LEADERS & ADVOCATES ON NEW BEGINNINGS
Juan Troncales BY BIANCA MAE R. ARAGONES JUAN TRONCALES (5 BS APS and BS MSE) came into the University with wide eyes. Coming from a small high school, Juan was eager to widen his perspectives, and he was able to accomplish just that through serving Ateneo’s community of students in various student-run administrative offices. Juan is graduating with numerous titles under his belt: Introduction to Ateneo Culture and Traditions (InTACT) Spokesperson 2019-2020, Ateneo AEGIS Editor-in-Chief for AY 2019-2020, and Chairperson for Seniors’ Alliance 2019-2020, to name a few. Though many students don’t know of his efforts, much of Juan’s extracurricular work was in the interest of improving the college experience for his fellow schoolmates. For the freshies Juan has served each freshman batch in the past four years, handling a total of six InTACT blocks during his time in college. After being encouraged by his own InTACT facilitator to join the program, Juan decided that he wanted to guide the freshmen throughout their first-year journey in Ateneo. Juan was quickly inducted into the core team after his first year as a facilitator, and he has been part of the program ever since. This school year, the InTACT program had to undergo modifications after the implementation of the K-12 system and the revisions to the school’s curricula. Working alongside the programs’ coordinator Erikha Villiasanta, Juan revised InTACT modules to fit the newly introduced freshman classes. He also consolidated these in a manual that would be used by homeroom advisors and student facilitators. As the 2019-2020 Spokesperson for InTACT, Juan worked with the InTACT Core to create foundational materials to improve the consistency of the program.
He curated the rebranding process for InTACT as well as an internal procedure manual to be used by InTACT’s incoming batch of core members. Despite numerous changes to the program he fell in love with, Juan’s passion for InTACT and its impact on the freshmen remained. “It’s like I got kicked onto a boat and my choice wasn’t to swim back to shore but to explore the sea,” he says. For the seniors In Juan’s experience, being a member of the student offices is not the most glamorous job. Much of his work goes unnoticed since most Ateneans are unaware of his involvement in large-scale school events, like the Talakayang Alay sa Bayan program, the Senior’s Pabaon, and the Loyola Schools Awards for Leadership and Service. Despite this, Juan shares that he does not do his work to gain recognition: “I’m not in it [so] that they remember my name but [to ensure that the] experience is really good for students.”
Although he did not not intend to involve himself in student service when he first entered the University, Juan is now leaving behind a legacy: “It’s a feeling and atmosphere that I helped establish. I left a mark or an imprint that is beyond myself.”
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Since 2018, Juan has helped with the Senior’s Pabaon program. He and his fellow organizers worked tirelessly to ensure that the seniors have a memorable send-off. Now, as Juan finally becomes one of the people being sent off, he feels sentimental. “I always got goosebumps every time I think about [leaving]...but now I don’t know what I am going to feel. It’s something, something I haven’t actually wrapped my mind [around],” he says. Even if he is graduating with a different batch from the one he started college with, Juan still feels a sense of community with this year’s seniors. “It’s not about what batch I’m from, but who I want to serve and who I am walking out of Ateneo with,” he says.
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