Centralians Meet Again in Weimar, Germany

By Katherine Draheim, Masscom Centralian 2014

Münster, Germany

Münster, June 2, 2017 – After getting a private message in social media from Engr. Aries Roda D. Romallosa, an Associate Professor of the College of Agriculture, Resources and Environmental Sciences (CARES) Central Philippine University (CPU), that she would be going to Germany soon for her PhD defense, I rushed immediately to my laptop to buy a train ticket to meet up with her at the city of Weimar in the eastern part of Germany. The trip from the very west of Germany, my city Münster, took around eight hours of travel, a bit tiring but, nevertheless, my heart palpitated because of the excitement to meet up with a fellow alumnus, a fellow Ilongga and a good friend. I arrived on May 18, 2017 and met her for breakfast at our cozy hostel which was at the city center of Weimar. I had the impression that very morning that Ma’am Aries seemed to be well prepared for her PhD dissertation defense because I have not seen any signs of pressure on her face. We caught up a lot of things while having our breakfast, and talked about our beloved Central Philippine University, the people and institutions who made her PhD journey possible, the things that had to be done prior to her defense and what we are going to do after the occasion.

Two Centralian supporters came to her PhD defense. Apart from me, who graduated AB Mass Communications in 2014 and is currently studying here for a Master’s Program at the Westfaelische-Wilhelms University, Engr. Klaus Hanuschke, a Centralian by heart and former Development Advisor to CARES, also came from Frankfurt. Ma’am Aries and Engr. Klaus jointly developed the Diploma in Environmental Resource Management and Technologies major in Solid Waste Management (ERMAT-SWM) for the enhancement of professional education in solid waste management in the Philippines for more than three years.

The defense of Ma’am Aries started on time at 10:45 in the morning. Her PhD dissertation entitled “Briquette Production by the Informal Sector: The Case of UCLA in Iloilo City, Philippines” was co-financed by CPU, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

The defense took around 3 hours to finish which comprised of presentation, questions and discussions, and recommendations of each panel member to the Committee. After internal discussions, it was announced that Ma’am Aries passed the oral defense and received her PhD degree “cum laude.”

It felt great to see a Centralian here in Germany and to exchange experiences with people who also pursue a career in the academic field. I was really inspired by the challenging work Engr. Romallosa had to put through especially that she is also working full-time in CPU while undertaking her individual PhD course. The research that took her around 5 years to finish made a significant contribution for the informal sector of Calajunan dumpsite in Iloilo City, as shown during her defense. Because she had an international audience, I felt that the research was transparent to the world. It makes it more appreciative to look at for Europeans who do not experience real poverty and problems that surround the issue discussed in her dissertation work. After the defense and brief closing program, the Chair of the Department of Biotechnology in Resource Management who is also her mentor/adviser, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Eckhard Kraft invited us for a small celebration at the city.

It was a long yet fulfilling day and the Lord blessed us with a warm sunny weather and a Gelatto to munch on.

The trip to Weimar let me realize many things, one of them is, if you have a dream, go for it, no matter how long it would take. I hope to finish my Master’s Degree here sooner and help humankind with my research too.