Technical writing and research

I am a graduate student at the Pennsylvania State University and research volunteer at the Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters (ALLFED). I am passionate in that I am willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that I leave the world a better place than it was before me. Right now, that means working on climate change and global priorities research, but who knows? I am excited to see where the wind takes me.

I believe in doing the most good where I am with the resources I have. As a military and diplomat brat, I have been moving around all over the world, specifically in the Middle East and North Africa. This kind of background has led me to be who I am today, that is, a researcher with service orientation and social perceptiveness as well as a geopolitical focus in MENA.

I chose to be a researcher because I have so many questions about how the world works. At the end of day, though, it is not intellectual pursuit that drives me but instead, it is the hope that one day, our efforts can contribute to something bigger than we can even imagine.

My research is focused on bridging the humanitarian-development divide through the sustainable management and design of urban ecosystems in the water, food, and energy (WEF) nexus. I like my job because it is rewarding in that I believe in what I do wholeheartedly and am glad to have to the privilege to contribute to work being done in this field.

Reading, reading, reading! Because I do interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research in a niche area in a mainstream field, I spend most of my days reading source material from disaster risk management to intersectional feminism. And, I also spend a considerable amount of time on emails!

Everyone has a unique journey, but the end goal should be the same: doing the most good with where you are and what you have.

I do not have a conventional STEM education but my passion for science and asking the big questions has given me the unique perspective of someone not from STEM working in STEM. Overall, my education and background has enabled me to see the world from all angles. As such, I value technological ethics and scientific merit as much as I value full-spectrum sustainability.

Research is only as good as the team behind it. And, a good team can be defined not only by technical skills and expertise but by their intersectional identities as well. Personally, I enjoy having diverse perspectives around me because I like the challenge of our beliefs being put under scrutiny. In a team, you are always going to have to ask yourself: who benefits from this decision and who is being left behind? Am I parroting harmful ideals that target a certain % of the population? Am I doing the most good? What is good? What is bad? Am I supposed to be making this decision? What else needs to be done? Am I the best person for this job?

Moreover, it is of the utmost importance to listen, that is, discuss and/or debate with the intention of letting the other person change your mind, if their idea/opinion has merit. That is not to say one shouldn't have strong opinions, but it is worth checking whether or not they are weakly held.

Being in a team and letting yourself be stripped bare, in a way, and seen is not only beneficial to the group but to the individual themselves. There is nothing like it!

I was drafted into Philippine government service on the day I was born. I served my country faithfully for 21 years in three different countries, speaking three different languages in the Middle East, a melting pot of identities, cultures, and backgrounds. This came with a harsh realisation: before I even understood what inequality and inequity was, it was already glaringly obvious to me that something needed to be done.

Dr. José Protasio Rizal once said: The divine flame of thought is inextinguishable in the Filipino people, and somehow or other it will shine forth and compel recognition. It is impossible to brutalize the inhabitants of the Philippines! May poverty arrest their development?

The Philippines is at particularly heightened risk of compound climate extremes at both individual and collective levels. Social insecurity and economic inequality made apparent by levels of income typically ranging from less than $2 to $32 a day indicates a need for reforms for stability and sustainable growth. The implications of this go beyond generational structural disparities in emerging economies as existential risks arising from this may become substantial in the years to come. The penalty for ignorance and inaction is self-imposing. A climate for change must be created worldwide in order to allow comprehensive culture auditing and capacity building. I believe that every single person has a role to play in this change and as such, I am equipping myself with the knowledge that will allow me contribute to efforts underway.

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My specialisation while I was pursuing my BA (Hons), Systems Practice, which I took 32 credit hours of, has been the most useful and impactful in the sense that the work that I do requires systems analysis and evaluation. Then, I wrote my undergraduate thesis on the Bureau of Customs of the Philippines. The aim of the study was to explore corruption in a negative cultural environment using the soft systems methodology, a method of systems analysis that engages with unbounded problems or messes. It has been very informative to my work in organisational change and movement building.

At the moment, my research interests include stress nexus insecurity and global catastrophic risk.The entirety of my Master's program, I think, has been the foundation of all the work I am doing. For instance, I am working on a paper on solar-powered desalination in the city of Neom, Saudi Arabia. Because it is to be planned to perfection, among other things, it is of interest to understand the cause-effect chain or endpoint model of ecosystem health in the proposed project in order to effectively plan for GCR and to a lesser (and more pressing) extent, climate change. That said, my classes in bioethics have been the most important in the development and prioritisation of strategy in projects such as this.

It is prudent that researchers are skilled in productivity software, especially for data management, monitoring, and assessment. Furthermore, I would recommend that people interested in this field pursue further studies in systems analysis, not only for scientific research but for resource management of personnel, material, and financial resources and person-to-person movement building and group organising, among others.