Saint Pedro Poveda College

Keeping the Flame Alive

Sometimes, it is in the hassles of high school life that we lose ourselves; that we lose sight of the vital things in life. As students, we believe that grades are everything, that these capital letters dictate who we are and what role we will play in society. That a night spent toiling over homework is a night well spent. That coffee and sugar are the only essential fuels for living…

Funny how the things we turn away from somehow end up right in front of us; how twenty-eight different students were all brought together on one Saturday afternoon, in one small theater, to rekindle their spirits.

Those twenty-eight students were the roots of the IT Youth, and we are proud to say that we, the two authors of this article, were two of those students. In that little theater, we introduced ourselves, sang, danced, listened to various talks, and finally, discussed the reason for our gathering: our new membership into the IT Youth Organization.

IT Youth was like a candle, really, one with a small flame, for until that day, not a lot of Povedans knew that IT Youth existed. It was up to our twenty-eight hearts, newly ignited with the burning love for God and culture, to keep that flame alive, and to illuminate the lives of our fellow students and Filipinos, so that they may see God, as we did.

So there we were, twenty-eight of us, driven by St. Pedro Poveda’s belief that we, the youth, can conquer the world. Being new members, we did not know what to expect from IT Youth. All we knew was that we wanted to serve the Lord, live a life like St. Poveda, and bring about social transformation within ourselves and within society.

Our first step towards that was letting our voices be heard, letting society know that we exist. They had to know that we were here to make a change, both in society and within ourselves. With our moderators, Sir Viharin, Ms. Teody, and Ms. Lar, we knew this was an opportunity for us to strengthen our relationship with God and to follow Jesus’s example. We did not want to keep this to ourselves, though. We wanted others to experience this opportunity with us as well, so our first year as members focused mainly on recruitment. We planned different activities to attract the attention of other high school students: team-building activities, big scavenger hunts, and even a mini-Olympics.

Looking back, we may have been unable to effectively publicize these events because by the end of the school year, less than twenty-eight members attended the overnight camp held at St. Pedro Poveda College. However, this did nothing to lower our morale. It was during this camp that we members were truly able to bond as we learned more about the Teresian Association, its purpose, as well as the key persons in its formation, like St. Pedro Poveda, Blessed Victoria Diez, and Josefa Segovia. The night was spent dancing, singing, playing games, sharing meals, praying, and falling asleep together. The morning was spent waking up and bearing witness to a beautiful sunrise. We were small in number, but deep in our hearts we knew that IT Youth was not going anywhere; it was here to stay.

And fortunately, it did!

Come the next school year, we once again invited the community to join us in our mission. This time, application forms were given out to let people understand that not all people could be members of IT Youth, but only those who were willing to commit. It was quite a surprise for us to find over a hundred new aspirants attending the first meeting of the school year. Perhaps it was through word of mouth that they found out how fun IT Youth can be, or perhaps they had discovered a personal drive to be more involved in the community. Those reasons did not matter, though. What mattered was that we had grown in number. With more hands ready to help, we could actually get somewhere.

That year, IT Youth became very active in its activities. We members were given opportunities to meet other youth organizations through attending various talks by different Catholic schools and participating in the Pinoy Youth Fair held in the University of Santo Tomas. During that event, not only did we strengthen our bonds with the Filipino community, but we also took this chance to make ourselves known. It was not that we wanted to be famous; we wanted to encourage others to join IT Youth, especially if they shared the same mission.

We also planned different outreach activities, recollections, and even intended to participate in the Voto de Covadonga. However, a terrible calamity  struck the Philippines – the typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. Many homes were destroyed during these typhoons, and our country was put into a state of emergency. Though these disasters caused a great interference to our plans, we still stood strong as we prayed for our country to get back on its feet. We were still able to lend a helping hand towards our community by collecting and distributing goods to the needy with the hopes of keeping their faith strong.

We also took on the opportunity to learn more.. When IT Youth was invited to participate in the Fifth Asian Youth Day, we truly believed that we were not only making our mark in Philippine society, but we were learning to become one with the whole Asian community. It was during this event that we gained more awareness of the issues facing our continent, including religious persecution, poverty, falling standards of morality, and more.

The key moment of that year for IT Youth was the oath taking ceremony, where the members were to commit themselves as IT Youth members, with God as a witness. Though there were around a hundred who thought they could dedicate themselves to our organization at the beginning of the school year, only 56 actually did push through in the end, but like the words of St. Matthew, “Many are called, but few are chosen.”

We have now reached a new year, and even more new faces greeted us during the first IT Youth meeting, possibly 150 in number. These faces were eager to partake in this year’s activities, which include recollections, outreach activities, the celebration of Federation of National Youth Organizations Day, and to share a new goal with us old members: the National IT Youth Camp in Ilo-ilo and the World Youth Day in Madrid.

More activities have been planned this year than any other, and making it all happen will surely be a challenge, but over two years of membership has prepared us for these challenges. IT Youth has equipped us with the tools needed to face the problems of this generation and to rise above the problems that attempt to test our commitment.

Among the new faces presented to the IT Youth these year, how many will be present to truly commit in the overnight camp at the end of the school year? It does not matter, because we know that slowly, the IT Youth Organization is growing more active in the community and that it is blessed with a number of members whose minds are enlightened and whose hearts are burning with passion.

And it is this light and this burning that will sustain the candle we call IT Youth. Poveda … The candle that was once a tiny flickering flame in a small theater.

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