Hello, Diamond Class…Thank you, IBM

Well, it’s not really a class…but more like a training camp held by IBM.  I was actually a bit nervous because I’ve never handled high school students before. I was used to training older people (the first being 50-60 year-old executives when I was 22) and didn’t think I’d have enough energy to keep up with people who were born at the height of my SailorMoon fanaticism.

I read all their profiles first.  I was surprised to see…not a single grammatical error.  The lowest grade in the aptitude exam was 84 but most of them got 94’s and 95’s.  Then I looked at their schools… It’s all full of “[insert city here] Science High School.”   The IBM people’s parting words to me last Wednesday was, “These girls are the cream of the crop at their schools.”

(Translation: Their college equivalent is an Oblation Scholar INTARMED student at UP.)

Anyway, the introductory speeches gave me an idea as to how smart these kids really are.  They spoke with perfect English, gave the IBM trainers nosebleeds with their descriptions of cells and the scientific method, and dazzled everyone with the kind of analogies they could come up with.

I went all out.

(Which wasn’t really difficult to do because I had not had any sleep — thanks to that moron Trillanes — and my ability to translate geek lingo to human language diminished by about a thousand points.)

While the other trainers told me they thought I was speaking Klingon, these girls completely understood every single word that came out of my mouth.  From chemicals like PEGS, sulfates, parabens, titanium dioxide and stearic acid to mathematical concepts like pythagorean theorems, cartesian planes, loops and arrays to fun stuff like Prince Zuko and Avatar Aang…they absorbed everything like…like…a Johnson and Johnson product comes to mind.

Well, those were only the content of our regular break time conversation.  Workshop-wise, I was amazed that I was able to cram two weeks worth of coding information in an hour and I was so proud to watch them work the rest of the day away.

They seemed reluctant to go home, as their momentum had peaked at 4PM.  One of them said that she felt bitin over a two-day workshop.

Honestly, I felt bitin, too.  I really would like to see them polish their works further.


COMMENTS from the old blog: 

vball14 wrote on Nov 30, ’07

They spoke with perfect English, gave the IBM trainers nosebleeds with their descriptions of cells and the scientific method, and dazzled everyone with the kind of analogies they could come up with.

matalino nga pero may social life ba??? magaganda ba?? wala wala!! bitter na ako masyado napuput down ung monday class dinaig pa ang tuesday class tsk tsk tsk mmarch na rin kami sa manila pen hahahahaha!! joke lng miss :3

skysenshi wrote on Dec 1, ’07
vball14 said

matalino nga pero may social life ba??? magaganda ba?? wala wala!!

they’re pretty. meron pa nga yung…alam mo yung chinese na exotic ang eyes kasi hindi chinita?

ikaw lang nagpu-put down sa monday class noh =P

ajespinosa wrote on Dec 1, ’07
go bea! you really have to polish those DIAMONDS amongst our youth

skysenshi wrote on Dec 1, ’07

go bea! you really have to polish those DIAMONDS amongst our youth

i was actually pretty nervous about this…will talk more about it in my next post. the power of prayer…gawsh it works.

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