First Class

It’s been more than a month since I last posted and much has happened. I finally got into Personal Entrepreneurial Development at the start of February. It’s a non-formal, distance learning course, in the UP Open University. It will run until June. It’s been occupying my weekend afternoons and some of my workday nights, when I’m not busy with Marthe, but it’s providing the adrenalin rush I’ve been missing in my current job. I used to have it everyday as a reporter covering the travel & tourism, lifestyle and IT beats.

The course included four face-to-face sessions each month from February to May. I met my classmates for the first time on Feb 28 at the UPOU Learning Center in Diliman. As usual, I arrived last, after going through MRT and waiting for like 30 minutes in the UP Campus jeep queue in Quezon Avenue (which I later abandoned and rode a Fairview-bound jeep instead, which will take me to Philcoa), and getting lost. The cab driver and I missed the National Computer Center, as the building name was behind an overgrown bush. The learning center was inside NCC.

I actually didn’t know what to expect of the session, but it turned out to be a consulting period. The teacher, Angela Cielo, summarized what we’ve read in our thick study material and emphasized the importance of each module. Then she opened the floor (or should I say the table, as we were just 10 seated around a long table) to questions that may or may not be related to the modules we’ve just discussed.

When the questions were answered, she proceeded to ask each of us to talk a little about what businesses we’ve involved ourselves in so far or what our entrepreneurial plans are. It was humbling to know that some of my classmates are already managing businesses – either family-owned or of their own ventures. There were very good ideas that came up.

I intend to use this class as a venue to explore possibilities and to learn from my colleagues, although I have my own plans too and they are under way. Next meeting will be in the learning center in Los Baños. I initially didn’t plan to attend but this is getting interesting. I might.