Free to be the Best

It is like hearing a brother's shout of joy. My heart swelled with pride when I read the article about the Computer Science students of the University of the Philippines (UP) winning two of the top five awards given by the US-based Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

UP ACM, with 90 student members, bagged the awards for "community service" and "recruitment program", besting 750 chapters around the world. Phillip Kimpo wrote in his blog: "a newly-reinvigorated Filipino student organization . . . struggling to pool enough funds in order to hold its activities" did it!

Across the Atlantic, in the pristine city of Utrecht, two Filipinos won top prizes in different categories in an international business plan competition organized by the Dutch National Commission for Sustainable Development (NCDO), besting 700 business ideas from 130 countries.

Philippine Daily Inquirer wrote:

Noel Sarmiento Percil was given first prize in the category of Organization for Development of the Business in Development Challenge (BiD) for his business plan "Pelletizing Plants from Plastic Waste Materials."

Meanwhile, Jonah S. Nobleza received the second prize in the category of Developing Country Individuals for his business proposal "Integrated Mobile Service Units for Coconut Processing," according to a press statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Big or small, such accomplishments lift one's spirits especially in this times of political turmoil.

Kudos!