Article by: Gisele Ferreira
Visual by: CJ Limjap
Introduction:
Bon Farolan-Ferreira was born in Saigon, South Vietnam before her family moved to Bangkok, Thailand, where she attended preschool and kindergarten. When her parents were re-assigned to the Philippines, she attended primary school at Holy Spirit School in Quezon City. She then qualified for the Filipino Scholarship Program at International School Manila (ISM) and spent her middle and high school years there. She moved to the US and obtained her undergraduate degree in B.S. Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Upon returning to the Philippines, she pursued a Master's degree in Business Administration at the Ateneo Graduate School of Business. She then moved away once again, to Evanston in the state of Illinois, and was conferred a Master of Science degree in Journalism at Northwestern University.
Similar to how Kahon ng Karunungan’s passion is catered towards addressing the issue of education inequity, Bon Farolan-Ferreira had the same vision.
Ms. Farolan-Ferreira founded the Canadian American School Education Foundation (CAS) in the Philippines in 2014. Originally having moved from Canada back in 2011, Ms. Farolan-Ferreira knew she always wanted to help provide quality education to her home country.
“My primary inspiration for setting up Canadian American Education Foundation was an ever-growing sense that I had developed enough personal resources -- time, talent, and treasure -- to put to use to build an inclusive education institution, knowing full well that it would be an uphill battle.”
Being a former Filipino Scholar from the International School of Manila (ISM), Ms. Farolan-Ferreira wanted to be able to give back to such a community by providing a scholarship program at CAS to children of faculty and staff.
“Six years later, for SY 2020-2021, we recently launched our CAS-Philippines Scholarship Program, which offers a 70-80% reduction in our publicly posted school fees. Our aim is to diversify our student body profile, which until now is largely composed of families from 28 nations and 200 multinational organizations. We feel that adding more Filipino families to our international school community will make richer our foreign students' educational experiences in their host country, the Philippines”
When asked about her thoughts on education inequality in the Philippines she replied, “I certainly think that it is vastly unfair for socially disadvantaged children, whether it's because of dire financial conditions, religion, ancestry, physical impediments, or even non typical neurological development, to not have access to a secular education.”
Starting up and setting up an NGO can take a lot of time and be quite difficult to initially get started. Ms. Farolan-Ferreira has some advice on this for those interested in making their own initiatives: “Dream a lot. Ask why a lot. Read a lot. Listen and learn a lot from like-minded people.“
Interview Responses:
What is it that initially inspired you to set up your organization/NGO/business?
"My primary inspiration for setting up Canadian American Education Foundation was an ever-growing sense that I had developed enough personal resources -- time, talent, and treasure -- to put to use to build an inclusive education institution, knowing full well that it would be an uphill battle."
Why are you passionate about education inequity?
"I'm not sure if I can claim to be passionate enough about fighting society's inequities, but I certainly think that it is vastly unfair for socially disadvantaged children, whether it's because of dire financial conditions, religion, ancestry, physical impediments, or even nontypical neurological development, to not have access to a secular education."
How did you start out setting up your organization/NGO/business?
"I read education industry literature covering teacher, student, and parent experiences in the past 50+ years, researched on early years language acquisition and inclusivity in different school settings around the world, listened to experts talk about neurological development and brain studies, and talked to my parents, spouse, old friends and acquaintances, old schoolmates and mentors."
What was a particular challenge you came across and how did you overcome it or what was it that helped you not lose sight of your goal?
"The biggest challenge I encountered was distrust among similar minded individuals. It's been said that it takes a village to raise a child; it takes an international village to establish an international school aiming to be truly inclusive. While not all village leaders see eye to eye on how things should get set up, I try to maintain an even keel, listen to different sides, but ultimately rise above mistrust and conflict by keeping focused on my vision."
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