Purely self-made: an interview
with Dr. Joey Santos
by Butch N. Talorete
 ONCE
IN A FEW MILLION YEARS, THE STARS perfectly align andthe
gods smile as a baby is born to live a charmed life.
Born from a destitute family on an earthen floor, this
child, through the sheer dint of hard work and conscientious
study, has overcome the binds of poverty and trod the
road less traveled.
Meet Dr. Joey Santos. From having
used laundry soap to wash his teeth in the clear rivers
of Atimonan, Quezon, Joey now hobnobs with world-class
chemists and researchers like him in international conferences
and scientific meetings. He has published numerous scientific
papers in international journals and has presented his
work in various confabs.
No one in his hometown expected the
boy who used to sell binwelos, puto, kutsinta, and banana
cue to be a scientist now at the Nanoarchitectonics
Research Center of the National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science and Technology in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki,
Japan. Formerly, he was also an assistant professor
of chemistry at the University of the Philippines in
Los Baños.
After a brief hiatus, PHILIPPINES
TODAY returns with this interview that hopes to instill
the value of education and hard work and to inspire
parents and students worldwide. With Joey, who is an
epitome of the typical self-made man, we have put a
human face on such lofty concepts as perseverance and
constancy of purpose. It is proof that poverty need
not be an excuse for mediocrity and lack of self-worth.
Read
on and believe that YOU can do it, too.
PT Online gratefully acknowledges
the contribution of Ms. Karla Joy D. Develos in this
month's update. - Webadmin 5/24/03
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