 years. God willing, if I can still serve another 14 years at BSU, then that should total 21 years as well and even it out and that should be enough government service for my lifetime. (And the millennials would say char!)

"Skyflakes" (Dearest Kharece3)

Dearest Kharece:

I should have written you many months ago during your birthday, but I failed this year. But now that we are here at the hospital and you have once again shown that resolve for life, I should make time to write this long-delayed letter and accounts of God's goodness to you and to us in your third year.

Kharece, your third year was Covid year, and you and your kuyas had to stay home most of the time as you are not allowed to go out. And it was good for you because you did not get sick the whole time except for some occasional coughs which Ptr. Soh expertly treated, thank God.

Then came this dengue fever which hit you at a time when it is difficult to be hospitalized. You did not like to drink or eat and we had to struggle with you and force you even just to sip a little. So we had no choice but to have you admitted to the hospital, which meant a swab test for us both, and a few days in the isolation room. We first brought you to the Acop Infirmary so that you can just have your "dextrose" dose and not need to be exposed to Covid 19 which is a risk in the bigger hospitals. But God willed for you to be admitted at BGH, your first time in that hospital. It was not bad, yet the pain and sufferings you underwent, particularly the many blood extractions and the two times you needed to have inserts were terribly traumatic and painful to you. You have reached a point when every time the door opens and a nurse comes in, you cry and almost beg with your eyes for me not to allow them to touch you. We so missed the Ms. Congeniality that you are and the lovely smile and hugs and naughty stares and one-word talk you always give us daily.  

But by God's grace, you survived. The first food you ate just before we were discharged is "sky flakes". It was not good food for you (according to Ptr. Soh's constitution body type) but you can't imagine my relief seeing you eat sky flakes as it gave me hope that you will soon be alright. It was the only solid food I offered which you finally agreed to take. 

Thank you Kharece for those eight days of helping us be grounded back in grace and faith. God accomplishes His purposes always, always. He is great and good.