My Experience At APEC

By Nathan Miguel W. Rada

My name is Nathan Miguel W. Rada, and I am a student at APEC Schools San Pablo. As I attend this school, I could say that my experience is very interesting. I have been encountering many things since I began attending school in July. Like all students, culture shock might be an immediate problem, but that, as I could say it was an understatement. The way APEC teaches its students is completely different from the usual and traditional way I am used to. APEC Schools allows us, students, to experience the lessons and learn it by ourselves with the guidance of Learning Facilitators. It is contrary to the educational system I am familiarized with wherein teachers would just tell us what to do and let us memorize it before answering a test on how much we had learned.

APEC’s environment seems friendly. Here in APEC San Pablo, this is the first time I actually feel comfortable with students of another section. I used to be an introvert, but now, I became a little more active, though not as active as the extroverts that I know. Learning Facilitators are often strict, but they know when to make us students feel very comfortable when learning something new. And this time, I actually enjoy learning a subject, the subject that I used to hate due to its difficulty when I was Grade 10 (*coughs -- Biology). As I have progressed through July to September, I learned a lot of things and even discovered some lessons that I encountered back then but never bothered to remember.

I was also elected as Vice President of the student council, and there's no big concern so far. Last Saturday, September 21, I voluntarily went with my other SC members to the leadership training provided by APEC. I got to be honest with you -- I was never a leader type, and most of the time in my old school, I was taken for granted and just seen as a member. That is why I only have a little idea of what to do as a leader. After a lengthy trip to Quiapo to NTC, we got to where the event was held, and we were taught about servant leadership. Thereafter, I got a small grasp on what I must do as a leader. I also met some other students from other APEC sites. Oh, I also forgot to mention that I slept late the day before our leadership training, so I was particularly impatient and easily frustrated that day. I was impatiently waiting for the training to end. Even so, I did enjoy the leadership training with my fellow SC members. I regret that I almost slept or watched my phone the whole trip, and I wasn’t able to appreciate the sights of the highways.

Of course, as we celebrated APEC’s Foundation day, I encountered one of my most hated things we do in school -- performing an act for talent expo. Don’t get me wrong; I love the concept of acting, but I thought I would need to memorize a five-page script with very incompetent members. However, I was proven wrong in APEC. All of us were very competent in doing our parts as I observed it. Our directress listened to everyone’s request of not having a long script to memorize, and we were only given a half-page script to memorize -- much to my relief. The choreography part was what I truly enjoyed. Despite my dislike of dance, I enjoyed dancing to the moves we were taught. Plus, I appreciated the role that was given to me as an antagonist although I only had one line which was to scream “DIE!” as I was to kill the main actor before being shot by other characters. In the end, we won the talent exposition, and I felt so proud because of it. I felt really comfortable with my classmates and schoolmates when doing these activities. We won like seven awards on the Foundation day. Of course, I want to congratulate everyone in APEC for doing their best that day.

I do wonder what more exciting experiences will I do this school year at APEC. #IamAPEC