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

4 students, ages 14-15 worked together to complete this Doors to Diplomacy project on March 15, 2012. They have participated in Doors to Diplomacy in the following year(s): 2011

Classes and Teachers: Florida Martin, Vincent Tabor, Leonard, Nelson, Paolo, Alexander

E-Mail contact:

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

1. Description of Our Team

When the Doors to Diplomacy project was announced in SLU-LHS, most pupils got excited in joining, including high-school Junior Nelson, along with some of his friends in the classroom. He sought the aid of Leonard and Alex in making the website, which they later called “Philippines United Across the World”. When the group learned that they need more help in making the project, they recruited Paolo in the group since he has plenty of Ideas for the project. They performed their duties well and after almost a week, a primal work of their project was made, and after a month, their project was done. And here are the identities of the members: a.Nelson A.(15) – Nelson had a knack for making websites, and because of this, when he had been given the task to encode the website and launch it, he had done it successfully and the others were thankful that he had been there to design the project. b.Alex G. (14)– Alex is very good in looking for websites to aid him in his home works so he was then given the task to research a bibliography for the project. c.Paolo G. (15)– Paolo is really creative and full of ideas so when he was asked to suggest any ideas for the project, he proved his creativity by giving the members a full format for a website therefore, he was given the duty to plan how the project will look like. d.Leonard O.(15)- When he was recruited in the group, he updated the members of what the project is all about, what it needs, what the format is, and what the members will do, so he gave himself the task of being the group leader and he also planned the execution of the project very well.

2. Summary of Our Project

Philippines nowadays, had been facing a lot of crisis in other countries in the past years. The OFW’s are sometimes getting in trouble with the embassy of the country they’re at, and some countries even banned travel to the Philippines because of all the crisis that is happening in here. That’s why we’ve decided on making the project; we want to make people know that the Philippines is a foreigner-friendly country and also a great place to be. We want to show our project in an international contest to get a chance to show that The Philippines has great relations with other countries to make foreigners feel secure about us, and ourselves about us. In our project, we would like to present the lives of the Filipinos across the world; the OFW’s, tourists, campaign workers, and other kinds of Filipinos. We would like to do that because the Filipinos are honorable, yet some are being disrespected by some foreigners for whatever reasons they may be. We would plan to give rise to the foreign relations of our country so that the Filipinos across the world would enjoy being across the world, knowing that they are secure in the embassy of the country they’re in. We would also like to present our hospitality in other countries so that the Philippines can be a place that can truly be remembered by many people and foreigners. We would also like to present our many different and uniquely special qualities that make us Filipinos worthy enough people in foreign countries that are in this world. Through this website, we like to present our connection to other countries that makes Philippines a friendly country that is also special and pleasant to be with. And thus, we created the project for all of these hopes to come to reality. 3

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

First of all, there was this time when one of our group mates got ill and we had to decide on who shall temporarily replace our ill group mate for the mean time. We chose the next qualified person for the job until our friend gets better. Then, there was also this time when one of the web pages we were working on failed to load on the computer...only to find out that the file manager deleted the web page by accident and we had to repeat the process all over again until we had new ideas to apply. Whenever these problems occurred, sometimes we felt discouraged on doing the project and almost quit, but the need to show the world what our goal is, was a motivation for us to finish the project and launch it.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

While doing this project, we went through many sites to research upon the Philippines’ foreign relations. We added those to our bibliography and credits, and placed their URL on our web pages. But when we can’t find the things we needed on the internet, we then scanned through books and found what we needed. But if we haven’t still found the information we needed, we turned to interview people who might’ve had some ideas about the Philippines’ foreign relations, like Nelson’s dad, Mr. Abansi, who’ve worked with some foreign clients in his past few years of being a lawyer.

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

While doing this project, we learned more about the Philippines and its history in the process. But more importantly, we learned that we always have friends to guide us in times where we are at our most weakest and feeble state. We learned that we can’t always do things ourselves, and that’s the reason why God made people, why bread needs butter, why Eve was for Adam, and why the world needs unity. These lessons may not seem to support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards at first, but if you learn from it, these lessons will support more than just that...the World.

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

The tools we needed are these: a.Computer-for encoding the needed codes and to view the website. (mostly LG and DELL brands used) b.Facebook-to contact each other and make plans. (No mobile phones because the other group mates don’t have phones) c.Microsoft Office, Notepad-to present data. d.The School Library-Whenever the Internet doesn’t have what we need, we turn to books for knowledge. (Encyclopedia used) Without these tools and technology, our project will most likely fail.

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

We acted in such different ways-but few enough for us to explain here. Like most ambassadors/spokespersons, we took hold of our job responsibly and correctly. We also didn’t look at the project prize for what we know we all need is the greater effect the project will do. We also looked at the people so that we will gain motivation for our everyday tasks and deeds.

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

We hope that the project will be known world wide so that foreigners can see it and feel secure about us. That way, the community members will then feel safe of what foreigners think about us.

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

In the process of making the project, we included many people and organizations. We included our teacher, because she was the one who gave us information about the Doors to Diplomacy project. We also included the websites we’ve been foe they supplied us with these contents: Images, Backgrounds, History, Embassies, Relations, and many more. And lastly, there was the companies who produced electricity for our tools and gadgets.