LYN AND TONY'S PRIDE: MIKAELA IRENE FUDOLIG

College life begins @ 11
A girl who never finished high school, but is almost through with college.

ALL SMILES. UPD's youngest fourth year standing BS
Physics student has reason to be happy: she has
maintained her University Scholar status for the past
four semesters.
MIKAELA IRENE FUDOLIG IS A LITTLE TIRED OF EXPLAINING HERSELF TO THE CURIOUS. "'ILANG TAON KA NA?' TANONG SA 'KIN. DI KO NAMAN PWEDENG SABIHING 18, HINDI NA MAGWO-WORK 'YUNG LINE NA 'YAN. SABI KO SIGE, 14. 'ANONG YEAR MO NA?' 'YUN ANG SUSUNOD DUN EH. HINDI KO NA PWEDENG SABIHING FRESHMAN, SO SASABIHIN KO FOURTH YEAR. 'OY, PA'NO MO NAGAWA 'YON? ANO STANDING MO...GANYAN-GANYAN, ETCETERA-ETCETERA.' EH DI IKUKWENTO KO NANAMAN LAHAT FROM THE START."

At 14, she is presently the youngest fourth year standing BS Physics student at UPD. 'Lahat from the start,' covers her days as a non-degree student at UPD while enrolled as a sophomore at Quezon City Science High School (QCSHS); her earning remarkable grades for one whole academic year; her letters to then UPD Chancellor EMERLINDA R. ROMÁN ("Please don't send me back to high school," she wrote); her request to the Department of Education (DepED) to be admitted to UPD without finishing high school; her acceptance to UP without a high school diploma and without taking the UP College Admission Test (UPCAT).
At 11, she began taking courses in UPD.
"No'ng time na 'yon," recalls MIKKI, "dual high school-college ka hindi ka nga maka-decide kung sa'n ka talaga pupunta, kase may humihila sa 'yo do'n [QCSHS], may humihila rin sa 'yo dito [UPD]. Parang nando'n pa 'yung mga friends mo na close na close ka. At the time kase, feeling mo, natatakot ka na baka pumalpak ka dito [UPD] wala kang babalikan."
At the time, MIKKI's parents kept reminding her that since she is part of a trial placement, she can go back to high school anytime.
"We talked about it at home," she said, "the pros and cons, of staying here. It was my decision, in the end, to stay. Nakakapanghinayang naman masyado."
At 12, the Board of Regents (BOR) approved her admission so long as how she copes emotionally is closely monitored by her parents, and by then College of Education Dean LETICIA PEÑANO-HO.
"Alam mo 'yung feeling na college ka na, iba yun sa feeling na high school ka pa. Hindi ka na nag-u-uniform, may feeling ka of freedom, na ang mga klase mo hindi limited sa isang classroom lang, nakakagalaw ka. Hindi ko ma-explain. Parang mas tumaas ang self-esteem ko nang napunta ko dito," MIKKI said.
"Exceptional children," HO said, "tend to backslide when not challenged."


MIKKI IN JAPAN. Photo shows MIKKI (second from left) with fellow delegates,
at the Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation Future Creation Fair last year.
Beside her (far left) is delegation head lawyer IAN UMALI.
Permission, performance, precedent: MIKKI's parents asked if she could take courses at UPD, with credit, and had been allowed, first as a non-degree student during Summer 2001-2002, and then as a cross registrant for the first and second semesters of 2002-2003.
"Since she was way ahead of her batch at QC Science High, it was difficult for her to adjust to the program in high school," HO said. "Since she was taking college subjects and passing them with flying colors, it was felt, why not ask if she could skip high school?" HO had been monitoring MIKKI's performance since her first subject at UPD. She had volunteered as a trial subject for a prototype Early College Placement Program which HO was spearheading.
MIKKI's parents then asked DepEd Secretary EDILBERTO DE JESUS, in a letter dated March 2003, if she could to proceed to UP with her high school curriculum unfinished. Her learning, her parents wrote, had always been different from those of her peers: entering gradeschool at four years and three months, high school at 10 years and three months, and winning first place, and the youngest at that, at the 2001-2002 Regional Intel Philippines Science Fair.
Her grades from Summer 2001-2002 and the first semester 2002-2003, a pivotal basis for her academic coping, seemed promising: a flat 1 in both Math 11 and Math 14, a 1.25 in English 10, and a 1.5 in Chem 16.
DE JESUS, writing to UP President FRANCISCO NEMENZO on April 28, 2003 said MIKKI is "within superior range (the highest range specified in test norms and interpretations)." A memo attached to the letter said that her transcript of records from UP is clear evidence she can cope with college life, that her UPD teachers' certifications show she has exemplary class performance, and that there had been a case similar to hers. The precedent was JOSÉ PERICO H. ESGUERRA, then a 13-year old Philipine Science High School (PSHS) student allowed to enrol at the College of Science (CS) at UPD in 1984, exempted from taking the National College Entrance Exam and not required to take the UPCAT.
His admission to UPD, PERRY remembers was based on his passing the Advance Placement Exam for both Math 11 and Math 14, which very few freshmen pass, and letters of recommendation, including one from then CS Dean ROGER POSADAS.
Now a professor at the National Institute of Physics at UPD, PERRY has had MIKKI as his student in at least three subjects.
"Tingin ko sa batch ni MIKKI," PERRY said, "siya 'yung pinakamasigasig. Kung pupunta ka sa mga best science high schools sa Metro Manila, siguro you will find five or six students in a batch who are at least as good as her, pero konti ang alam ko na sing-driven niya."
The BOR approved MIKKI's admission at its 1171st Meeting on May 30, 2003. Immediately after this MIKKI felt relieved: "Hindi na 'ko saling-pusa," she said.
"In a sense," HO said, "the approval was for us to look into an early admission program. I'm still working on that. At least now, we have a case in point."
The case in point, a little under five feet tall-one cheerful and curly-haired 'madaldal na bata'-is on HO's files; to be considered in her refining a "catapulting" program, whereby the chronologically very young can skip high school, maybe even gradeschool, and move right into UP.

Coping with college life: PERRY, having adapted to college life early himself, sees no problems with MIKKI's coping. "Ang tendency niyan siya nag-i-initiate, madaldal yan. 'Pag meron siyang di nakuha, ang dami niyang kinakausap. 'Pag nakukuha naman niya siya magpapaliwanag sa iba. Ako napapagod sa kanya. Natapos na klase, 'pag nagtanong, kung minsan nasa board pa rin kami after about half an hour. Hindi ka n'ya tatantanan habang di niya nakukuha."
MIKKI's coping, HO said, is perfect, although, "when you get her started talking about Physics or Chemistry, you have to tell her to stop. You can get overwhelmed," HO chuckled.
"Ako kasi, feeling ko," MIKKI said, "halimbawa sa exams, ok lang ako kung mababa or mataas basta nagawa ko ang lahat ng kayang kong gawin. Kung mababa nakuha ko, ako na ang may problema, wala na sa methods ko. Kung gano'n ang method mo sa pag-aaral, ang tendency mo gamitin lahat ng oras mo para mag-aral ka."
She would mark off a week in her calendar before a particular exam, abstain from watching TV within that period, and hit the books. When exams get lined up one after another, there are months when MIKKI never enjoys a single TV show.
So far, MIKKI has not found a particular subject that is so easy that she did not have to devote time to study for it. Her diligence has paid off: she has been a University Scholar in the past four semesters.
HO recalls that the monitoring of MIKKI's performance, in part, aimed to provide some kind of balance, as HO had to coordinate with College of Human Kinetics Dean GILDA UY, so MIKKI could take PE subjects that were actually physical, instead of her initial choice of bridge.
How, one asks, does MIKKI relax?
"Naka-plano 'yan," she said. "When you notice you can't absorb ideas from a book, pwede ka nang mag-relax. May allowance ako d'yan, every so often I can allow na pumunta ako sa mall or manood ako ng sine.
So, kung tutuusin naka-time table ako-hindi siya pagsasayang ng oras kasi nakaplano siya for that day."
HO said MIKKI is not a nerd. "MIKKI is sweet. She is not the perpetual introvert talking always in jargon, emotionally inept, often found in a corner of the library, a social outcast," she said,

The gift of media exposure: "May isang Prof ako, ang tawag sa 'kin, uy si Gifted Child, si Gifted Child! Ayoko no'n, I don't like being singled out," she said.
Since her admission to UPD, newspeople had been trying to find MIKKI.
"Her having been shielded from the media was an agreement between me and her parents. It was a setup to prevent her from getting too much exposure, which was not the case with other gifted children," HO said.
PERRY, who was exposed to media before and after his admission to UP, said he is allergic to the term 'gifted.'
"Sa tingin ko wala namang UP student na papayag na sabihin na hindi siya gifted eh," he said.
"When it is announced to the world that you are gifted, there's pressure. Expectations might not be realistic," said HO.
PERRY remembers how media exposure affected his studies: "It made me more visible than I preferred to be. When I was in PSHS, a group of 4th year students often singled me out for 'interrogation.' I got called in class more often than I would have wanted. Students would stop me in the AS Lobby and ask, 'Ilang taon ka na?' - for about three years I always had the same answer: 16. Some teacher spoiled me; and some were unusually tough on me. Some teachers took offense whenever I was absent or late; I suspect these teachers would have ignored my ocassional lapses had I been less well known. There was always this feeling that I was being watched all the time."
MIKKI echoes her mentor's sentiments: "Ang hirap no'n, hindi ko feel. Mahirap naman na 'yung classmates mo kilala kung sino ka. Mahirap mag-explain, lalo na kung nalaman kung ilang taon ka na, pa'no mo nagawa 'yon, pa'no mo nagawa 'yon. Siyempre start ka ulit sa pinaka simula, from Dr. HO, my adventures here, lahat from the start."
HO said many people have been asking about MIKKI, but she said she never mentions her name.
"I just say she's in UP. They haven't found her, but it will be easy to find her after this story. She's 14. She should be able to cope with it," HO explained.
And no, MIKKI did not take a certain infant formula as a child. She was breastfed.

-IRWIN ALLEN RIVERA


Gitara by Parokya ni Edgar