Her reputation precedes her. She was the terror teacher nobody dared cross.

Dr. Rowena Cristina L. Guevara, professor and former dean of the UP College of Engineering and one of this year’s 10 Outstanding Teachers of the Metrobank Foundation, admits that she could be strict, make that, very strict.

“I have high expectations and I expect discipline from my students. Pag tumunog ang cellphone mo sa klase ko, sasayaw ka sa ibabaw ng lamesa mo. I also have a rule that if you are late for 10 minutes, better not come to class anymore. But if I was the one late, you can all go home.

Nang-babagsak ako ng estudyante,” reveals Dr. Guevara, nicknamed Dr. Gev by her students and colleagues.

Surprisingly, this terror teacher is well-loved by her students, and the entire College despite her strictness. Her students consistently give her high grades when evaluating the faculty. A sticker that pronounces “I love Gev,” is posted on the door of the faculty office is proof of this. The stickers were made by the faculty members and admin personnel for one of the tributes hosted for the outgoing dean a few weeks ago.

SIGNALS AND SYSTEMS

Dr. Guevara says her students, co-teachers and her staff may have come to appreciate her sincerity and desire for them to learn and be successful.

“I would like to believe that I gave dignity to their work. I treat my students, colleagues, co-faculty and administrative personnel with the same respect. I teach and train not only the students, but also the admin personnel. Hindi ko sila pinapagalitan in public, but I praise them in public. I recognize their work,” she says.

Through innovations in teaching, Dr. Guevara was able to increase the number of graduating students. For instance, she encouraged the freshmen block section system to give students peer support and help them adapt to college life. As a result, the passing rate for the subject Math 17 for students in block sections is higher than those in non-block sections. This also decreased the number of students who shift to other courses.

In class, Dr. Guevara makes sure her students not only understood the lessons, but enjoy the learning process as well. She redesigned an engineering subject called Signals and Systems by making students hear, see, and play with mathematical formulas in the laboratory to help them better understand the equations.

“The passing rate in my subject used to be 70 percent. So I thought of making them feel ‘signals’ first before they start writing the equations and study mathematical formulas. Magta-type sila ng ganitong formula sa computer, may lalabas na sound, dadagdagan nila may ibang namang tunog. Pagdating sa lecture, mas madali na nilang maiintindihan yung equation. It’s demystifying Math by letting them see it first in action then learning how it happens. Math has become enjoyable to them. Ngayon 90 to 95 percent na ang passing rate sa class ko,” explains Dr. Guevarra, an Electrical Engineer who is an expert in Digital Signal Processing.

VALUES AND ENGINEERING DO MIX

Dr. Guevara also dare to teach her Engineering students values formation because she feels that intelligence is nothing if one does not have values.

“In UP, it’s hard to teach students about value formation, mag-rarally sila eh. So I used a soft approach. I taught them to have the most important values, nationalism and malasakit. An example is when I asked them to include everyone in the yearbook kasama yung mga hindi nakapagbayad ng R2,500. Sabi ko hindi puwedeng nang-iiwan kayo, kung wala silang pambayad ng isang page, isulat niyo lahat na lang lahat ng pangalan nila para kumpleto lahat. Eventually, the students agreed,” she recalls.

Through her efforts, the students also learned to be driven particularly in raising funds for various activities such as the Career Assistance Program for Engineering Students. Through this job fair, the students were able to donate money to the Engineering Student Council, to the College, and for the uniforms of their varsity players.

Dr. Guevara likewise tapped the help of the alumni to raise more than P200 million for the construction of laboratories and buildings of the College.

Behind every good student is a good teacher, she says. To have the best teachers, the institutions should give them a competitive compensation package. But for UP which does not have enough budget, Dr. Guevara says the College has given professorial chairs to teachers and funded their researches and presentations abroad. They have also supported some faculty who started their own technology-based businesses.

FOR THE LOVE OF ENGINEERING

Of all her accomplishments, Dr. Guevara is most proud of the Engineering Research and Development for Technology (ERDT) Program.

Guevara realized that UP alone cannot develop the critical mass of Filipino engineers that the country needs. So they formed a consortium with eight other institutions that offer engineering courses – Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University, Mapua, Central Luzon State University, Mindanao State University in Iligan, University of San Carlos in Cebu, and UP Los Baños.

The P3 billion-ERDT investment seeks to make engineering studies accessible to Filipinos and help engineering colleges strengthen their faculty. The program has about 500 scholars that are being trained by visiting researchers, postdoctoral fellows, visiting professors, and foreign PhD scholars. ERDT has helped the partner institutions in exposures in international conference papers and conducted conferences and technology entrepreneurship classes for young engineers to help them start their own businesses.

“To be a developing country, the Philipines must have 3.4 researchers, scientists and engineers per 10,000 of the population. Eh tayo nasa 1.08 per 10,000 of population lang. Ngayon hindi na binibilang ang mga doctors, engineers and scientists na ang binibilang. We tell the Department of Trade and Industry and the Bureau of Immigration to promote not only our call center agents and nurses, but also our engineers and scientists who are as talented as their foreign counterparts,” she ends.