DETDET Pepito isn’t just bound by the mission of ending España’s 15-year wait for a UAAP women’s volleyball crown.
She has a bigger goal in mind: addressing some of the country’s longstanding systemic problems in the education sector.
The graduating elementary education major defended her undergraduate thesis titled "Development and Content Validation of Module on Project 555 in Improving Reading Comprehension" a day before UST booked its fifth-straight Final Four trip at the expense of the University of the Philippines.
READ: UST boots out UP; brings along La Salle, FEU into Final Four
That means that heading in the past two days with a crucial contest as well as an all-important thesis defense in front of her, Pepito had hardly any sleep or time to rest.
“Talagang sinacrifice ko yung isang gabi na wala talagang tulog before that day. Malas kami kasi galing Holy Week, nag-uwian yung mga classmates ko, so talagang night before na lang ng thesis defense namin, du’n lang kami nagkaroon ng sama-samang meeting,” Pepito told SPIN.ph.
“Wala talaga 'kong tulog. Kahit papano, maraming salamat Lord dahil hindi ako bumagal. Mahirap ‘pag puyat, ‘di ba? Ang bigat sa katawan. Sacrifice na lang talaga yung nangyari.”
Over the course of Season 87 thus far, Pepito has had to complete her on-the-job training hours while treading what has been a tricky elimination round where the Golden Tigresses currently have nine wins and four losses under their belt.
Breaking the barriers to language
Still, the neverending fatigure and sleepless nights have been worth it for a busy student-athlete like Pepito, whose greater goal is to provide a long-term solution to young learner’s reading comprehension issues when it comes to Filipino texts.
To instill such a mastery of the national language to the Filipino youth is a pursuit that carries the same - or perhaps even more weight - than winning a UAAP title.
“Intervention on improving reading comprehension ng mga bata [yung thesis namin]. Maraming problema ngayon yung mga bata, especially yung mga private school na hindi po marunong mag-comprehend ng texts especially in Filipino,” Pepito said.
“Ginawa talaga namin yung intervention na yun para mag-improve kahit papano yung pag-comprehend nila ng texts in Filipino.”
The UST libero-slash-captain added: “Ang kulang ko na lang is yung hours talaga ng OJT. Kagaya lang ng ginawa ko last time, nag-stick lang ako sa pagkakaroon ng disiplina and yung recovery talaga, importante.”
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