LEADERS & ADVOCATES COMPASSION IN LEADERSHIP
Mary Chow BY JAY C. MUNSAYAC “SLOW PROGRESS is [still] progress,” says Ateneo Special Education Society (SPEED) President Mary Chow (4 BS PSY), citing a quote that is close to her heart. This phrase is a fitting description of her fouryear journey towards this leadership role. What started out as a wide-eyed perspective of SPEED eventually led to a plan to promote SPEED’s advocacy for a more inclusive society to the rest of the Ateneo community. Outside looking in Mary decided to join SPEED because one of her family members is a person with special needs (PWSNs). “When I learned more about [the] advocacy during RecWeek…I realized I wanted to join not just because my friends were there, but because I have a cousin who is part of the [special needs] sector and I didn’t really have a lot of chances to interact with her,” she recounts. Despite her early apprehensions about her lack of knowledge about the sector, she was able to learn more about PWSNs in her first few months in SPEED. Mary gradually formed bonds with the sector through area visits, and she credits her first year in the organization for pushing her outside of her comfort zone. All in all, Mary considers her area visits to Servants of Charity (SOC) as a “formative experience as an advocate.” “When you’re in a sector-based organization, it’s kind of hard to be able to develop the passion that you have for the sector if you’re not, or if you don’t really have an experience where you’re immersed in them,” she explains. Her time spent in area visits enabled her to understand the sector from a more intimate perspective. Through her visits to SOC, she saw PWSNs’ day-to-day lives firsthand and got to know each person she met beyond their diagnoses.
Empowering others Mary’s desire to contribute to the sector pushed her to take on a leadership role in her second year. Her vision was to bring the advocacy closer to her orgmates and to help PWSNs feel that there is “a two-way relationship in the advocacy.” “It wasn’t that we were just doing this for the people, for the sector that we’re serving. We’re really doing this with [PWSNs] also,” she says.
Building bridges At that point, many of her peers felt that she had proven herself as a leader to the rest of SPEED, making her the prime candidate to assume the presidency in her senior year. Not wanting to take the position simply due to external pressure, she underwent a discernment process that made her realize that she had a vision to promote the organization’s advocacy, not just within SPEED, but to the rest of the University.
With her position as Holistic Development Head, she focused on the formation of her fellow SPEED members. Through this, she learned that she can’t impose what she feels about the advocacy on others. Instead, she can guide them in synthesizing and reflecting upon their experiences.
Mary, along with her fellow council members, was able to achieve just that in the first semester of her presidency with the creation of the Sanggunian’s Commission on Special Needs Inclusion (CPSNI). “We wanted to have or to bring inclusion into Ateneo. So it wasn’t just SPEED being inclusive, it’s the whole Ateneo being inclusive,” she explains. CPSNI also serves as a platform for projects and initiatives that would be carried out in cooperation with the Sanggunian, ensuring that policies catering to students with special needs have a better chance of being implemented.
It only seemed natural to take on the position as Vice President (VP) of Membership Formation (MemForm) in the succeeding year. While discerning about whether she wanted to run for the position, Mary thought about what else she could contribute to the sector while staying rooted in her vision. As VP for MemForm she was tasked with forming members’ approach towards the sector so that their dedication to the advocacy would create ripples even outside of the organization. While her work as VP was mostly internals-based, one of the memories that stuck with her from her junior year involved one of SPEED’s external flagship projects: Sparkle. The whole-day event has area kids visit Ateneo and participate in workshops and activities. “Being able to find ways where I can interact with the sector again [and] go back to the reason why I love the advocacy, it’s something that grounds me in my work,” she explains.
As the CPSNI lays the groundwork for future SPEED leaders, Mary leaves her SPEED legacy with a few words of encouragement for her successor: “Be open to where the advocacy will take you, the people who are with you, and the people in the sector [because] being able to work together is important to move forward with the advocacy.”
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