My wife is earning her second degree at Ateneo. To her, Ateneo is not a school per se. It is a community.
I have heard of schools described as a community, for one I teach at a university who recently got its international accreditation, but from how she describes it, I have a sense it is entirely different. Deeper.
This affect or immersion of sorts has transformed her, among others, to become a die-hard Blue Eagles. It helps, of course, that the current team is 10-0 and is going for a 4th-peat :)
I had a 1st hand glimpse of what I think she meant when I attended the 12th Korean Forum organized by Ateneo Center for Asian Studies last 26 August.
I have been to Ateneo for quite a number of times already but I guess last Friday was the first one I was truly there as a student.
The sessions gave the participants a rundown of Asian Geo-politics from a Korean perspective. And personally, some sessions reminded me why I was drawn to Economics.
Things got more than interesting during the Q&A when a paper was presented on the rise of China and what it meant for Korea and for the region. To hear a lady from the Embassy of China to reiterate their stand, when things needed to be reiterated was a moment I realized I wasn't simply attending a forum. Ateneo, at that instant, became a door, a window or a platform for me to see, anew, beyond the shores of the Philippines.
I wasn't simply a Filipino at that time. I was Asian. And the forum became a way, another push to get to an optimal point when the efficacy of mathematics reached its limitation.
Peace and stability is the environment where economic growth happens. And that end state usually begins with talking :)
"... why think like mere men?"
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