Just a few weeks ago, I reunited with my old international school classmates online to talk about our lives half a year on from our high school graduation. Now spread across the world, we find ourselves attending schools we only found in our dreams, with our friends and ourselves entering the likes of the University of California, Princeton, Oxford, and more. The names needed no explanation. However, when it was my turn, they only had one thought: “What is Ateneo?”
While this might seem like a simple issue with friends that are simply unaware, this is not an isolated incident. Other Ateneans hailing from countries worldwide find themselves in the same position as I am, having to explain our school and who we are to our friends back home and everywhere else.
This is not an issue that is faced by just the Ateneo; non-Filipinos will be hard pressed to name even one esteemed Philippine university. That is not to say that other countries do not experience this issue. But for a name that is held in such high regard throughout the nation, it is evident that the school we choose and hold so dearly is not held in equal regard internationally.
It is in this light where the Ateneo’s intentions of shifting the academic calendar become clear. As it has been said in countless places (with more than a handful of articles being published in The GUIDON itself), the school is looking at the calendar shift as a way to propel itself further into the international spotlight, with reasons of “globalization” and “mobility” and the timing of the Asean integration as helpful motivators to bring about this change.
But with all the hooting and the effort the university is putting into this monumental change, will it be the panacea to our needs? Will the Ateneo become a household name around the globe as it is here in the Philippines?
Right now at the very least, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Locally, there have already been issues: The first semester of the year (and even before) was fraught with harrowing concerns. The usual monsoon rains, which once took place in the midst of the first semester, have taken away valuable learning days of the already short Intersession, sending syllabi into haywire and causing rippling repercussions throughout the system.
That is not to say that shifting the calendar now doesn’t have its immediate benefits. What has been said about accessibility is true: For instance, my younger friends from abroad will find it easier and more attractive to move back home for university. Ateneans of all hometowns will find it easier to attend international conferences and competitions once previously inaccessible, and as a serendipitous side effect, to make the Atenean name known.
With that in thought, then, our role in this shift becomes clear. Bringing us in sync with countless schools scattered across the world was only the first step: It was just a way for us to get on an equal playing field with everybody else. As the students and professors heralding in this change, it is now up to us to follow through with the mission of helping the Ateneo take its place on the global academic stage, working towards a world where, one day, the name will speak for itself.
