Serving Others

SERVING OTHERS
By Atty. Sheila Lynn Catacutan-Besario, Professor, College of Law

(Delivered during the pinning and candle-lighting ceremony of the Institute of Clinical and Laboratory Sciences.)

Dear Interns;

I am deeply honored to speak before all of you today. I am humbled by the opportunity to share this special day with you – Your Pinning Ceremony. More than just a symbolic gesture of the Institute of Clinical and Laboratory Science of sending you off to your respective laboratories and institutions to get the taste of the real world – today marks a milestone as you reap the fruit of your efforts for the past three years. Today is a momentous and joyous day – not just for you but for professors and mentors and most especially to your parents and significant others. Today would have just been an ordinary day, if not for this Pinning Ceremony.

Every time I am given the chance to speak before a group of young individuals and celebrating academic milestones – I am always overwhelmed with emotions of joy and pride. Occasions like these bring me back to moments of my own academic milestones and I can always recall the joy and pride in my parents eyes and faces, especially that of my father. I see the same joy and pride in the eyes of your parents, today – Their faces beaming with joy and high hopes for a better and brighter future for you.

My father, used to say that Education is the best thing he could leave my brothers and me. His children are his legacy and giving us a good quality education was his dream. He said, knowledge and education could never be taken away from us, once we gain it; we own it. He was a self-made made; he only finished an associate degree. Taught himself Labor Law and became a Labor Leader. He really wanted to become a Lawyer but his financial circumstance forbid him. His dream was for all to become Lawyers. And we made his dream a reality, as my brothers and I are all Lawyers. He was right and I thank God every day that we continue to live his dream.

My dear Interns, I pray that you value the sacrifices made by your fathers, your mothers, and your significant others. For without them, you will not be here today. I pray that you will not out to waste what they have labored so hard so you could be what you are today.

As a teacher, I also can see the pride in your professors and mentors. Each time, I attend occasions like these, I can’t help but recall my own experiences. Whenever, I see my students on stage, I could recall something about her or him – a class recitation, a project submitted a fond memory, so to speak, and then a sigh of relief – and a mental note – oh, I am happy that he or she made it through. I am sure, that as each one of you takes the stage, later on, some of these moments will flash before your professors’ eyes.

In the next school year, you will venture into the real world. You will see the medical technology profession, first hand. You will get a chance to experience, what it is really like to practice your chosen field. You will encounter challenges; hardships, even, but you will also see the joy of serving others.

Serving others – that is what I would like to talk to you today.

Allow me to quote from 1 Peter 4:10 NIV, and it goes:

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

We are what we are because God allows us to be one. He is the reason why we are the beings that we are.

You have endured three years of rigorous academic training because God has endowed you with the mind, and the heart to endure academic and life pressures. You are indeed blessed that you have reached this Pinning Ceremony and are now ready to embark on another journey – a journey closer to your goal of being a Medical Technologist.

I say to you now – Do not let your own success cloud your judgment. Our success in this world is not ours. We are on borrowed time and our skills, our intellectual prowess; our wealth; our totality as a person is because of God’s Grace.

We are only “faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” We must use whatever gift we have received from HIM to serve others – NOT – to serve ourselves.

Be grounded, my dear interns, keep to your values and strive to do what is right. Because this the next few months, you will plunge into the real world, outside the comforts of the four wall of the classroom; away from the cool sea breeze and away from the shade of sprawling branches of century old acacia trees – you will experience the challenges of working in a real world.

Here in Silliman University, we pride ourselves that we do not just provide the basic knowledge and educate our students – we develop the total person.

Silliman University’s pedagogy of education is F-I-R-E: “faith, instruction, research and extension”. Remember the five Cs of Silliman educations: “classroom”, “church”, “(athletic) court”, “cultural center”, and “community”. And, lastly we practice service learning – where you yourselves validate and apply concepts and theories in your respective disciplines through an understanding of socio-civic issues on the ground while working with communities in finding solutions to their problems.

As you venture into the real world, be guided by the values that Silliman has taught you. Practice what you have learned.

Do not lose sight of 1 Peter 4:10 NIV:

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

I commend the Faculty and Staff of the Institute of Clinical Laboratory Sciences headed by Director Teddy Cubelo, I congratulate you for these fine young individuals — honed and crafted by the very blessings that God has given you – your love for teaching and molding these young hearts and minds to be faithful servants to others through the practice of their medical technology professions;

My sincere congratulations to the parents and significant others of our Interns, these are the fruits of your labor. Continue to guide them as they themselves are Gods Blessings to you.

My congratulations to our Dear Interns, may you seek and find what is beautiful and kind, in the service of others and may you use God’s grace bestowed upon you as faithful stewards of HIS blessings.

Today marks the beginning of a wonderful journey ahead. God Bless.