IT STARTED as an idea launched in a theology class. Now, it has blossomed into a 10-year-old organization with approximately 300 volunteers.

Alay Ni Ignacio (ANI) is an organization managed by Pathways to Higher Education (Pathways). It is a summer program dedicated to the goal of preparing junior and senior public high school students for college entrance examinations. This aims to give them the same opportunities of getting into good universities as students from private high schools.

“Magaling [yung students from public schools], but wala lang silang means (they’re good, but they just don’t have the means) [to prepare themselves for college],” ANI President Regine Marie Esguerra said.

Educational benefits
Filipinos need education for the country to progress, Esguerra said. Pathways Education Development Unit Project Officer and ANI moderator Kristan Aurelio Angeles (BS Mgt-H ’09) agrees, saying that when problems in education are prioritized, all other social issues are addressed.

“If a lot of people remain uneducated, madali silang maloloko ng mga tao (they can be easily deceived by others)…if we educate them, [however], they’ll be more empowered. [Magkakaroon sila ng] kakayahan na mag-isip (they’ll be able to think) for themselves [and] not just [be] pushed around,” Angeles said.

Filtering students
ANI recruits incoming third year and fourth year students from public schools in Marikina and in Quezon City to join the summer program.

Apart from passing the diagnostic tests as part of the criterion, students must also have good secondary grades to be eligible to join ANI and Pathways. Their financial status must also show that they are in need of but do not have the means to join such college preparatory programs.

“We became the filtering system for Pathways,” Esguerra said. ANI students who pass the enrichment classes then proceed to Pathways which is also a college preparatory program set during the school year.

This process of attending ANI in the summer and Pathways during the school year is continuous until the students graduate from high school. Pathways also helps the students get scholarships from different universities in the country.

Challenges
However, helping others is not all that easy since some ANI students cannot afford to go to Ateneo every Saturday of the whole summer.

“The parents [would] rather have the kids at home for summer [in order] to work there,” said Gabriel Antonio Cinco, ANI English Grammar Department Chair. An example was an ANI student whose mom wanted her to sell vegetables instead of going to the classes. “She wakes up at 6am to sell vegetables so she has [money] to come here.”

Not being a student organization also has its drawbacks. According to Esguerra, ANI’s main challenge is to find funds for their organization’s activities. ANI gets funds from fund-raising projects, sponsorships, and solicitations.

ANI Director for the Office of Student Registry and Assemblies Charmaine Mignon Yalong also said that it was also difficult to get volunteers who signed up to actually attend the summer program.

“Yung volunteers namin marami kaming narerecruit [mga] 300. Pero come summer, 100 na lang. Minsan 80 na lang ‘yan (For volunteers, we were able to recruit a lot—around 300. Come summer, however, only 100 volunteers are left and sometimes 80),” Yalong said.

Not having an org room was also problematic; however, they have an unofficial ANI table in Matteo Ricci Hall.

The Big 10
But ANI has gotten through most of its problems as they celebrated their 1oth year through the ANI Week held last November 9 to 14.

It consisted of talent shows, basketball games, and quiz bees. They also held their ANI Night Homecoming on November 13 at the Leong Hall where alumni and current ANI students and teachers gathered.

For Esguerra, the event made its volunteers aware of what the organization has accomplished. It also aims to show how much the organization has evolved and how the past ANI students and teachers have progressed since their time in the organization.

Though ANI continues to change over the years, it still leaves its members with the same feeling of purpose.

Former ANI principal Joane Mosquera still keeps a letter she received from one of her ANI students five years ago. “Reading it makes my ANI days seem just like yesterday and the passion I have for ANI is still within me until today.”

Julie Lo, who volunteered in ANI for three terms, added: “It helped me understand what it means to be a person for others and what it means to do more than what is expected from me.”