SWEAT graduation held despite signal no.1

Mary Selene Margareth D. Mizal

Last May 9, 2011, the International Language Academy Manila or ILAM held the graduation of 23 young participants who joined the school’s Summer Workshop for English Advancement of Teens or SWEAT. This was ILAM’s summer program which was catered to teenagers whose ages range from 12 to 16.
SWEAT’s culminating activity was hosted by one of ILAM’s students, the witty and adorable eleven-year-old Weenter Eberhardt. This special event started with an opening prayer by Alexandrea Dee, a BS Journalism student from the University of Sto. Tomas, who also happens to be one of the assistants in the said workshop. The school’s head teacher, Ms. Faye Liong, expressed her thanks and appreciation of the audience’s presence despite the unpredictable weather as she welcomed the parents and the guests in her opening remarks.
As soon as the participants stepped onstage for their opening act, they already showed their renewed confidence and improved speaking skills as they inspiringly recited excerpts from the declamation piece I Will Persist Until I Succeed which was led by Keisha Denolo.
The parents and the guests were updated as regards the details of the SWEAT program as the SWEAT facilitator, Miss Selene Mizal, shared some of the activities that the students did during the duration of the program. Persistence was surely seen in the students’ efforts to come up with their skits that would be presented that afternoon. In the name of friendly competition, Miss Sel introduced the criteria for judging the performance of each group. She also presented the judge, Miss Abigail Balon, who was a member of the Repertory League of International Christian Academy and is also a current teacher at ILAM.
Success was the word to describe the students’ performance of their “intertext” (a text or story written based from another story) of a fairy-tale of their choice. Four groups presented their intertext with the following stories: The first group did an intertext of Sleeping Beauty wherein the prince was not able to wake Aurora up because he wasn’t able to kiss her because she was mean when was still awake. The second group came up with a different version of Alladin, wherein Aladdin was a prince who originally fell in love with the servant Jasmine but fell in love instead with the servant Jafara – the female version of Jafar. The third group acted out a comic version of Cinderella, where Cinderella’s father became her fairy gaymother who bestowed her the ability to hypnotize the prince. The last group did an intertext of Beauty and the Beast, wherein the mean Isabelle ( the modern version of Beauty) turned ugly because she was cursed by Miguel’s mother who also happened to be a witch. Miguel was a geek who was head over heels in love with Isabelle.
There were tragedy and comedy. The said intertext was only one of the many activities that the teenagers did in the graduation. A group of students did an acoustic version of Taylor Swift’s “Our Song” namely: Gabby Dee and Kryztal Nuñez (vocals), Camille Bautista (guitar), and Claire Manlapas