T新年快乐 !

To celebrate the Chinese New Year 2023, the Chinese-Filipino Business Club Inc. invited its scholars to welcome the new year of luck and knowledge. As the CFBCI begins with a new year, it started the day with a Life, Skills, and Motivational Seminars (LSMS) entitled “Experience is the Best Teacher", taking place at Sky 1Tower, Binondo, Manila on 22nd of January 2023. The CFBCI wanted to emphasize that a new year means new learnings and that learnings can best be acquired through experience. The discussion towards experiences has made the CFBCI Scholars to be very much active as everyone has a story to tell and a learning to share.

Mrs. Jennifer T. Onrejas, CFBCI Alumna Batch 2013 and a Math Teacher led the talk by associating her own experiences to touch the scholars lives and connect with them. The seminar centered its objective on how our experiences could lead us to our best version, how would our experiences could share us and teach us to be better. It is amazing that every scholars has already acknowledge that indeed our own and others' experiences could be our best teacher in some parts of our lives.

The talk started with an activity that is later associated with the real life. The activity is called “Shrinking Circle" that every time a group is moving into another level, the circle that they need to go in is shrinking. A scholar has explained that this activity is just like our life where as we move forward and take another level of our life, the situation gets harder but if you pick the right circle of your society… you can layer formulate and get through with every levels. After the activity, the seminar turned into an open forum as everyone started to share their ideas and experiences led by Mrs. Onrejas. She has told her story right from the beginning and let the CFBCI Scholars learn from it and allow them to tell their story as well. From childhood experiences, to elementary-tertiary school experiences, to love life, and even from current hardships and situations. The seminar has been a very active talk as everyone has a chance to speak.

“Keep your dream alive, and reach your goals". Since the pandemic has started, we all begin to have blurry and uncertain future. The talk has taught the scholars to learn how to dream and how to keep that dream alive for us to reach our goals. Having no goals means having no vision of your best version. If you are not working to where you want to be, you are automatically working to where you don't want to be. We should always prioritize our goals and keep our experiences in mind for better decisions.

After the inspiring speech, everyone prepared themselves to participate in the celebration of the Chinese New Year 2023. The CFBCI Scholars prepared for the parade that was held along Binondo. Along with that, the CFBCI Scholars Chorale has also shown their talents and present their beautiful voices as a part of the Huaxing Night which is in celebration of the new year in Binondo San Lorenzo Ruiz Park. All the scholars have enjoyed the celebration right from the parade to the event proper. They enjoyed the snacks, angpao, and tikoy from the CFBCI. The students went home bringing joy, knowledge, good experience, and gifts before they left the venue.

菲華工商總會訊：二零二三年一月廿二日正好是農曆正月初一，所謂一元復始，萬象更新。在經過三年的閉封式防疫生活，今年終於迎來開放後的第一個新春年節，本會為受助生們舉辦了一場名為《閱歷是學習最好的老師》生活技能交流培育講座。強調新的一年意味著新的機遇和希望，而學習最好的方法是通過歷練收獲成功。當天共有九十六名受助生和學友會成員出席。當天本會出席的領導有：理事長謝國萬，執行副理事長黃書瑋，副理事長楊良田，常務理事留牡丹和理事楊錦程。

本月講座是由二零一三年畢業於菲律濱師範大學(Philippine Normal University)，主修數學專科的受助生Jennifer T. Onrejas擔任講員。她在大學畢業後進入Philippine  Christian大學繼續進修，並取得數學教育碩士學位，現在一所私立中學擔任數學老師。她在講座開始時分享了自己的生活點滴，從童年生活到求學過程，以同為本會栽培出來的受助生過來人的身份，陳述其熱愛生活，經歷艱辛的處境，再到多年的教學經驗，本著十年樹木，百年樹人的教育精神，諄諄善誘，鼓勵受助生在其求學歷程中，要吸取經驗，為將來踏入職場與社會提前充實相關知識和技能，以達事半功倍的效果。

接著進行了一項與現實生活相關，稱為「縮小圈子」(Shrinking Circle)的集體活動，每當一個小組進入另一個層次時，他們的圈子就會縮小。Onrejas老師解釋，這項活動就像我們的生活一樣，當我們前進並進入生活另一層次時，情況會變得更加艱難，但如果你懂得分層制定規劃，選擇正確的圈子，你就能克服困難，通過每個階層的考驗。活動結束後，隨即進入開放式論壇，Onrejas老師讓每個學員站起來講述他們對活動的理解和分享一些人生經驗，無論是成功或失敗，使交流會變故事會，每位學員都聽得津津有味，並在故事中思考及學習其中的得失，討論聲此起彼伏，現場充滿活力和熱忱。

最後Onrejas老師總結當天的講座，她勸勉受助生們要「保持夢想，實現目標」。自從新冠疫情爆發後，我們都開始對未來充滿迷茫和不確定。這次的講座教會了受助生們要擁有夢想，並保持對夢想的熱忱，以實現夢想為目標。沒有目標意味著你對未來沒有規劃和遠見。這將會使你遭受生活的苦楚，永遠在底層掙扎。

本會出席領導亦在講座會結束後上台鼓勵受助生在新的一年要從各方面提升自己，就像今天的講座主題：生活中經歷的種種都是我們最好的老師。不要怕吃苦，人生先苦後甘；你現在吃的苦，其實是以後享的福。