Assumptionistas pay it forward
The Assumption High School Class of 1968 has remained a tight-knit group of friends since their kindergarten days in Herran. When the San Lorenzo school was opened in 1958, they were among the first students to move into the then-empty Makati area that was still surrounded by vast fields of cogon grass.
The girls quickly became very close because they only had one section. So year after year, their friendship grew as they wore the colorful Tartan plaid skirt and diligently practiced how to write in the distinctive script penmanship that automatically identified one as an Assumptionista.
I found out that, even after graduation — with many moving to Europe and the US — the classmates have maintained their strong bond of friendship. When they turned 50 years old in 2001, the batchmates flew to Europe sans husbands or life partners for their own “me” time.
Though the classmates enjoy being together, they also make it a point to commit to fundraise for their scholars. About a decade ago, they started a daycare center in Payatas with 80 children. They have now underwritten the college education of these former daycare pupils who are taking courses in various colleges and very recently they had a post-graduate scholar complete his studies.
Dropping in during one of their class reunions, London-based Beng Aspillera and Madlen Faustmann, together with Tessa Tayag, Jenny Paradies, Cherry Salazar, Mary Ann Meer and Luisa Valdez, explained that they make sure to collect a huge portion of whatever project they undertake for their scholars because they remember what the nuns from the Religious of the Assumption instilled in them: the virtue of “Noblesse oblige (To whom much is given, much will be required).”
Madlen S. Faustmann, Mary Ann Meer, Beng Aspillera
* * *
For your comments and ideas, please email the author at: jacinto.fa@gmail.com.
