The university of Iowa College of Education

Fall 2006

Table of Contents

From Morocco to Malawi, from Florida to California and everywhere in between, The University of Iowa College of Education’s alumni put their creativity into action - increasing learning, demonstrating courage, changing lives.

Cleofe Bacungan (Ph.D. ‘63) is known as “the little lady who moved mountains.”

She was the first registrar for the Philippine Science High School (PSHS), founded in 1964, and later became the school’s director, helping it become a top institution in her country.

“She pushed the PSHS to greater heights and placed it at par with the top science high schools in the world,” said Rhodora “Dola” Apolinario, whose two daughters attended PSHS in the 1980s.

She also initiated the idea of expanding the school into a network called the PSHS System, now with eight campuses all over The Republic of the Philippines.

Bacungan was just returning from earning her doctorate in Science Education at The University of Iowa College of Education when PSHS, a government-funded school, was getting off the ground. She said she incorporated many things she learned at the UI to help create the new school. The Iowa Testing Programs inspired the school’s highly selective admissions system, which helped PSHS attract the most gifted students in the Philippines.

Bacungan said she also tried to recreate the UI’s ambiance.

“In Iowa, I saw how a school can become a vibrant community not only of students and teachers but also of the alumni and citizenry,” she said. “I therefore encouraged the PSHS parents, alumni, and the community to become active partners in PSHS education, and truly they played a valuable part in the growth and development of the school.”

Bacungan was the school’s registrar from 1964 to 1967. In 1967, she was sworn in as the school’s director, a post she held until she retired in 1986.

Bacungan, the daughter of two teachers, was known as a strict, but caring educator.

Laura Ibanez, a 1970 PSHS graduate who is now a U.S. author, said she wishes there were more educators like Bacungan, “selfless, devoted, generous to children, willing to laugh with them, willing to discipline them, and willing to impart wisdom so they could grow up and shape the world.”

But the Philippines was going through a rough political and social period during her years as director. President Ferdinand Marcos’s strong arm rule led to extensive, often violent protests. Bacungan had to work with both her students, many of whom took on activist roles, and the government, which funded the school.

“So, there I was, caught between the collective angst of the PSHS studentry who saw me as seemingly too repressive, and the growing impatience of the government authorities who saw me as too permissive,” she said.

Somehow, Bacungan found a way to work with both sides and keep the school thriving.

“She showed true grit when sailing through troubled waters,” Apolinario said. “Some days she would be dancing the tango with the PSHS student activists, other days she would be waltzing with the president to give her a bigger budget.”

The government reportedly almost closed the school at one point, complaining that it had become a “hotbed of student activism.” But Bacungan kept it open and even managed to help the school grow and expand into newer, more modern facilities.

Despite their sometimes rocky relations, Bacungan said her PSHS students continue to make her proud. Graduates have gone on to hold top university and government posts and earn top honors in many fields in the Philippines and around the world. Many have children who also attended PSHS.

After retiring at age 65, Bacungan continued to serve her school by working with the PSHS Foundation, the fundraising arm of the school, until she turned 82.

On her 85 th birthday in January 2006, the school community honored Bacungan for her decades of dedication by putting together a book of photographs and essays about her life and work. Bacungan considers the book, Romancing the Gifted, “the best reward that a teacher can ever receive.”

Through their essays in the book, her former students made it clear that they reaped many rewards from Bacungan as well. Reynaldo Vea, valedictorian of the school’s first graduating class in 1969 and now president of the Mapua Institute of Technology, said he continues to admire Bacungan’s patience and tenacity at PSHS.

He echoes the sentiments of the school’s 8,000 alumni when says, “I am awed at Dr. Bacungan’s total devotion to the school and am very respectful of and thankful for the results of such a deep commitment.”