School: Saint Louis Laboratory High School
    Baguio City, Benguet, Philippines

4 students, ages 15 worked together to complete this Doors to Diplomacy project on March 16, 2012. They have participated in Doors to Diplomacy in the following year(s): 2011

Classes and Teachers: Vincent Tabor, Florida Martin, Kimberly, Fhalin, Janella, Nicole

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.slu.edu.ph

1. Description of Our Team

Joining web project competitions was a big challenge and a learning experience for us - an application of everything that we have learned in school as well as the underlying principles that have been instilled in us by life.

We, a group of 4 members, ages 14-15 and are studying at Saint Louis University Laboratory High School, Baguio City, Philippines, were first introduced to this competition by our T.H.E. teacher. Xenocentrism, or “colonial mentality”, became our main focus since we all wanted to showcase the pride we should have in our own countries, a fundamental step for diplomacy. Fhalin, an artist of all kinds, is the most knowledgeable when it comes to web development. She was the one who suggested xenocentrism to be group’s topic, and consequently, she served as our main leader in creating our website. Janella, a musician by heart, served as the compiler of all the researches made by our group. She diligently wrote and encoded, when needed, all the data, reports and narratives that were needed for this project. Nicole, friendly and cheerful, diligently collected data needed, informed each of the members of the needed tasks to be completed, the questions to be answered, and the goals to be met. She kept the group’s determination to succeed. Kimberly, although the youngest, gave her best effort to improve all the aspects of the project. In charge of editing most of the essays, she connected each focal point to the concept of diplomacy, morality and legality. We are ever thankful for the support of our T.H.E teacher, Mr. Vince Tabor, for teaching us the needed skills in web development. We also want to thank Mr. Elizer Jay Delos Reyes, for his ideas concerned with social issues.

2. Summary of Our Project

Our team came up with this project because we would like to help open the minds of our fellow Filipinos and help them realize that patronizing the foreign world, especially the West, does not mean that our country, the Philippines, is diplomatic. Filipinos are known throughout the world but most of the time, we are looked down upon as third world country citizens. As a result, there is the inferiority of the Filipino race implanted in our minds.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Creating a project especially a website is not the easiest thing to do. Barriers or obstacles are already a common part of creating projects. The problems we had to overcome were the lack of time, commitment and patience from each one of us; we had to juggle our time with schoolwork, multiple projects, extracurricular activities and leisure time spent with our love ones with that of our time to complete this project. We had difficulty meeting up after school just to talk about and work on this project because most of the time we were urgently needed elsewhere. We are science students with different activities we had to join; moreover, we are involved in other activities concerning our interests such as being in the school band. Our coach and the other teachers expected a lot of things from us so we tend to be pressured by these high expectations. Doors to Diplomacy is an international competition and thus, we know that we have a lot of competitors, even some of our own batch mates and friends. Nevertheless, this did not dishearten us to continue what we believe in and in what we want to promote. We took crucial baby steps in order to complete this project and we believe that our sweat, tears and restless hearts would pay off.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

“We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.” - Martin Luther King Jr. The members of our group have different point of views, different ideas and different beliefs and sometimes, these could be the reasons for the fall of the group. But we have tried to understand each other and used these differences to create a better project. Who knew that one day, four people would come together to promote the patronization of one’s country? We have combined these ideas and we believe our outcome is worth viewing.

6. How did your activities and research for this Doors to Diplomacy Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

This project is very important to our group. Besides the scholarship that we will get if ever we will win, we know that through this project we can understand international affairs and diplomacy better. This project required extensive researches, true-to-life situations, statistics, and of course, enough knowledge on the creation of websites. Doors to Diplomacy served as an overall application of the things being taught to us in Technology and Home Economics, as well as self-examination on what we have been really as Filipinos. Since we had to conduct such researches, this project had let us to be more close to each other. We chose to take our own pictures and videos, so we were able to practice our skills in photography, video and image editing. Through this competition, we realized that knowing the strengths and weaknesses of one’s country is a necessary and fundamental step in establishing diplomatic relationships. We need to know our own strengths so that balance will be maintained; we will not be too much overwhelmed by other countries since we know what we can be proud of. We need to know our weaknesses to be able to improve. Also, as students of SLU-LHS we realized that we really have an important role in our community or our school. Our website may be a small start, but at least we have done our role in creating a better community and a better citizen. Using the Internet is quite more effective than the traditional one because it presents a new method of learning that actually encourages more students to learn. Media such as flash videos, and colorful graphics could invoke their attention. However, we should not forget the importance of the traditional methods. We always need to compare so as to be sure of what to present.

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your Doors to Diplomacy project?

We will use our own resources like our own laptops and personal computer. All of us have internet connection so we can have an easier communication. An effective strategy that we have executed was to make our own ideas at home and consequently we can show it to each other in school, and then combine all these ideas. In school, we can use the computer in our computer laboratory during our T.H.E. period. We can also use cameras and video recorders to get photos and videos that are connected to our topics. Articles in newspapers or magazines can also help us in the future. Even shows in television especially the news can also help us. This articles or news can give us more information about our topic and can widen our ideas about it. The Internet is the most valuable tool for us because it has the most number of information we can have. All of the technologies are helpful because it will give us idea and will motivate us to create the website.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your Doors to Diplomacy project both on-line and in person.

For a start, we, as a group, promoted our website to our fellow schoolmates first. We are ever thankful for their support. Soon enough, we were able to get other viewers of our website, due to our constant effort to attract their curiosity. We have done our best to make our topic as interesting as possible, and our advantage was that it can cover a lot of subjects, ranging from local to international. Teachers, students and random people alike began to recognize our efforts. One thing good about the internet was many people could actually view our website, and it was a strong factor for the website’s publicity.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

After creating our website, the team was very confident that we are able to help build up the confidence of our fellow Filipinos. Since we focused on the things that we can do and how much we really matter, we can really say that we are able to make a great change on how they think about themselves, the country and even the other countries that we look up to or sometimes depend on.

As we were ready to show the society our website, there are some things that surprised us very much. Some of the people in our community have just learned that resources in the Philippines were used to make the products from other countries. It also surprised them, since the prices of these imported products were very expensive when in truth; we are taking advantage of something that is really ours at a higher price.

Other countries may have realized this, although we cannot be sure about that. Maybe they reflected about how sometimes they are ethnocentric or for some of them, they may have reflected on how they often “float above the ground” because of how they look at themselves. (With due a hundred percent respect)

The Philippines can really stand on its own it if it will try. We can offer so many things to the world if we try to reflect on and use our capacity as a nation in catching up to the leading countries that we idolize or look up to. So we would also like to ask you, our fellow Filipinos, to stop looking up to them TOO MUCH because if we do our best, at the same time make them as only inspiration, we can be like them in our own ways.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

As we created the project as a group, we would like to acknowledge the help of Mr. Vincent Tabor, for teaching us all of the things that we need to know in constructing the website successfully.

We would also like to thank Mister Elizer Jay Delos Reyes, for giving us an overview about our topic. We acknowledge the time given to us by the local product vendors that we have interviewed.

We would also like to thank the help we got from our parents, families and friends, for their endless support in making the said project.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

For the duration of out project making, we were surprised to know that there really were a lot of things to be proud of as Filipinos. We were able to know more about the different products, people and places that make Filipinos proud. We thought that we already knew most of the things that made Filipinos proud, but our project research proved us wrong. We learned that everything should be in moderation. We do not say that it is wrong to look up to these countries, as long as we know where our boundary lies. We have discovered a parallelism, a perfect example of colonial mentality in the famous and historical novel written by Jose Rizal, Philippines’ National Hero - Kapitan Tiago, a character in Noli Me Tangere. He thinks of himself as a Spaniard, when it is very evident with his color that he was a Filipino. We do not want our fellow Filipinos to be like him who favors foreigners over his own race.