Hillary Andales of Abuyog, Leyte won the “Oscars of science” in 2017 as a high school student before enrolling at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she recently graduated with an array of honors.
The 23-year-old Pisay alumna talks to Howie Severino about her academic interest in “galactic archeology,” why she wants to come home and be part of the scientific community, why scientists must be politically engaged, and why at one point she said she was burning out.
The 23-year-old Pisay alumna talks to Howie Severino about her academic interest in “galactic archeology,” why she wants to come home and be part of the scientific community, why scientists must be politically engaged, and why at one point she said she was burning out.
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00:00 Good day, Podmates! Howie Severino again, reminding you that a long attention span is smart.
00:06 I'm joined by a great Filipino, but he's one of the youngest guests of all of 23 years old.
00:16 But he's done a lot.
00:18 Hillary Diane Andales, who just graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology last year with all kinds of honors, majoring in physics.
00:28 MIT, of course, is one of the leading science institutions in the world.
00:32 I first met her as a high school student, and I think she was a prodigy at that time.
00:43 She won the prestigious award, the so-called "Oscars of Science," the Breakthrough Challenge, for her very creative and informative science videos.
00:56 She is also a science communicator, so you will find her beautiful content on various platforms.
01:03 Without further ado, good day to you in Boston, Massachusetts, Hillary!
01:08 Good day! And of course, thank you for having me. Thank you.
01:12 As I mentioned, Hillary, I hope you remember, I first met you after you won that award, and I read about it.
01:19 And then I invited you to visit the GMA Network, just to put ourselves on your radar, because we knew that you had such a promising future.
01:28 Because the Breakthrough Challenge is a major global award in science, and you were, I think, the grand prize winner in the youth category.
01:38 And that helped you get into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
01:44 So you had a most unusual, very impressive journey as a Filipino student.
01:52 But on top of that, you come from a provincial town, Abuyo, Malaytay. It's not a big city.
02:00 Usually, the famous students abroad, the students in Manila, have advantages of being in the capital, right?
02:13 Going to these big elite schools, etc. But you grew up in the province, not even in Tacloban, you grew up in a much smaller place in Leyte, which makes you even more unusual.
02:26 So my first question, Hillary, how does that feel? To come from Abuyo, Leyte, and then make it to two of the leading universities in the world.
02:35 And basically, the world has become your oyster.
02:39 Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for the very kind words. And for me, the fact that my hometown is Abuyo is a point of pride for me.
02:48 Because as you said, not many people typically think of these provinces as not homes for amazing talent, especially in the sciences.
02:59 And I felt this very early on in my childhood. So back then, I went to a very small school, Gabaldon Central School.
03:11 But even then, it was still the biggest public school in the town. And even though our school was under-researched, my mentors were very dedicated.
03:23 But throughout all that, I think the most impactful influences really in shaping me from coming to Abuyo to MIT, the leading university in the world, is my parents.
03:38 So back then, we lived in this very small neighborhood in Abuyo, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Abuyo, in fact.
03:44 And actually, I can't say that for sure that it's one of the poorest neighborhoods, but the vision that my parents had, you know, they had such grand visions of the world.
03:56 That even though we were in Abuyo, they kept inspiring me with stories of the great scientists of the world.
04:03 So when I was younger, instead of telling me stories about fairy tales, they would tell me stories about Albert Einstein and how his idea changed the world.
04:11 Marie Curie and how she broke down barriers and was such a genius during her time, also Charles Darwin.
04:17 And these stories really motivated me to look beyond boundaries, such that boundaries didn't even exist for me anymore.
04:25 And that kind of seed planted in me, you know, as a five-year-old, six-year-old, really just made me the person that I am today.
04:35 And I'm very thankful for my parents for that. And this is, now that I think about it, now that I've met a lot more Filipino students, I don't think I'm that unusual at all, actually.
04:47 So I'm part of this mentoring network called Cos Philippines. We're a non-profit that mentors underprivileged Filipino high school students.
04:57 And we help them get into schools abroad, get scholarships abroad.
05:01 And I meet so many of these amazing young students coming from very humble backgrounds, getting scholarships into places like Harvard or Princeton.
05:11 And this is just inspiring to me that there are so many talented students all over the Philippines and not just in the capital.
05:19 Well, okay. I want to get back to the subject of your parents.
05:25 I'm interested, as a parent myself, and a lot of parents might be listening, so what did your parents actually do, aside from telling you stories about scientists?
05:34 I mean, were they tiger parents? Because some kids become successful because they're being driven by equally driven parents.
05:43 Were you being pressured? Or was it a lot of carrots? Or was there carrot stick?
05:52 I mean, what kind of parenting produces a kid like you?
05:56 Well, I think my parents, I wouldn't classify my parents definitely as tiger parents, but my parents had expectations.
06:04 And my parents had goals and visions for what they believed a successful career would look like.
06:12 And so my parents, they both graduated from the University of San Carlos. That's where they met.
06:18 And my dad finished chemistry and my mom studied accountancy.
06:22 But even then...
06:24 Sorry, University of San Carlos is in Cebu?
06:26 Yes, in Cebu.
06:27 Okay, just wanted to clarify that.
06:29 And they had this mutual interest in science and just in reading in general.
06:37 And in the course of their 20s, in their formative years, they started forming this vision of what kind of achievements out there in the world existed.
06:52 And because their vision was not limited to where they were, they had this kind of bigger context in which to place themselves.
07:01 So my parents, since I was very young, they already knew, kind of, they were always on the lookout for things to do for me, you know, to try to get me to be interested in many things.
07:15 So my mom, one time she saw this Jollibee commercial with Carmela Lau in it.
07:20 And Carmela Lau was our very first silver medalist of the International Mathematical Olympiad.
07:26 And more, even more, she was a young woman. And that inspired my mom so much.
07:31 And she was like, "Oh, Hilary, you should look at this commercial. Be inspired."
07:35 That's why, you know, they started getting me into math.
07:39 And I did math, as a result of that, I did math competitions from grade 1 up until grade 12.
07:45 And my dad also, he was very aware of these...
07:49 But how did you feel about that?
07:51 I mean, how did you feel that your mom kind of pushed you into doing the math?
07:56 That was okay with you? I mean, you enjoyed it? You never felt like, "Oh, I'd rather be playing outside rather than be preparing for these math competitions?"
08:05 Grade 1? Math competitions at grade 1? I mean, in grade 1, I just wanted to be in the playground, you know, and be with my friends.
08:12 Yeah.
08:13 That was okay with you?
08:15 In the beginning, when I was very young, I was very okay with it. Because I enjoyed math, and math gave me a lot of confidence in myself.
08:23 And to me, it was like play. Because I was very good at it, it felt like, you know, fun.
08:29 But later on, when I was, you know, a tween, teenager, I found new hobbies that were not, you know, that were not given to me by my parents.
08:42 I started, there was a bit of a clash, like my dad would, I had a competition coming up, like science quiz B, and I didn't study because I wanted to play this game.
08:54 So there was kind of a clash where my dad would have to put me, you know, you know, make me, remind me of discipline so that I could win the competition.
09:05 But it wasn't really just, I also had my own desires of winning the competition. So it wasn't exclusively from my parents.
09:13 And so, but as I grew up, I discovered more of my own interests, and they were very open to that.
09:22 I just want to quote from an intro on one of your platforms, you introduced yourself as someone who studies how ultra faint dwarf galaxies form.
09:34 So I'm quoting from your intro, "They are the oldest galaxies in the cosmos. You call them cosmic fossils, which give us clues about what the early universe looked like."
09:47 So at this point, our listeners are probably nosebleeding about cosmic fossils. I mean, fossils, dinosaur fossils are already kind of esoteric, but cosmic fossils?
09:57 Anyway, of all the things to study, why cosmic fossils or the oldest galaxies in the cosmos? Just in a nutshell, Hilary.
10:07 Yes. So actually, I found myself in this field of studying ultra faint dwarfs by chance.
10:13 So, during COVID summer, I couldn't find any research opportunities. And my friend was like, "Oh, does anyone else want to take this research opportunity?"
10:23 Because I accidentally signed up for another one. So I just grabbed that one.
10:28 And I found out that the research group was studying these very old stars and very old galaxies.
10:35 And I found it very interesting. And because I felt very well supported in the group, they were very good mentors.
10:42 And they really teach me everything from the basics up until what I know now. So I stayed in the group.
10:47 So this is actually the story of many different scientists. Now, they find themselves in a particular field by chance.
10:54 A lot of us don't premeditate about the specific subfield that we're in.
11:01 So on why I chose, on why I think ultra faint dwarfs are fascinating is also a different story.
11:11 Well, as you know, you mentioned dinosaur fossils, right? So archaeologists use these fossils.
11:18 They dig up these fossils from the ground so that we can learn about what the early Earth was like, what the climate was like, what the animals look like.
11:26 And we kind of do the same thing. So we call ourselves actually galactic and stellar archaeologists because we find these very old stars and very old galaxies.
11:38 And we look at their properties. So, you know, how bright they are, what kind of elements are in there.
11:42 So, you know, do they have gold in them? Do they have iron in them? Do they have this element called europium in them?
11:50 And looking at those elements, looking at what they're made of, how bright they are, how far they are from our own galaxy,
11:58 we can learn about the early universe. Because these oldest galaxies, they were born in the old, old times of the universe, the first billion years.
12:08 Our universe right now, we believe it to be around 13.8 billion years old, which is a long time.
12:15 So that's the time from the Big Bang where everything started and from until now.
12:19 But these ultra faint dwarf galaxies, we believe were born in the first few billion years.
12:25 Because they were born then, we believe that by studying them, by studying them using our own very advanced telescopes,
12:33 we can gain kind of a glimpse or a flashback into what the early universe was like.
12:39 Wow. I mean, I'm kind of blown away, Hilary, because I was a history major in college.
12:46 But for me, 500 years was already a long time. That's a longer time than what most historians are interested in.
12:53 Most Filipino historians are just interested in the last 150 years, since the last time.
12:59 But you were just talking about billions of years. So anyway, what you're doing and thinking about is way beyond my imagination.
13:10 So before I ask you anything else about science, I just want to say that what really impresses me about you is not even the science,
13:19 because much of that I don't even understand. But despite the advanced nature of your academic interests,
13:27 you're very engaged with the rest of the world. I find it very admirable and very difficult.
13:33 Because I would assume that to succeed in something so specialized, you would have to be totally focused.
13:42 Most people are. To succeed in something, you'd have to use the 10,000-hour theory of excelling in something.
13:50 You really have to be totally into it. And many of you who are into science are extremely focused on very narrow research interests,
13:58 which can be consuming. And I'm sure you've had this persona of being a geek early on,
14:05 someone who was obviously academically inclined. But yet even with this interest in cosmic fossils,
14:10 you've been able to maintain an interest in politics, even democracy movements.
14:14 You've expressed support for the Hong Kong democracy movement in your tweets. You're interested in free speech.
14:21 I've read some of your papers. And you've even called for being critical about your field, about science,
14:28 being skeptical about the motives of scientists, etc. So my question is, when did you decide that you are going to be this kind of scientist?
14:38 I started developing some kind of consciousness for science in society when I was in Philippine Science High School.
14:45 Because a lot of the scholars of PISAI, as we call Philippine Science High School,
14:51 they go on to UP and then they are activists in there. And I started hearing about what they are fighting for.
14:59 And I thought that it was worthwhile, definitely a worthwhile and meaningful thing to do.
15:04 But for me, myself, my own flashpoint was really early 2020, because that was when COVID was happening.
15:12 And I started realising really how equity, in particular vaccine equity, or how policies and our understanding of the virus,
15:24 our understanding of treatments, really go together in this very complicated mess.
15:31 And another thing that also was very formative for me, or transformative, was the Black Lives Matter movement,
15:41 as well in the US. I was in the US during that time and I kept myself very updated.
15:49 And as that movement was happening, of course, as a Filipino, I didn't have as much awareness about America's unique history with slavery.
15:57 But I started reading further and I discovered all of the atrocities that were committed against Black people,
16:05 sometimes even in the name of science. So some scientists were experimenting on Black people.
16:11 And that right now is a terrible, unconscionable crime.
16:17 And so realising all of these things, that science was actually involved in these things, these very deep issues in society,
16:30 was really such a transformative event for me. And it just made so much sense.
16:36 Now, why would I limit myself to science when, you know, science, in order for science to actually be a tool to help humanity,
16:46 which is what I believe science should be, in order for it to be a tool to help humanity,
16:51 scientists should not limit themselves to just the study itself.
16:56 We need to be more conscious about what the greater effects are.
17:01 And one example of that is the big movie going on right now, which is Oppenheimer.
17:06 And Oppenheimer was deeply troubled by his contributions to the atomic bomb later on.
17:13 And so that's why he was a vocal opponent. He was a vocal supporter against nuke.
17:21 He was very much against nuclear weapons, basically.
17:25 And I started learning more about scientists who were activists, who thought deeply about whether studying bacteria
17:35 was going to lead into something more, or studying genes was going to lead into something more, something deeper that we had to think about.
17:44 So that was my own background.
17:48 Yeah. And, you know, part of this engagement is being critical of policy, policymakers, political leaders, the government.
17:56 And you posted a message from one of your bashers, basically saying, "Stick to science."
18:06 "You're too young to comment on politics."
18:11 "You're too naive and you don't really know what you're talking about," etc.
18:15 And then you pushed back.
18:17 You said, "Science seeks to discover truths about the universe, however inconvenient these truths may be."
18:25 "To be apolitical as a scientist is to turn against truth."
18:29 "To be apolitical is to reject the very spirit of science."
18:34 So basically, I guess, you're a very young scientist.
18:42 If a lot of older scientists, like Oppenheimer himself, had done this soul-searching before they invented the atomic bomb,
18:50 maybe we'd be in a better place.
18:52 And I think that's basically what you're saying.
18:55 Because of the kind of damage that science can do, we really need to have more of a conscience.
19:03 We really need to be more skeptical and critical of what we do.
19:07 Exactly.
19:09 Yeah. And speaking of which, and I know this has probably been part of your conversations with a lot of people there,
19:15 artificial intelligence.
19:17 There are various camps about this, but I read this statement from technology leaders about maybe more than a month ago,
19:28 maybe two months ago, about saying that artificial intelligence has the potential to cause the extinction of the human species.
19:35 Technology leaders, sure.
19:38 And you'll also hear from others who are saying, "Oh, those people just want a monopoly on artificial intelligence.
19:46 That's why they want it regulated, etc."
19:49 And it's actually much more beneficial than harmful.
19:54 But where do you stand on AI?
19:57 I know, you've been thinking about the ethics of science and technology.
20:06 And what is AI really capable of doing?
20:11 And is there a way of stopping its worst effects?
20:15 So, for me, I just want to preface this by saying that I don't study AI and its social implications myself.
20:25 So I'm not an expert in it, but I've had some experience reading with, you know, as you said,
20:31 some opinions of some technology leaders about how it could potentially end the world.
20:36 And for me, I'm not really in that camp.
20:40 Like, I don't believe it can end the world.
20:42 And in terms of speaking about, you know, what things can end the world, what things should we focus our attention on,
20:48 the thing that we should really be focusing on is climate change.
20:51 Because that's really what we're facing, some very unprecedented times, you know,
20:57 sea levels are rising, Antarctic ice is melting, and then there are a lot of migrations and so on.
21:04 So this is really the thing that we should be thinking about if we really want to think about the end of the world.
21:10 And if you want to think about the end of the world, you need to prioritize.
21:13 But I do agree that AI will have some very positive but also some negative effects.
21:20 And so the positive effect, some would say is that it can make things very efficient.
21:27 And some, as people already know, right now from chat GPT, I know some employers are using the tool to, you know,
21:36 make their processes more efficient, you know.
21:39 And some students are also making it to, you know, write their essays and so on.
21:44 And it depends on where people stand on the use of this tool.
21:49 But we all agree that it can make things more efficient.
21:53 But the negative thing that could happen from this is that it disrupts jobs.
21:59 This is the one of the biggest concerns that I've heard.
22:02 And that is definitely true.
22:05 That is a negative effect to certain kinds of certain kinds of employee.
22:11 But it could also lead into a bigger change into what kinds of work will we even employ people to do.
22:19 So if we can automate certain kinds of jobs that will require, you know, especially the more labor intensive jobs,
22:31 some technology leaders are saying that those could be replaced by AI.
22:36 So what then are we going to employ people for? What kinds of jobs are we going to give people?
22:41 And this has led to some conversations about upskilling yourself.
22:46 So, you know, giving yourself skills such that you won't be replaced by AI.
22:51 And some people are saying, you know, you should learn about communication or copywriting or coding.
22:59 But even that is also being taken over by AI.
23:02 So it's all a very messy thing. And it remains to be seen where exactly we will go.
23:11 OK. I'm interested also in probably a lot of people about your life as a student there.
23:18 MIT is known as being very rigorous. And obviously, even if you're smart, everyone there is smart.
23:24 So it's quite competitive. And going through your Twitter feed and social media, I mean, it hasn't always been easy for you, apparently.
23:35 People might think, oh, she's so smart. She's done this and that. Life is so easy for her.
23:41 But in May 2021, you tweeted, I'm going to say it plain and simple, I'm tired and burned out.
23:49 It sounded worrisome. Did your parents read that? I mean, I'm a parent.
23:55 If I read my college student son tweeting that, I'd be a bit worried.
24:00 Looking back, I mean, obviously you survived that. You're doing well despite whatever happened in school.
24:10 But how difficult was school for you? People might think it was so easy since you graduated with all of these honors.
24:17 But were you really burning out at one point?
24:22 For me, school was very difficult, but I really wanted to work hard and I had very clear goals that I wanted to set for myself.
24:30 Like, oh, I wanted to get into this grad school so I could do this kind of research.
24:34 So I had very clear goals. But the process to get to that was very difficult.
24:40 And the reason why I wanted to tweet that was one, I was tired, but also number two, I wanted to normalize feelings of tiredness or normalize a sense of failure.
24:53 Because when people talk to me or when they see me talk about my journey in public, they tend to think that, oh, I'm perfect or everything is easy, as you said.
25:03 But these journeys are very difficult. And I wanted to talk about those very openly so that people can recognize all the different dimensions of being a young student in that time, 2021.
25:18 And I think it's healthy to acknowledge that, especially for me with a platform.
25:27 I have this platform to reach many students and if they see me feeling tired and burnt out, which was a very normal feeling back then during the pandemic,
25:39 I thought it would make it, we could find some kind of common ground in that feeling.
25:45 And at least we could commiserate in the universal experience of being tired.
25:52 Because I'm really not, I'm not out of the ordinary, in my opinion.
25:57 I'm just one student who has goals and I want to make, I want to inspire other people to feel like, oh, we're all the same.
26:06 So that's one of the reasons why I really, I try to be more open about failing some exams or not wanting to submit some problem sets.
26:16 And I think that's kind of a healthy thing to do, especially for someone with a platform.
26:22 Well, obviously that attitude has worked out. Another thing you tweeted, no?
26:29 College is just an endless cycle of feeling big brain one moment and then small brain the next.
26:35 What did you mean by that?
26:37 This is back in, sorry, this is way back. I don't know if you recall tweeting all these things, but this is May 28, 2021.
26:44 I'm just highlighting what kind of stood out for me in terms of, something that surprised me about you.
26:51 I mean, you had these mood swings. So what is feeling big brain one moment and then small brain?
26:57 Is that just a matter of feeling smart and feeling dumb or what?
27:01 Kind of like that. So for me, I think it's kind of normal in the journey of acquiring knowledge
27:10 when at one point when I'm this concept, oh, you feel so big brain, like, oh, I finally understand it.
27:17 But the next day you find out, oh, the thing that I just learned actually is in this bigger context of facts and knowledge.
27:29 And the thing I just learned is actually just a small part of that.
27:32 And then you start realizing how little you know. So you feel small brain, which is a very colloquial way of putting it.
27:40 And I think it's very natural for people to feel that way. Oh, I get this. And actually, I don't get it.
27:47 I get this. I don't get it. But it also kind of hints at, I was also trying to hint at bigger feelings of imposter syndrome,
27:56 which is another big, another salient feeling that many young people feel now.
28:04 Oh, I feel like I'm not good enough. I feel like I'm not smart enough to be in this college.
28:09 And I was definitely feeling that for a lot of MIT and actually until now.
28:14 And this is a feeling that I want to highlight as well as, you know, being normal, especially for women.
28:22 Women tend to feel a lot more imposter syndrome than men. And this has been a well-studied phenomenon.
28:28 And as a woman trying to inspire younger women to get into science, I want to tell them that it is part of your journey to feel that way.
28:37 And it is our work to, you know, to try to minimize, to acknowledge that this feeling is valid, but also try to minimize feelings like this in the future.
28:47 What things can we change so that we don't, so that this imposter syndrome is less pressing?
28:54 What have you missed about the Philippines?
28:57 The food. So the thing I miss a lot about the Philippines is the food.
29:04 That's why I've been cooking Biko and Adobo here in the US. But I also miss the warmth of the Philippines.
29:12 I've noticed that being in the US, friendships don't form as easily.
29:19 And also when you meet people for the first time, people aren't very open.
29:22 They have a lot more boundaries about what they're willing to share.
29:27 But in the Philippines, you just go up to someone and then within five minutes you start talking about what's bothering you.
29:34 Here in the US, I noticed that it takes at least three one-hour meetings or three food meetups to even get to that point.
29:45 So I think I really miss that kind of warmth or the feeling of parang close na kayo kaagad even if you had just met the person.
29:53 Yeah, but Filipinos, that's why Filipinos in the US and other countries, they tend to flock to each other.
30:01 Partly for that reason. So don't you? Don't you hang out with other Filipinos?
30:07 I didn't find them very early on. So part of that was because of COVID.
30:14 So I couldn't really socialize with a lot of Filipinos.
30:16 And the next thing was that there weren't many Filipinos coming from the Philippines in MIT.
30:22 So there were only a handful of us, less than 10 Filipinos in MIT.
30:27 There were more filams, of course. So I only really started finding a Filipino community here after Lenny Robredo came to Harvard.
30:37 And then lahat na mga, so many of us went there and then we all met each other.
30:45 And that was where I started finding a network of Filipino scholars and academics.
30:51 And it was pretty recent. So I didn't find my community early on.
30:57 So, you know, you're from Leyte, a part of Leyte that was really hit hard by Typhoon Yolanda, International Navy Forces, Hayan.
31:10 And you've said that Super Typhoon Hayan or Yolanda and the COVID-19 pandemic were cases where better science communication could have saved thousands of lives.
31:33 Paano? I mean, for example, let's start with Hayan. I can understand yun sa COVID.
31:42 Pero how could science communication have saved more lives during Typhoon Yolanda?
31:53 I suppose the science communication before the typhoon hit, di ba?
31:56 Yes. Or what were you talking about when you said that science communication could have saved people from being killed by Typhoon Yolanda?
32:04 Well, one thing was my own experience. So my own experience was that I personally didn't even know what a storm surge was.
32:14 Which means that there was really not enough education on what storm surges were and what risks they carried.
32:26 And this was not true just for me. This was true for many other people in the region.
32:32 And as a result, people didn't appreciate what kind of risks they carried, how bad it could have been.
32:40 How old were you then? I was 14.
32:44 But you were already interested in science. So someone like you, who's already a future MIT student, even someone like you didn't know what a storm surge was, ano pa kaya yung ordinaryong tao?
32:56 Yeah. But I mean, even ordinary people who, yung mga mangingisda, they probably know more about storm surges than I do. Of course, they would know.
33:07 But another thing that was actually studied as well, Professor Raul Lejano in NYU, he studied this on, you know, he conducted several interviews on how exactly communication was done before Haiyan.
33:26 And he found out that it was really not just the information that was transmitted was inadequate, the information transmission system was also inadequate.
33:38 So aside from not telling, aside from not being good at telling us what a storm surge was, how the storm surge information was delivered to people and communities was not very, very good.
33:52 So one key finding in that research was that when Pag-asa does weather bulletins, it does it in a very hierarchical way.
34:03 So mula sa, you know, yung central office in NCR, they transmit this information to the regional level, to the town, to the city level, and even the barangay level.
34:15 During these transmission to the different jurisdictions, the message doesn't change.
34:23 And that's unfortunate because the context in which this message should be put should change.
34:30 So yung message from NCR and the message from this seaside sitio or barangay should be different because this seaside sitio, the message to them should be contextualized in what they should expect in their own town.
34:48 So what should we expect in terms of wind? What should we expect in terms of sea level rise? Or how does our architecture or infrastructure, how will this storm interact with our infrastructure specifically?
35:08 Like kung kubo yung meron dito or kung yung malalaking bahay, how would the storm look like in these different contexts?
35:17 And that was one of the key things that they found that because the context of the message didn't change,
35:24 and because the officials in charge of transmitting these weather bulletins didn't feel like they could add context,
35:35 kasi yung message dapat yun lang talaga, no more, no less.
35:39 And this kind of strict and hierarchical information transmission chain made it very hard for the local communities to really understand what the storm surge meant.
35:56 And one interesting thing also was that yun sa one of the key Haiyan weather bulletins, yung storm surge is parang isa lang, parang footnote lang siya at that time.
36:09 And that was, and that's very surprising given how the storm surge was actually the most damaging part of the storm.
36:16 So it really required contextualizing at all the different levels. And I think if that happened, that could have also saved more lives.
36:26 And then, I mean, looking back now, what would have been the best ways of, I mean, kunyari, someone got the message right, how should it have been communicated?
36:39 I mean, how? Sabi mo mga fishermen, mga ordinaryong tao, should it have been through radio or online?
36:47 You're mostly an online person, no? You're on YouTube, et cetera, no?
36:51 But would that have been, should that have been the chosen medium for most of this messaging?
36:58 It's all about context. So there are, for the young people, if you want to reach them, then of course reach them through social media and online.
37:06 But there are also some contexts, like for example, in certain barangays, their information is transmitted orally, then definitely do that orally.
37:15 And that's why important talaga na yung message is transmitted in a very contextualized way, na dapat it's specific to the kinds of people that you're trying to reach.
37:29 Because you can't reach smaller barangays where there's not very good English literacy.
37:35 You can't reach them with a preset weather bulletin from Agpagasa na written in English.
37:41 You have to translate that into the local vernacular, but not only translate it into the local vernacular, tell them what it really means.
37:48 Like, what should they see in the storm? What should they expect in very real and concrete terms?
37:55 So hindi enough na ita-translate lang to the local vernacular, if you really want to save lives with communication.
38:03 I'm going to ask you now about advice that you would give to students who are thinking now, how to be like you.
38:13 I'm smart, I'm good in science, how do I get to MIT? How do I get to a prestigious school overseas?
38:23 Because you've said previously, I sincerely believe every single PISAI student or student from Philippine Science High School can get into a school abroad, no doubt.
38:36 But almost no one can afford to pay at least $55,000 a year. Is that tuition lang or does that include board and lodging? All in na bayon or tuition lang yung?
38:47 It depends on which school. For MIT, that's only tuition, but for some schools, that includes everything.
38:54 So sa MIT, $55,000 a year, tuition lang? So hindi pa yung pagkaain mo and all of that, airfare to get there, etc.
39:03 So I guess reading that, parang sabi mo almost no one can afford to pay at least $55,000 a year.
39:12 So a PISAI student who's talented, thinking that he can get into a school abroad, and you yourself say there's no doubt that kaya niya, but he cannot afford it.
39:22 Pero ikaw sabi mo nga kanina na you didn't come from a well-off community. You went to a public school, you went to a public high school.
39:31 Well, you made it to MIT. So why close the door on others when you yourself made it?
39:40 So there must have been a way to be able to do it.
39:47 I'd like to clarify that because that tweet was in the context of this one PISAI student who applied to a school in the US and then he got in, pero hindi siya nakakuha ng financial aid.
40:03 And the problem with that was that he also had to fundraise for the initial deposit to get into the university.
40:13 And yung fundraising niya, it went viral. And I really commend him for the efforts to do all that fundraising.
40:20 And it was just very unfortunate na I think at the end of it all, hindi siya natuloy kasi I think his visa got denied.
40:29 Really?
40:31 Yeah.
40:32 I mean, nakapasok ka sa isang prestigious school and you're such a great, from the bootstraps kind of story, and then idi-deny ka ng US government.
40:41 Wow, that's pretty. Medyo masaklap yun.
40:43 It actually, it's a very unfortunate story that happens to many students.
40:48 And so that was my context. And that's why I was talking about PISAI students specifically.
40:53 I believe PISAI students, given how talented they are, could get into a US university.
41:01 Pero I didn't mean to say na I was closing the door on these other talented students.
41:07 I just wanted to give people, you know, some kind of a reality check.
41:12 Na yes, getting into these schools is amazing.
41:16 But it's unfortunate that students can't pursue these amazing opportunities just because of how expensive they are.
41:24 So I wanted to highlight more of the hardships of getting money to get to your dreams.
41:32 And so I was commenting on that. And so that was one side of the story.
41:41 But there's also other kinds of students who have been very successful in getting financial aid.
41:46 And so that's why when people want to go to school abroad, I encourage them to find schools that give financial aid to international students.
41:55 Because there are certain schools that give a lot of financial aid to international students.
42:02 So, for example, you know, the big schools, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Amherst College, they're all very good schools.
42:09 And if you get in, even if as long as you get in, regardless of your financial need or whatnot,
42:17 they will give you as much as the money that you need to get in there.
42:23 But there's also other schools that give merit based financial aid.
42:27 So they ask you to write a letter or they ask you to submit a resume in order to get a scholarship.
42:34 And that's a different kind of financial aid.
42:36 And so to all the students who aspire to go to schools abroad or in the US,
42:44 prioritize your financial situation, thinking about your financial situation first.
42:50 And that doesn't mean that there aren't schools that will give you financial aid.
42:54 There are. You just have to look for them.
42:56 And so that's why it's important because a lot of students get very excited by the idea of going to school abroad.
43:06 But it sucks because they get very excited about the dream that they forget about the real costs, the real financial costs of going there.
43:16 So I recommend thinking about the money and the dream at the same time.
43:22 And but I also wanted to add that going to school abroad isn't the only good dream out there, you know,
43:31 because we as a parang, there has been so much hype about all these young Filipino students getting into schools abroad.
43:39 And yes, of course, we should celebrate them.
43:42 This is a great achievement and it requires great courage to even apply in the first place.
43:47 But I want to add that there are also amazing things to do in the Philippines.
43:51 The only great things to do aren't just outside the Philippines.
43:55 There are amazing. You can be successful and amazing if you stay in the Philippines as well.
44:01 Well, and then speaking of which, you've spoken about returning to the Philippines.
44:06 You've said that you plan to take home to the Philippines whatever you learn and use it for the country.
44:15 But you said this, you might have said this like a couple of years ago.
44:20 So now that you've graduated from MIT and you're going to be in this doctoral program,
44:26 studying something really complex and specialized at the University of Chicago,
44:32 do you still feel the same way about returning to the Philippines?
44:37 Absolutely. I still feel the same way.
44:41 The only thing that's very uncertain for me is how exactly I will do that.
44:45 I have, I feel a very strong sense of obligation to return to the Philippines because that's really where, you know,
44:52 that's the country where I'm from. That's the community that I know.
44:56 And I really feel that I personally can make a big impact there if I just bring all of the things that I've learned here.
45:04 But the only thing I saw, I'm fairly certain about going to the Philippines.
45:09 The only uncertainty is how and when I will do that.
45:12 How exactly, what job will I take to do this or when exactly in my career will I do that?
45:19 But given my strong sense of obligation to the Philippines, I know I will really return.
45:26 You've had these four years of interacting with people at MIT.
45:29 Now you're going to have another several years at the University of Chicago.
45:32 And I can imagine when you go home, who will you talk to about all of these complex things?
45:41 Yeah, but that's the good thing about having all of these things like Zoom because, you know, people,
45:50 these networks of scientists can extend everywhere in the world now.
45:56 And that's a very democratizing factor.
45:59 But that's it. There really isn't that much of a community, especially in astrophysics,
46:05 because you need facilities to do astrophysics.
46:11 And that definitely is a weak spot in the Philippines.
46:17 But my focus, when are we going to start building that community?
46:23 So if I can't talk to anyone in the near future, then who should start making that community of people?
46:31 And I feel like I want to be part of that group of people who want to build that community,
46:36 mentoring the younger students, getting them interested in astronomy and making a scholarly community in the Philippines.
46:44 And there's already been very good work done right now in starting that community,
46:49 particularly in UP Diliman, the National Institute of Physics.
46:53 So Dr. Reina Reyes and Dr. Ian Vega, they're both doing, they both have astronomy,
47:00 astrophysics related backgrounds, and they returned to the Philippines and they're mentoring their own students and they're producing.
47:07 Given the short time that their research groups have been around, they've made so many contributions.
47:14 And I think it's very amazing to see that in real time.
47:18 And in the future, I want to help do that kind of thing, but I'm not sure exactly how I will do that.
47:27 But it is happening. I'm building that scholarly community.
47:32 This has been very uplifting, Hillary. I'm so happy to hear that. And it's been a real pleasure to talk to you.
47:39 We're all proud of you, Hillary, and we're looking forward to what you'll become and contribute to the world and not just to our country.
47:46 Mabuhay ka, Hillary, Diane, and Dallas, new MIT graduate who has graduated with many honors
47:55 and now incoming PhD student in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago.
48:02 Maraming maraming salamat for this interview, Hillary.
48:05 Maraming salamat po.
48:06 Hi, I'm Howie Severino. Check out the Howie Severino Podcast, an original for GMA News and Public Affairs.
48:13 New episodes will stream every Thursday. Listen for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and other platforms.
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