XSPB FEATURE

Getting The Xavier Foot In The Door

Isa Mathay, Parent

Posted Saturday, 21-Oct-2006 8:47 AM

     Does a Xavierian have an edge for college? Do colleges open wide for a Xavierian?

      As our sons set out to knock on the college doors of their dreams (or perhaps our dreams?), they bring with them the summary of all that they were, all that they are and all that they hope to be. It is the culmination of their young scholastic years - The College Entrance Exams. As most of us parents will sit back and snack on our fingernails, awaiting the results that will determine our son’s future, we are smothered with thoughts of how well we prepared him for this endeavor. Did we give him enough to get his foot through that college door?

      Gratefully, the formation and preparation of our boys for this task is equally shared by Xavier School. Xavier School celebrates the steadily-rising statistics of our seniors successfully making it through the college admissions. In this academic school year 2006-2007, the percentage of Xavier seniors who challenged Ateneo had an outright acceptance percentage of 64%. This number has risen compared to the previous academic school years where the acceptance level averaged at 54%. In De La Salle University, the percentage for the school year 2002-2003 was already at a staggering 63%, and rose even higher to a heart-stopping 77% this year. Even at a nationwide level where competition for admission is much tougher, 36% of Xavier’s bravest made it through for 2006-2007 at the formidable University of the Philippines.

      Xavier School does not rest on its laurels. Each school year is a generous determination towards dynamic changes and accomplishing more. High School guidance head, Ms. Jonee Pusta, beams with notable pride as we went over these statistics. True to the Jesuit charism of “MAGIS”, Ms. Pusta expresses the school’s compulsion to increase the numbers.

      It becomes too easy to attribute all this success to the dynamic, sometimes even controversial changes seen in pursuit of academic excellence. A pursuit that encompasses improvements in our faculty, better instruction, liberal teaching styles and techniques, curricular reforms, constant evaluation of the relevance of skills and knowledge learned, so the list goes. Our statistics do show that the Xavier boys are getting more than just their foot in the door. Perhaps we should hold back our pending complaints regarding these years’ changes!

      In wanting to get to the bottom of these figures, I found myself staring at Xavier School’s 6 C’s. The success of our boys getting through college admissions did not happen overnight, over a semester, or a year of academics alone. Once embraced into the Xavier community, there is a strong commitment to the total formation of our boys: in Conscience, Character and a healthy sense of Culture and Community. This is the foundation that prepares them to hurdle any task set before them. As they took the college entrance exams, our boys took with them Competence, appreciation for who they are and Compassion for others. Our Xavier boys have in them a distinctive spirit that is characteristic of the Jesuit way, enabling them to get through well beyond those college doors. “LUCEAT LUX, Let your light shine!”

Go back to the top ^