Campus Journalism

CRIS EVERT LATO-
RUFFOLO

I was inside an aquarium — otherwise known as the holding room for the judges of the 2018 Regional Schools Press Conference (RSPC) — and all I could think about was Borongan, Eastern Samar, in 2002.

I was 16 and representing Saint Peter’s College (SPC) of Ormoc for the newswriting category. I was with my fellow campus journalists under the tutelage of Mr. Carlito Niegos, our coach/adviser of The Fountainhead.

Back then, our school paper was released once every school year and it was always a source of pride of my young high school heart to see my byline printed on paper.

Walking along the halls of the school campus with every student holding a copy of the paper feels like Christmas in September. Schoolmates typically refer to you as smart. I liked that. It was all I have in high school because I was not the popular pretty girl; I was neither the fashionable one nor the cheerleader.

Competing for the RSPC meant traveling from our house in Libas, Merida, Leyte to Ormoc City for one hour and 15 minutes. From Ormoc, the school, if my memory does not betray me, hired a driver and a van to take us all the way to Borongan. It was a long journey — at least five hours — that made us experience how it is to cross the San Juanico Bridge, touted as the country’s largest bridge that connects Samar and Leyte.

We were teenagers in a van heading to a competition. How cool was that? We slept inside a classroom. I had my Hello Kitty pillow with me. We talked about silly things and exchanged words of encouragement.

It was in the RSPC that I tasted the best corned beef of my life. It was not straight from a can. It was fresh and up to this point, it remains as the most glorious breakfast I have ever had.

I did not win the category that I competed in: newswriting in Filipino. But three of my classmates did and they moved on to compete in the National Schools Press Conference.

I envied them. I blamed my defeat to being disrespectful to my mother, Maria Elena. We had a big fight just before I boarded the bus to leave home. She gave me P500 as my allowance. My seafarer father was scheduled to come home when I return from the competition. Mama said my father will surely punish me for being disrespectful towards her. But I clearly remember he was by the national highway’s waiting shed. Literally, waiting for me to ran to his arms to tell him that I lost. It was a humbling experience.

I never really thought about becoming a journalist just because I was in the school paper. But I knew early on that writing is my best friend; a companion through all the good and the bad moments of high school.

So when I was inside that aquarium last November 15 waiting for the close to 400 entries from campus journalists competing in the English and Filipino categories of Feature Writing-Elementary, I was brought back to that day in 2002 in Borongan, Eastern Samar, when I competed to be declared as one of Eastern Visayas’ bests.

Except that on November 15, 2018, I was in Balamban town to choose 10 winners — five from each category — for RSPC 2018 in Central Visayas.

I read through every entry. I can assure you that. I was a campus journalist and the last thing a campus journalist needs to hear is a judge who just skimmed through an article.

There were entries that I personally connect to but they were weak in grammar and style. There were articles that had almost perfect grammar but lacked soul and depth. And then there were the exceptional ones. Well-written, well-structured. Wonderful.

I was reading the works of elementary pupils and I have to admit this, I did not have the writing skills of those children when I was their age. How they were able to express the most memorable experience they had in school in feature style writing is a testament of their hard work and focus.

I know that entails practice and drills.

I know because a good friend of mine, Lea Sicat-Reyes of ABC Learning Center in Dumaguete and Tanjay in Negros Oriental, later told me that her mentees write daily pieces, which she corrects and discusses with her pupils day in and day out.

Ate Lea, who was a campus journalist herself and later became one of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines 2004, shared that she makes it a point to make the children understand the bigger reason why they engage in campus journalism.

In campus journalism, she said, children have the platform to share their thoughts to a larger audience. That way, the motivation is not just extrinsic (the award itself) but intrinsic (the responsibility that comes with journalism).

I could not agree more.

Write more children. It will take you places.