A Lioness Mark

Jahangir Khan once said, Without hard work and discipline, it is difficult to be a top
professional.

In ones lifetime, meeting educators with personalities in a wide range of spectrum are
inevitable. Although each one's strength and capability vary, everyone who is in the teaching
field is a vital element in shaping the learners for the future. Every mentors outstanding merit is
their sense of responsibility and their capacity to change the life of the youth. However, to
achieve this, one must have the discipline and the perseverance to reach their goal. To be a
teacher means having this set of prerequisite qualities. These are what makes educators so
admirable.

As a student, I have witnessed fine skills of educators and leaders who use their
knowledge and skills not only to teach young learners information within the boundaries of
textbooks; but more importantly, to inspire them in using their own potentials to the fullest so
that they can achieve their ambitions. With all the teachers and mentors that you meet and see in
action, it is inevitable that you may come across a few who might become your role model
because of the outstanding qualities that they possess. Such is the case with the former
superintendent of the City Schools Division of Batac, Ms. Vilma D. Eda, who I have come to
admire so much.

She is a go-getter who is bold, initiative, and innovative. Mrs. Vilma D. Eda is the
embodiment of the word leader. She may come off as intimidating since she never sugar-coated
her words when she reprimands someone over work. Even her aura exudes confidence and a no-
nonsense attitude which makes her even more admirable as a professional.

Despite this, her straightforwardness made me conclude that she was a brave leader.
Brave for not holding back anything that needs to be said and done. Brave for calling out areas in
the division that needs improvement. Brave for taking risks in making new changes for a better
education system and making visions into reality. As a leader, she was confronted with many
risks but she made those risks as an advantage to move forward to a better education.

Achieving this kind of attitude and mindset was not easy. It came with the price of
sacrificing energy and time as well as fully committing to your goals set. It requires passion and
determination to lead educators to a better education system and work environment, and Ms. Eda
did exactly that. She attended numerous seminars and training on various themes and topics even
on weekends just so she could widen her knowledge and experience even more which, in turn,
she shares with her subordinates unreservedly.

Another fruit of Ms. Edas pure hard work was that she was able to bring out her spirit of
innovation within her. Just recently, the City Schools Division of Batac was acknowledged as the
lead school in ICT Integration in Region I at the 2nd Division Information Communications
Technology (ICT) Congress where 391 teachers and school administrators from the City Schools
Division of Batac, Laoag, Candon, and Schools Division of Ilocos Norte participated. This is a
big feat not only to our dearest former superintendent but to every teacher who believed and
supported the change.

In addition to this, her dedication was displayed clearly during her time as the
superintendent of the City Schools Division of Batac. She regularly goes to important inter-
school and school activities like 4-H Camping, Metrobank-MTAP-DepEd Math Challenge,
Division Schools Press Conference, Inter-High, and a lot more. When she is able to attend, she
often gives an inspirational message encouraging young learners to study harder and pursue their
dreams. She always makes it a point to raise every students confidence a notch and tries to make
nervousness of contestants go away in competitions. She always speaks nonchalantly but her
message is always crystal-clear and inspiring which shows her sincerity to reach each the heart
of the students.

As much as Ms. Eda was a busy-bee, she never forgot to implement discipline in her
leadership. She made sure that all school policies were properly implemented by checking up on
every school every now and then. Aside from this, she always made sure to empower the
members of the federated Supreme Student Government. She taught them not only how to be a
leader like her but how to be greater. Moreover, she always finished her tasks and papers on time
as even her subordinates. These show her great discipline as the superintendent which makes
her leadership even more commendable.

These are just some of Ms. Edas achievements and accomplishments. If I were to write
all of them, a thousand-words would not be enough. From these, we can deduce that being a
leader is inarguably not easy. It requires patience, passion, and perseverance to be able to
effectively teach and lead. That is why a well-rounded leader is necessary and Ms. Vilma D. Eda
was able to be just like that. It shows the hard work that she has gone through which became as
an inspiration to other teachers and even the learners.

In the end, it was not at all perfect, but that fact makes it even better. From this, we can
learn that even though there is no such thing as perfect since we are humans, we can still do our
best to make our visions a reality. Hard work, if coupled with the right attitude and virtues, will
beget desired results. This is how Ms. Vilma D. Eda lead the City Schools Division of Batac and
this is how her leadership became an inspiration and left a mark to many educators and learners.
Peter Drucker did say it right: Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked;
leadership is defined by results not attributes.