Choices for the Future: Pathways’ Young Leaders’ Discussion on May 2022 Elections

“This is the best time to be Filipino.”

Pathways participants learned much in our Pili, Pinas!: Young Leaders' Discussion on May 2022 Elections. In this Young Leaders’ Discussion (YLD), Dr. Jayeel Cornelio and Ms. Natalie Christine “Ching” Jorge joined us in a very engaging conversation about choosing our government leaders, taking part in active citizenship, and shaping the future.

Fresh from receiving his award for The Outstanding Young Men of 2021 for Education and Sociology held just last night, Dr. Jayeel led our participants into a discussion on what it means to be a young Filipino citizen today. He shared our voting patterns across age groups as well as by educational attainment debunking many of the widely held beliefs about the so-called “youth vote”. His presentation emphasized being more open to dialogue, listening, and aiming to understand where people are coming from because, after all, the Filipino vote is largely an emotional one too.

But before his audience got too discouraged by the figures he presented, Dr. Jayeel shared that now is actually the best time to be Filipino — because we are at this juncture where the youth vote is so significant, it can determine who wins the elections, if there is solidarity. He ended us with a simple question to reflect on: “What future do we aspire to have?”

Ms. Ching, on the other hand, empowered us with her talk about both the history and future of democratic action. The Chief-of-Party of Youth Leadership for Democracy (YouthLed Ph) reminded us that the youth are instruments of fairness and justice. And that the youth can harness this further through the power of social media– by creating content that is factual as well as engaging. She assured the audience, “There is no small effort that doesn’t contribute to the world.” The smallest of our civic engagement does create change—especially if it means showing respect and including others who might have different opinions.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in small breakout groups to allow our participants to reflect and dialogue on what kind of leaders we need to elect. Students reflected on their Pathways core values of Discernment, Integrity, Excellence, and Service and how we can pursue civic engagement and political participation during elections and, more importantly, beyond May 9.

To cap it off, our Trailblazers took to our Wall of Commitment to share how our Pathways Core Values can help guide them in their actions before, during, and beyond the elections.

As big as the conversation around politics is, we hope we do not shy away from taking part in the conversation. May we answer the call to “be leaders in our own spheres of influence” as Ms. Ching puts it.