Pastor’s son ends his sleepless nights

Micah Arceno of the University of Cebu with hid review instructor Engineer Rodel Naval (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

A flood of text messages and a phone call from his review instructor broke the good news to Micah Baculot Arceño.

“Praise the Lord!” exclaimed the pastor’s son.

In a daze, the 21-year-old University of Cebu instructor checked the website of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and confirmed what Engineer Rodel Naval had told him. He ranked first with a rating of 88.45 in the Mechanical Engineering board exams.

“I felt so happy because I had sleepless nights. The results were released seven days after the examination and the mental stress as well as the excitement were there,” Arceño told Cebu Daily News.

He called his parents in Catbalogan City, Samar. His father told him, “Daan pa ko (I knew it would happen).”

Arceño graduated magna cum laude at UC last March 16 with a 1.24 final average. He was in the Dean’s List and was an academic scholar in the university.

The eldest of three siblings, Arceño is the first engineer in the family. His father is a pastor while his mother is an agriculturist.

Arceño was the class valedictorian in Samar National High School and a consistent honor student in Wright I Central Elementary School.

NOT HIS FIRST CHOICE

As a boy he wanted to become a lawyer and thought of taking up Accountancy to prepare for law school.

But his aunts encouraged him to enroll in an engineering course because of his excellent grades in Science and Math.

Why did he choose mechanical engineering?

“I like dynamics, weaponry, machines and anything in motion,” said Arceño.

Seeing his potential, his review instructor encouraged him to join the Mechanical Engineer Quiz Bowl competition. Arceño was part of the UC team that aced in the 2013 competition.

“When he was in third year I saw that he was topnotcher material. Arceño is a brilliant student. He started his review during fourth year,” Naval told CDN.

As the only fourth year student in a fifth-year class, Arceño aced his exams, according to the instructor.

TOUGH EXAM

But Arceño is the first to admit that the national licensure examination last September was difficult. At one point , he stopped cold for five minutes.

The first day exam was about power plants but the sheet did not attach tables and charts that would have helped in the problem solving.

In the long pause, he asked himself, “Can I still top this exam?”

Instead of getting discouraged, he pushed on.

“Just skip the questions that you can’t answer and return to them when you’re done with the sure ones,” he said, explaining his strategy.

On the second day, he thought the Math subject was easy, but again it was unexpectedly tough. “Otro sad siyang ungo!” he recalled, laughing.

He felt comforted with the third subject of Machine Design, the easiest among the three.

SEEK BALANCE

“We can’t do anything without the Lord. There should be balance. When you are under stress, don’t force yourself to study. Do recreational activities instead,” said. Arceño.

When mental fatigue hits, Arceño plays basketball or goes out with friends to the mall. But most of his time, especially at night, he reads the Bible.

Asked about his plans, Arceño said he’d rather stay and help the engineering industry than work abroad.

“I want to be a catalyst of change in the country. It’s always an engineer’s dream to be contribute innovations,” he said.