by Rhodora “Olah” Romero-Aldemita (DST ’77)

I am the second of five children of a middle class family. My mother Cecilia Ortega was a public school teacher and my late father Romeo B. Romero was a Singer Sewing Machine Company sales supervisor and a businessman in San Pablo City where I was born and raised. I dreamed of becoming a medical doctor, which became my motivation to excel in school. However, after my father died in a motorbike accident when I was only 11 years old, my dream drastically changed into taking any career that would allow me to finish my education quickly and get a job with reasonable pay in order to help my mother support the family and the education of my siblings.

Olah

Olah

I graduated valedictorian in Ambray Elementary School, was a scholar and honor student all throughout high school in Laguna College, San Pablo City and was able to enter the University of the Philippines Los Baños in 1975 under the grant-in-aid program. We were only required to have at least 2.5 average yata, so it was a bit easy. The stipend I got from this program was always remitted entirely to my mother to be shared with my other siblings. I was initially in the BS Sugar Technology program but was discouraged to continue because the sugar industry was not doing well back then and many major students were invited to shift to another course. So I shifted to the BS Agriculture program major in Plant Pathology with the help of my then roommate and best friend Evelyn “Lelen” Fernandez-Delfin (Crystal ’77). I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in 1980.

While writing my thesis, I was able to get a student assistantship at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) under the mentorship of our sis Lina Baraoidan-Torrizo (batch Hipon ’72), of course with the help of Malou Torrizo-Santos (Repertory ’76), my high school classmate, and roommate in Women’s dorm together with Lelen. So when I obtained my bachelor’s degree I already had a waiting employment. I worked with sis Lina for 11 years under Dr. Francisco Javier Zapata. It was really “a dream come” true for me because being employed in IRRI and receiving good salary was a welcome relief for my mother who was supporting the university education of my three other siblings.

During my employment at IRRI I was exposed to the exciting world of biotechnology and was sent two times abroad for training: in Beijing, China for three weeks and then in Gif-sur-Yvette, Paris, France for 9 months.

I got married in 1983 to Nestor Aldemita, a forester and a co-choir member of the First Evangelical Church, a member of the protestant United Church of Christ in the Philippines based in San Pablo City. At the same time I started my master’s degree program and started having babies too. It was really tough but my husband and my in-laws were super supportive. I obtained my Master of Science degree major in Agronomy in 1988 through the IRRI Junior Researchers Advancement Program. I had two baby girls in 1984 and 1986.

I was soon promoted to research assistant, but the rising cost of living and the instability of junior researchers at IRRI prompted me to go for further studies. My younger brother, Gabriel, received a Rockefeller Foundation Pre-doctoral Fellowship, resigned from IRRI, and got a study leave with pay from his new employer, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). Since my children were still in their formative years, I followed his lead. I was also granted a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to pursue doctoral studies at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana under the Plant Physiology Program of the Department of Plant Pathology and Physiology. With this, I was able to get a study leave with pay from my new employer, the PhilRice.

Things were different in the United States. We moved there when my girls were 4 and 6. We neither had house help nor in-laws, thus it was hard at first. Slowly, we taught the girls how to do certain house chores and to care for themselves. With the help and cooperation of my husband, and a lot of organizing, and systematizing, I was able to raise my girls well, was an “okey” wife and a doctoral student at Purdue University. My husband took a Masters Course in Computing and computer programming units in the same university while taking odd jobs in his extra time.

Last Updated on October 12, 2016 by Tudla_Admin