A student’s success story amid the coronavirus pandemic

(Right to left) Carmelito Clabisellas Jr. together with co-counsel Atty Ma. Nikka Oquias competed in a moot court competition (Stetson International Environmental Law Moot Court Competition Southeast Asia Regional Rounds) last 2018.

MOALBOAL, CEBU — Carmelito Clabisellas Jr. turned on his laptop early morning to prepare for an important event in his life — his graduation ceremony. But unlike any ordinary graduation rites, the one that he will “attend” is simply beyond what’s traditional.

Clabisellas was among the 35 Juris Doctor graduates who were conferred during the first virtual graduation ceremony of the University of Cebu’s (UC) law school.

The 24-year-old Clabisellas from San Fernando town in southern Cebu finished as the third honorable mention in his class.

He was also chosen as the “voice of the class” which would require him to deliver a message to his fellow graduates, the same as the class valedictorian.

In a phone interview with CDN Digital, he said that he had mixed emotions during the graduation ceremony on Tuesday morning, June 9, 2020.

“Of course, it was fulfilling..[also] sad kay for pila ka years, we expected conventional [or] traditional ceremony. I didn’t expect that this pandemic will happen. Of course, you want to hug everyone,” he said.

However, Clabisellas said that even if he was conferred online, he was still ‘happy’ since he didn’t expect that the school would give them a graduation ceremony.

“…Mu-prevail ang happiness as an emotion because we didn’t really expect that there’s a ceremony this year..at least we’re grateful to the UC Law because they gave us a ceremony ba,” he added.

The UC School of Law is the first in the country to hold a virtual graduation ceremony with the theme, “Building Resilience. Overcoming Adversity. Achieving Success.”

Clabisellas with other Juris Doctor graduates from Batch 2020 took their oath as members of the University of Cebu School of Law Alumni Association (UCLAA) during the virtual graduation ceremony on June 9, 2020. | Photo courtesy of University of Cebu School of Law official FB page

Clabisellas recalled the afternoon of June 8, 2020, the day he received his graduation toga which was delivered by his classmates.

“Mao to na-nostalgic nasad ang feeling. My classmate man delivered it to me personally. It was so sad kay we can’t hug each other,” he said.

“When I saw the toga, I said to myself [that] it’s been a long journey. It was not easy. The toga is very symbolic,” he added.

During his second year of high school, Clabisellas said that he promised himself to look at the path of becoming a lawyer.

He added that he joined a debate club in his secondary years where he developed his public speaking skills.

Clabisellas took his pre-law course, Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science at the Cebu Normal University where graduated as Magna Cum Laude.

He then pursued his dream to become a lawyer and enrolled in UC Law in 2017.

Clabisellas was considered as one of the brightest students of his batch and even brought pride to the school after he won some of the local and international debates and moot court competitions.

Challenges

However, despite his achievements, Clabisellas said that his 4-year law school journey was not an easy one. He needed to hurdle not a few challenges just survive in law school.

“It was a roller coaster ride…I know from the start that it was difficult. When I started law school, lahi gyud siya nga experience. There were days nga I wanted to quit. There were days that I cried,” he said.

“If you are not that strong, emotionally, and psychologically, I don’t think you would survive law school,” he added.

Clabisellas, the youngest of 7 siblings, came from a middle-class family. His father, Carmelito Sr., works as an operations manager in a small cooperative, while his mother, Luz, is a housewife.

He even worked as a paralegal in a law office in Cebu City in his early years of law school to help his parents and his siblings who were supporting his studies.

But it was during his third year in law school when one of the biggest challenges in his life came. His mother passed away.

“Just two days before my midterm exam, my mother died. So of course, I was not able to take my exam. They gave me a special arrangement. Some of my professors understood my situation,” he said.

His mother’s death made him strive harder to become the first lawyer in his family.

To prepare for the upcoming bar examinations, Clabisellas plans to take a break for two weeks before doing his review proper.

Surreal

Lawyer Al-Shwaid Ismael, UC’s School of Law dean, said that the success of the first-ever virtual graduation ceremony of the UC Law was surreal.

Ismael also said that they had 8 graduates with a thesis and 27 graduates without a thesis.

“It was really surreal because…I announced na there would be no graduation and I wasn’t sure yet that we would have a virtual graduation,” he said.

“At first, I was having a hard time of how to come up with something that would really look decent, like a real graduation. So I got some ideas from some law schools in the US especially my Alma Mater, NYU (New York University School of Law),” he added.

The preparation for the virtual graduation ceremony was harder than the traditional one since they only have two weeks to prepare, according to Ismael.

Ismael said that they put some tweaks on the ceremony — making it different from the traditional graduation rites including having the ‘voice of the class” and having an ’emcee’ in the introduction of the ceremony.

“What makes our graduation unique from other all the law school graduation ceremony in the Philippines is that we have a ‘voice of the class,” he said.

He also said that they prerecorded the presentation of candidates, the message of the university president, Atty. Augusto Go, as well as the message of the guest speaker, Marisol Ananias, the president of the Philippine Association of Law.

He added that glitches and internet problems were among the challenges they’d faced during the ceremony.

Aside from the students and their respective families and friends, UC Law faculty, including Dean Al-Shwaid L. Ismael and some officers from UC Law Alumni Association also attended the virtual graduation rites which was streamed on UC Law’s Facebook group. /rcg