Thanks be to DoDDS

by Phoebe Delacruz

If you've ever heard the words "DoDDS system," you're probably familiarwith someone who lived on an overseas military installation. The DoDDS system is the Department of Defense Dependents School system, the network of schools established to provide the children of military personnel overseas with quality K-12 education. Until 1991, I spent nine years in the DoDDS system schools on Clark Air Base, Philippines. After having graduated from a South Carolina high school in 1994 and observing my younger siblings' grade school experience in the Sumter, South Carolina, and Salinas, California, school systems, I've realized how lucky I was to establish a solid educational and personal foundation while in the DoDDS system. I credit the formal and informal education I gained from grades one through nine for preparing me for life's challenges.

Life's challenges are those major events in one's life that bring about new responsibility, and sometimes realization and clarity. They include such milestones as graduating from high school, starting college, getting a job and getting married. Of these few named milestones, I have reached all but the nuptials. Fortunately, I have done so in a mature and open-minded manner, which can be attributed to challenging classes, inspiring educators, frequent evaluation and the extra-curricular activities offered at the DoDDS schools I attended. These factors contributed to my self-development in terms of possessing the analytical and communication skills necessary in everyday life and having the confidence to use them. With them, I have become an independent young woman who thrives on being organized and enjoys solving problems.

One of the major purposes of grade school is to develop practical skills. In particular, I was glad to have acquired strong analytical skills during my nine years in the DoDDS system. On my first day of school at Hillcrest High in South Carolina, I found myself one of three girls in an Algebra II class of 30 students. At first, it was difficult to adjust to this unfamiliar situation. Fortunately, I was not intimidated for long and, pretty soon, I was holding my own and then some. I owe this success to each of my math teachers, all of whom truly inspired me and excited within me an interest in mathematics.

My early memories are of regular timed tests in Mrs. Timeus' class in fourth grade. At the start of math class every afternoon, we cleared our desks and took out a number two pencil. Some of us stalled by getting in line to sharpen our pencils. Each day, I would strive to beat my previous time. Mrs. Timeus also used other games and contests to get us interested in math. Later, in 7th grade, Mr. Zaher introduced a relatively high number of girls (including me) and a relatively low number of boys to pre-algebra. Each year was another challenging year of math made easier with the support of my fellow female friends. I was very fortunate to learn in an environment that encouraged girls to excel in a subject matter historically dominated by boys.

In 8th grade, I received what I thought was the opportunity of a lifetime in another area also considered to be dominated by males. During that school year, the Tsukuba Science Symposium (an annual science conference in Japan of DoDDS high school students) invited 8th graders to participate. Because I was not especially interested in the sciences (and because my real goal was to spend a week in Japan without my parents), the results of my project were not very meaningful. I did make it to Japan, however, and returned to the Philippines a week later a changed thirteen-year old with a new sense of humble independence. During the trip, I learned a few practicalities about "living" on my own the hard way. First, I learned never to underestimate the value of a good jacket and quality shoes. As I was determined to pack on my own, I had packed fashionably as any pre-pubescent would, not realizing that Japan in April was wet and cold, unlike the hot and humid Philippines. I also learned a quick lesson in money management, that I should have consumed the free, tasteless food provided us rather than have no money to buy tangible mementos to represent my Japanese experience.

Strangely enough, it was during the trip to Japan that I learned to accept my changing body. We stayed in what used to be an all-male dormitory that had only communal baths. Since the daily activities started early in the morning, by the third day, I could no longer stay up as late as possible just to make it to the bathroom for my lonesome. The female figures I saw were "normal" like mine; none of us looked like the images we were presented on television and in magazines. Finally, I learned that the world is not as innocent as my idealistic nature assumed it to be. On our last night there, a fellow 8th grader and I walked around the neighborhood and found a video store. Curious to see what kind of movies they offered, we giggled at the goofy comedies and made fun of the tacky-looking dramas. When we happened upon the unmistakable adult section right in the middle of the video store, in full view of any minors like us who might come in, we decided to leave. The next morning, while packing up my run-down shoes, clothes and extremely inexpensive souvenirs, I found a men's magazine full of naked Japanese women. My trip to Japan opened my eyes wider than any other experience had to date.

This small taste of independence changed me. I looked at living on my own in a different light. In South Carolina, I moved into a residential school during my junior year of high school. After my family's help bringing everything to my room on the fourth floor, I cried the minute they left. Those next two years of "freedom" were made a little easier by the small lessons I learned from my trip to Japan. I tried to be more practical in all matters, especially money management. When I moved into my first apartment in 1995, the year I began my first year at Cal, I reflected on my trip to Japan and realized the true independence I was about to begin.

For each of the various schools and jobs to which I've applied, I have had to promote my strengths and my competencies. In 1992, I successfully applied for one of 60 spaces (30 of which were for girls) in the Class of '94 of the South Carolina Governor's School for Science and Math. In 1994, I was accepted into the University of California at Berkeley. Almost two years ago, I got a job in a corporate law department after having no prior related work experience. I owe these small triumphs in part to the basic communication skills I established, beginning in first grade.

Mr. Flaherty was my first grade teacher as well as my first male teacher. Not that it makes a difference, but I am happy to report that Mr. Flaherty was a motivational teacher who fostered a cheerful environment in which we first-time official students could learn. Unlike my younger brother and sister, we didn't have four recesses in first grade, nor did we have two sessions of 30-minute silent reading (a ploy to keep hyper children quiet and busy, no doubt). Not to say that their first grade wasn't effective, but the individual, personal attention I received during that first year of school worked out great for me. In particular, I remember an afternoon activity involving a reading station. Books of matching colors denoted various reading levels, and we were tested with enjoyable activities to advance to the next level.

This constant evaluation pushed me to succeed. Each year of school, we took CTBS tests, which I later learned were the California Tests of Basic Skills. This constant evaluation allowed teachers to identify those who needed extra help and actually give them that help. (Although I have no factual knowledge of this, I do remember seeing Mr. Flaherty spending more time with those who didn't read as well.) Like the timed tests, the constant evaluation also pushed me to try to do better each year. I especially thank the rigorous course of reading and writing in my 9th grade English class. We had a daily journal in which we wrote for ten minutes each day, as well as weekly writing assignments in which we practiced various writing styles and reviewed the assignments of our peers. We were also required to present book reports rather than simply writing them.

With the development of my communication skills, I was naturally inclined to involve myself in student activities. I participated in various student councils, and served as president of the Wagner Middle School student council and, later, as the president of my freshman class. I was elected to these positions because I ran effective campaigns and was able to convince my friends and classmates that I would represent and lead them well. It was through student activities like these that I strengthened the confidence I had in myself. I initiated the first 8th grade banquet when there had previously been no recognition of the middle school graduation to high school. During freshman year, we rallied to be the class most successful in decorating campaigns, like our Homecoming float and our Christmas hall-decorating contest.

Successes like these prompted me to participate in many extra-curricular activities the following year when we moved to South Carolina. Most notably, I involved myself in the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), later becoming president of our state chapter. Without the confidence I gained in my DoDDS school years, I would not have pushed myself so hard to succeed.

The final skill to which I credit the DoDDS school system is my problem-solving ability. Similar to the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program my brother and sister are currently in, I was involved with the Talented and Gifted (TAG) program offered in first through sixth grades. In this program, I was shown different ways of approaching issues. Each day was a lesson in creativity. We also participated in Odyssey of the Mind, an annual competition in which young minds solve various problems, like making the longest possible chain using a straw, a rubber band, a paper clip and an 8.5x11" piece of paper. Our field trips were to exotic places, like Mount Arayat, a dormant volcano, and Fort Santiago, a stronghold during the Philippine Civil War. I especially remember one day in sixth grade when Mrs. Sherwood was uncharacteristically late for class. An unfamiliar man in his late twenties came in and acted as if he expected to have a meeting in our classroom. After our small class of thirteen kids convinced him he was in the wrong place, he left. A few minutes later, Mrs. Sherwood came in. After we told her about the man who was just in the classroom, she proceeded to ask us questions about him: his height, hair color, age, weight, distinguishing features. Afterward, the man, finally introduced to us as her son, came back into the classroom. The topic of the day was revealed to be the accuracy of eyewitness observations.

Ever since my final year in the TAG program, I've looked at every situation from different angles and different views, as well as mentally organizing each in a way that makes sense to me. I have found that I have an aptitude for always trying to find the most efficient method in any process. This ability has so far proven useful in my current job. As I stated earlier, I have limited work experience. However, in the one and a half years I have been in the Corporate Law Department at the California State Automobile Association, I have accomplished a lot. I was promoted to legal secretary after three months of receptionist work, during which I streamlined many of my receptionist responsibilities and thus made time to provide back-up support to the secretaries. Now, in addition to my legal secretary duties, I serve on my department's technology committee, for which I write hints to the new applications we have recently adopted, essentially showing the easiest way to accomplish various tasks. For a developmental project, I am writing our department's first operations manual in which I outline all of our current procedures and policies. During the draft process, I can subtly make suggestions for those policies and procedures that appear to be inefficient, can be simplified, or may be helped with the use of technology.

Writing this paper has been a brisk walk down memory lane. I sometimes wonder how my experiences tie together and whether they truly make me what I am today. Sometimes I feel as if I have failed those people who have helped me succeed by not already having my bachelor's degree or by not having a great "intellectual" job. And then I smile because I remember that I have lived and am living life for me. And I smile a little brighter because I have made it this far with the help of my friends. Thankfully, I came to the United States, the "real" world, the "mainland," without the naivete I surely would have possessed had I not experienced elementary and middle school life in the DoDDS system. I am grateful for the cultures I was able to see, hear, smell and touch for myself and for not being limited to what I could see on TV. I appreciate that I have had many friends of different ethnicities. I find strength in knowing that none of my children will ever point to a black person and simply say, "Look at that African," the same way a young South Carolinian pointed to my siblings and me in the mall and said, "Look at those Chinese people." Reflecting on my experience in the DoDDS system, I don't purport to know everything. But I do know a few things and, with an open mind, I do know how to learn. For now, that's enough for me.

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