Anjelou Estrella
HIV awareness activist + youth leader
Having HIV was seen as demeaning or dirty, so Anjelou Estrella co-founded Team Dugong Bughaw — a youth organization for HIV and AIDS awareness, which advocates for a stigma-free Iloilo through collaboration with local colleges and universities. Starting as Project High Five, an entry for the 2016 Unilab Ideas Positive that highlights innovative community health projects, Estrella and her colleagues continued their work after the competition was over and was awarded as one of the Ten Accomplished Youth Organizations of the Philippines last 2017. Estrella currently works as the Implementation Manager of Allied World Healthcare and still continues to lead Team Dugong Bughaw in her free time.
Anna Tuazon
Community-based psychologist
Having a dilemma between the traditional sciences and the more humanities-centered psychology, Anna Tuazon has opted to take the best of both worlds. She took up psychology because of her curiosity of the human body and mental health. She made headlines when she topped the 2016 Psychologist Licensure Board Exams after studying at the University of the Philippines - Diliman and getting her doctorate at The Wright Institution, California. She currently works as a consulting clinical psychologist at the MedMom Institute of Human Development, providing individual and family psychotherapy to children, adolescent, and their families.
Dante Beriong
Songwriter
If there’s a festive-sounding Kinaray-a or Hiligaynon song in your head, chances are that Dante Beriong was the one who wrote it. Aside from the Kinaray-a classic “Mauli Gid Ako Sa Antique” and the Iloilo Dinagyang Festival’s “Hala Bira Iloilo!”, Beriong is also known for having written the 1997 Philippine Centennial Independence Theme entitled “Mabuhay Ka, Pilipino!” He currently classifies himself as an OKM artist -- Original Kinaray-a Music, the language of Antique, his home.
Early Sol Gadong
Math teacher + writer
Even though math and literature are miles apart, Early Sol Gadong resolved to be the bridge between the two. As both a distinguished math teacher in the prestigious University of the Philippines - Visayas and a Palanca Awardee, she integrates mathematical concepts into short stories as to be better understood by her students. Her works have been published in Balay Sugidanun, Dungug Kinaray-a, and the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino’s Aklat Ng Bayan.
Jesus Insilada
Indigenous peoples teacher
When the general public looks down on indigenous peoples, Jesus Insilada makes it a point to help them rise up. Being an IP himself, he has faced the discrimination of the system and made it a point that the same thing does not happen to students like him. With the Culture-based Education and Inclusive Education (CbIE) program, he hopes to bridge the gap between schooling and culture. For his efforts, he was chosen of one of the Top 10 Nominees of the 2018 Global Teacher Awards.
Pocholo Espina
CEO + environmentalist
An entrepreneur with a heart of an environmentalist, Pocholo Espina is the young founder and CEO of Sip PH, a start-up that aims to reduce the use of single use plastic through promoting reusables. First and foremost a fellow Pisay scholar, graduating from Philippine Science High School - Southern Mindanao Campus as First Honorable Mention, he then graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with a major in Health Sciences and a minor in Data Science and Analytics only last December 2016. He has since given talks advocating the environment in multiple events as a keynote speaker, notably being featured by GMA 7 and CNN Philippines.