TESDA Secretary Isidro S.

Lapena, Deputy Director Lina

Sarmiento, NLSI CHIEF-Mitzi Samson-Endriano, administrative
staff and NLSI language trainers, to our beautiful and approachable
trainer Ms. Wilma Malones, Distinguished guests, amazing Class of
2021, ladies and gentlemen good afternoon.

Before I start, I would like to thank all the trainers for coming
through for us this year and therefore I ask all the graduates to join
me in giving all the trainers a round of applause.

I am delighted to be with you at this graduation ceremony

today. I am particularly humbled by the honor bestowed upon me to
say something and share this amazing day with you.

Congratulations, graduates! We’ve done it, we nailed it! all the

hard work has finally paid off and we’re all ready to take the next
big step in life. I was lucky enough to be chosen to speak today
before all of you and reflect on our collective journey in this training,
and if I were to think of one word to describe this journey, it would
be: REMARKABLE!

Why? Because, we formed relationships with the people we

love, people we care about, people that went on this unforgettable
journey along with us, our new found “E-FRIEND” or shall I say
electronic/online friend, sharing the good and bad experiences with
them, cry and laughed with them, the journey without NCII, yet
being stressed out by the Institutional Assessment and preparation
on how to present the next activity on the assigned date given by
our trainer. But still, we made it!

Actually, this training helped me a lot during my job application.

I unexpectedly applied in DEPED as a Teacher I applicant last May
24. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I could pass because I was not
prepared at that time. While waiting for the confirmation from the
DEPED office for the interview and demo teaching, I enrolled in
ENGLISH PROFICIENCY FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE
WORKERS at NLSI. At least I had another option to get a job in
case I won’t pass DEPED. Fortunately, Ma’am Wilma called me to
bring my requirements to the NLSI office, and I got the scholarship.
Then, In God’s grace, last 1st of July, during our training I received
an email from the DEPED office and it says there, the schedule for
my interview and demo teaching, and the office asked us to use the
google classroom, honestly, I don’t know how to use google
classroom platform that time but this training helps me a lot on how
to use the said platform, because in our training we used this
platform and our trainer helped us on how to operate this google
platform and luckily! Ma’am Wilma, that time already
discussed/gave us an idea on the techniques and proper way of
answering interview questions and what to wear or a proper dress
code for interview, and while the demo teaching and interviews
went on, the interviewer informed us to wait for the message from
the DEPED office about the schedule for our EPT (ENGLISH
PROFICIENCY TEST). So, at that time I felt so blessed and not
worried, why? Perhaps because of the said training, I already had
my advanced review in the English Proficiency Test, our trainer
already discussed the English lessons. And that time I felt
confident, ‘cos I believe with the grace of God and because of the
knowledge that our trainer imparted to us, I already claimed it. I will
pass the EPT. And, yes! I truly pass, I am now a certified Teacher I
of public school.

In our 25 days of training thru online, I can say we had a lot of

experiences, struggles encountered like unstable internet “Ma’am
choppy po, putol putol po, Ma’am wala po kaming naririnig,
pakimute naman po ng inyong mga mic, pakibasa naman po ng
inyong messenger may chat po ako/may chat po kami, ano na,
kailangan na nating makabuo ng script sa loob ng 3 minutes in
English form pa naman, sometimes when Ma’am Wilma called our
name, hindi na mahagilap,magtatanong kung nasaan na naman
siya bat nawala na naman sa linya, then sasabat ang ibang
classmate, baka nagtitiktok na po” there were a lot of
intermissions, yet the show went on. Despite the poor internet
connection, still our trainer prepared a lot of activities for us, there
we showed our hidden talent, sang like a songbird, we imitated
some action movies, we acted like professional actors and
actresses like Cardo Dalisay, and “ang pinakamalupit” we had to
practice our lines/script using British-American accent. Honestly, it’s
difficult, but those activities/trainings helped us a lot to motivate
ourselves, to have confidence, like don’t mind the wrong “grammar”
the important thing is you’ve learned, you improved yourself, you
discovered yourself and you are proud of who you are after the
training, that you can say to yourself “Yes, I am ready to face the
new me and I am ready to step the new ladder of my life, because
of this training. At ang pinakamasayang part ng training is, when we
received our allowance, kidding aside.

And I believe, as this quote says, the way I see it, if you want
the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” By DOLLY
PARTON. Life is about growing and being in our training gives each
of us new opportunities to continue growing and to learn new skills
that we will carry with us for the rest of our lives. And we don’t have
to stop there! This graduation has already shown us how capable
we are of accomplishing our goals when we commit ourselves. I
hope all of us here today can take this personal accomplishment as
an example of how anything is truly possible when we put our
minds to it. As we all continue our lives, let us take each new
problem on with confidence, especially this day, we have a lot of
struggles in life because of this pandemic COVID-19, we have to be
strong and positive in this kind of situation and carry the
confidence, the confidence with a heart. Knowing that we have
achieved great heights and are equipped with the necessary tools
to tackle our futures and that moment, we will surely see the
rainbow of our success.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what

we give.” Thank you so much NLSI TESDA, language trainers and
to our trainer, WILMA MALONES. Ma’am, thank you! thank you,
thank you very much, you don’t know how grateful we are to
become part of this family and have a wonderful journey with you.
You help us to become a better version of ourselves, to overcome
our fears of speaking a second language, to land on our dream job
where we can support our family.

This family, National Language Skills Institute FAMILY will

always be part of our success story. Thank you, thank you, thank
you. CONGRATULATIONS!