Eagle and Eaglet Awards Celebrate Teacher Excellence in Basic Education

Ateneo de Manila University Basic Education feted its outstanding faculty and administrators at the Eagle and Eaglet Awarding Ceremony held on 17 January 2025, on the second floor of Ateneo de Manila Senior High School’s Formation and Learning Center (FLC). With the theme "Celebrating Teacher Excellence in Basic Education," the event recognized the dedication and excellence of teachers in the Ateneo Grade School (AGS), Ateneo Junior High School (AJHS), and Ateneo Senior High School (ASHS) for School Year 2022-2023. The Eaglet award is granted to qualified faculty of the AGS, while the Eagle award is granted to qualified faculty of the AJHS and ASHS. Eaglet and Eagle awardees also receive a monetary endowment from the University. 

The ceremony began at 6:00 pm with the Invocation, which was “Aba Ginoong Maria” performed by the Grade School’s Ateneo Boys Choir (ABC). Dinner was then served, during which the ABC continued to serenade the attendees with its members’ golden voices.

The singing of the Philippine National Anthem followed at 7:10 pm. University President Fr Roberto “Bobby” C Yap SJ was then called onstage by emcees Chris Lacdao and Ferdie Verayo - both faculty of the ASHS - to give his welcome message. Fr Bobby began by thanking the awardees for serving the Ateneo community with their expertise, passion, and heart, and for embodying the Ignatian spirit. “You represent all that is good about an Ateneo education and what we strive to do, and that is to provide a formative and transformative experience for our students where they grow in competence, compassion, conscience, commitment, and Christ-centeredness,” he expressed.     

The awarding proper then followed. For SY 2022-2023, there were 182 Basic Education faculty awardees: 86 Eaglet awardees from the AGS, 51 Eagle awardees from the AJHS, 44 Eagle awardees from the ASHS, and one shared JHS-SHS awardee. As each name was called, the awardee went up the stage to receive his/her award and was then congratulated by Fr Bobby, Vice President for Basic Education Fr Joaquin Jose Mari “Jonjee” C Sumpaico III SJ, and the school’s award donor/benefactor. For the Eaglet, the benefactors were represented by Atty Rafael Evangelista. For the Eagle Award, the benefactors were represented by Mr & Mrs Cristino L Panlilio, Mr Santiago T Robles, and Mr Hector Tagaysay for AJHS; and Mr Edgardo V Ramos, Mr Raul F Lacuna, and Mr Virgilio L Co for ASHS. 

Following the awarding, Fr Jonjee Sumpaico SJ delivered his closing message, using the acronym GEM to summarize his thoughts and feelings about the awards: Gratitude. Excellence. Mission. He elaborated that he was grateful to the awardees for their selfless work in shaping the minds and hearts of our young Ateneans, proud of the excellence that characterized their work as educators, and prouder still of their unflagging dedication in service of the mission of a Jesuit school like Ateneo, which is “to save souls.” 

Fr Jonjee ended his message by calling the awardees the gems – “ang mga hiyas” - of Ateneo Basic Education. “Biyaya rin ang ating ginagawang matapat na pag-aalay sa ating lakbay sa buhay na binigay ng Poong Maykapal," he said. "Mga hiyas, mga yaman ng Ateneo, pagbutihin ang mabuting gawain. Tayo ay nagpapasalamat at tayo’y nagagalak sa gabing ito. Maraming salamat,” he concluded.   

The attendees then sang the Song for Mary, filling the venue with a palpable sense of community and gratitude. As Ms. Marites Veloso, the evening’s sole “shared services” awardee (she serves both the AJHS and ASHS) simply but eloquently posted on her Facebook page afterwards, “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam.”