The Cosmic Wonderer : 2017 Space Quiz

"Before it was only a vision of Me, Sir Jun Cajigal, and Achie Angelica Tang, to organize our own space for JAO and BSYA, but now it has finally turned into a reality. Once again, thank you so much to everyone who had participated. Without you, this wouldn't be a reality."

In celebration of the World Space Week 2017, the Bedan Society of Young Astronomers (BSYA), a senior high school organization of San Beda Manila, in collaboration with the Judenite’s Astronomical Organization (JAO), a senior high school and International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) organization of Saint Jude Catholic School, hosted a Space Quiz Friendly Competition which is aimed at Senior High School Students based on themes around space science and astronomy, with a special emphasis on space exploration. The culminating activity for this event is a free telescope viewing, courtesy of the Manila Street Astronomer (MSA).

The objective of the competition is to contribute to the improvement of awareness, interest, understanding, and insight into the space sciences and basic astronomy; and to celebrate the participation of different senior high schools in World Space Week so as to foster the interest of career opportunities in astronomy and space sciences.

The competition which was held at 8:00 A.M.-2:00 P.M. on October 7, 2017, Saturday at the Abbot Lopez Hall of San Beda Manila.

This competition, in which we thoroughly planned for over 2 months was a huge success. Aside from the fact that there were more than 10 schools present at the said event, the World Space Week 2017 was also able to recognize this event officially.

So how does it feels like to organize your own space quiz? Honestly, I feel like, after this event, I became the master crammer of this planet. Me and Achie Angelica Tang were just actually cramming everything, from the time we were sending out the letters to the school up until we were printing out the certificates to the schools, that's why we are surprised that our space quiz yesterday was a huge success, and I got a lot of positive feedback from my friends.

I have been participating annually in two of the only astronomy competitions in this country. As a person who is very much fond with the stars, I often feel like 2 competitions in astronomy wouldn't suffice to encourage teens and students like me to be involved more in the field of astronomy. Because of this, it has crossed my mind a lot of times what if I would get a chance to organize my own space quiz? Will it help promote astronomy to the public? But the thing that has really crossed my mind is, will it help me give a platform for me to inspire more teenagers out there to be involved in the field of astronomy? Before these are only questions in my brain, but now I have answers already.

This academic year, I was given the chance to organize my own organization in Saint Jude Catholic School. I chose to establish an organization which is focusing on astronomy, which I afterward named as the Judenite’s Astronomical Organization. This organization paved way for me to be connected to other astronomy clubs in the Philippines such as the Bedan Society of Young Astronomers (BSYA), which is the official astronomical organization of San Beda College.I was given the chance to meet in person the founding fathers of the BSYA, which are Ms. Angelica Tang and Mr. Jun Cajical. In our meeting we realized that we actually share the same vision that is, we want to create our own space quiz. We quickly decided that now is the right time to organize our own space quiz because this is the first and last year of the existence of the Judenite’s Astronomical Organization, which basically means that this is now or never.

At first, I really thought that organizing my own space quiz will just be a piece of cake. I mean sure, I just have to write letters after letters about the entire mundane description of the competition and its set of mechanics, send out the letters to the school, and just sit back and wait for them to reply. However, I am wrong, totally wrong. I realized that I underestimated the difficulty that I should undergo before I even started.

The first difficulty I encounter is the writing of the letters. I always thought that I know how to write a letter. However, it was only until I’m writing the letter of invitation to the school did I realize that I really don’t know how to write a letter. Aside from the fact that I know what to write on my body, I don’t know anything else. I don’t know what I’m supposed to put in my header. Eventually, with the proper guidance of my literature teacher, Mrs. Reyna, I was able to learn how to write a letter. Not only is this my problem. After 15 days when we are done disseminating 33 letters to various schools, only 3 schools have responded. Because of this, I became so alarmed to the point that I phoned each school just to follow up. I realized that even though I entrusted my letters to a remarkable courier service here in the Philippines, the schools weren’t able to receive my letter at all. Because of this, I have to send a new email to the schools, which added to my workload. Likewise, due to my numerous experience in joining quiz bees, I am the one entrusted to compose the questions for the competition. During the time when I am creating the questions, it is our midterms season in IB already. Because of this, I have to cram the questions in every single free period that I have.By organizing this quiz bee, I learned a lot of lessons in life that I can never learn within the confines of the classroom. First of all, I learned which things that I am good with, and I was able to use these to help plan the space quiz. For example, I know that am very sociable, so for this space quiz, I am the one directly communicating with the different schools for faster communication. Likewise, I learned new skills by overcoming some of the challenges that I have faced. In this space quiz, I learned the value of patience. I realized that there is no such thing as overnight success and that I should work hard to achieve something. For example, I learned the value of patience by learning how to properly write a letter. In addition, I learned how to initiate an experience by organizing this space quiz. Furthermore, I was able to show commitments to push through with this space quiz despite the many hardships that I have faced. Likewise, I didn’t do this space quiz alone. I did this together with the Bedan Society of Young Astronomers. I was able to learn the value of teamwork in effectively planning something. Lastly, I was able to engage in global movements because first and foremost, we created this event in celebration of the World Space Week, which is an international organization, sponsored by the United Nations, to promote the importance of astronomy to the public.

***Pictures taken from the event