My Favorite Professors

It's a coincidence that two of my most favorite professors from college celebrate their birthdays in August. Happy Birthday to Sir Oggie Hermosilla on August 2 and an equally happy birthday to Prof Evangel Quiwa on August 7!!!

Both of them have been my professors in 2 different courses each. Sir Hermo for Math 53 (Calculus) and Math 157 (Discrete Math) and Sir Quiwa for CS 32 (Data Structures) and CS 131 (Numerical Methods).

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During my college years, Sir Hermo has earned a reputation as a terror prof in Math. You can just imagine my surprise when he introduced himself on the first day of classes as the terror Hermo in the flesh. A professor who loves wearing shorts and sandals in school, he was our tor-mentor who started lecturing on our very first day.

It was scary at first but I took it as a challenge. Everyday in the sem revealed itself as a fun day with Sir Hermo's witty, corny and often green jokes. Of course the exams weren't fun at all, sitting down for three hours and trying to squeeze your brain to come up with answers to write in your blue book has never been fun. But the feeling is really really good when you know your hard work paid off. For me, that's what being Sir Hermo's student is: fulfilling and fun. It's not surprising that there were a lot of things to learn from an extroverted self-professed geek with a PhD to brag about. I for one, as Chabelita, as he fondly nicknamed me, learned a lot.

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Prof Evangel Quiwa is a relatively short man who drives an old blue Beetle. He's often seen at MH207 or at the Dean's office where he attends to his College Secretary duties. During registration period, I often wonder why Sir Quiwa shoulders the manual enlistment of students, given that registration has always been a mess and everyone just wants to get a slot.

Prof Quiwa's smile is infectious. He smiles at co-teachers, students and past students. He smiles during class, when he teaches us how to heapify or how to perform Runge-Kutta. He gives very very corny jokes about forests (CS-related and tree-related) and a mean one about DLSU when he discussed the UPCAT procedure. He gives a lot of quotable quotes too, like "A perfect world is one with no round-off errors." He marvels to the class at the genius of Dijkstra and Newton and loves elegant solutions. I'm just amazed by how he loves elegant solutions that he beams every time he teaches them. I'm amazed by how much he's shared his knowledge with us. I'm so amazed by Sir Quiwa because I feel his desire to teach when he teaches us. I feel his happiness in imparting knowledge. Just this makes him the best. And just this makes me very very happy and priviledged to learn and to have been taught by a great man like him.

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When I graduated last April, Prof Quiwa was there to shake my hand. It was an honor and I will forever be proud to have been his student. Sir Oggie wasn't there during my last sem in school. He was on sick leave and is now back at home in the Visayas. I'm continuously looking for a way to contact him, so I can share my accomplishments to him like the old times.

Sir Hermo and Sir Quiwa are two teachers who had the biggest impact in my life. It feels good to have a part of them in me as it feels good to be indebted in them for molding me to be the person that I am now. For that Sirs, I thank you very very much.