On the week of September 11th, all Middle School students went to get their pictures taken for Salinlahi — the 103th annual Middle School yearbook. 

The photoshoot took place in the Amelita Martinez-Ramos Hall (AMR Hall) for both Middle School and High School students. 

Now, the pictures are in the process of being edited and prepared for use in the yearbook. The simple-sounding process of editing yearbook photos turns out to be quite complex, involving both on-campus and external efforts. 

After the pictures are taken during the week of the 11th, they will be sent to TinoLey Digital Photography, Inc. where they will be edited to enhance the background and lighting. 

ISM’s yearbook pictures aren’t the only work the organization does — Ley’s clientele includes schools and universities such as De La Salle University Dasmariñas, Philippine Women’s University, UERM, St. Scholastica’s College, and Emilio Aguinaldo College to list a few. 

When Middle School students were asked how they felt about the upcoming photoshoot, many expressed feelings of nervousness or indifference (interestingly, none seemed particularly positive). 

Many wonder where the title “Salinlahi” originated from. According to the Middle School Principal, Ms. Rachel Harrington, “Salinlahi comes from two different Tagalog words: Salin, meaning to pass on, and Lahi, meaning culture.” The name has a symbolic meaning behind it: “Our MS yearbook represents a ‘cultural exchange’ of all the different memories we have made over the course of the school year. Within its pages, we strive to capture the beating heart of the MS.”

In this year alone, nearly everyone in the Philippines experienced the extreme weather conditions and natural disasters which occurred throughout the country.

Multiple aspects of climate change such as global warming caused habitats and environments globally to be altered to conditions which makes natural disasters much more likely to happen. This was made worse by the El Niño phenomenon which has begun and is predicted to continue for the rest of the year. 

Unhealthy levels of pollution plagued several cities in the Philippines, especially the capital city, Manila. One of the sources of this was the forest fires in many countries due to drier weather from El Niño and global warming. On top of destroying many valuable habitats, the fires also led to ash and smoke to blow over to the Philippines, leading to high levels of pollution in major cities throughout the nation.

Additionally, an unusually high number of typhoons in the past year have critically affected many people, especially those in poverty as well as others who relied on their environment - such as farmers and fishermen, to provide a steady source of income. According to Rappler, the Department of Agriculture (DA) in the Philippines has said that “11,357 fisherfolk and farmers were affected by bad weather conditions throughout the region.” 

Not only were their sources of income affected, the recent calamities also posed a danger to the health and safety of those residing in rural areas. Rappler reported that “the Office of Civil Defense … confirmed on Monday, September 4, the death of an eight-year-old girl who drowned after attempting to cross a river.” This was due to the poor infrastructure in many regions around the country which led to many badly erected structures being critically damaged by the typhoons, resulting in several fatal accidents. Not only were several citizens severely injured, many essential buildings such as schools and hospitals were damaged, further affecting those living in rural areas.

July of 2023 has been called the hottest month on record. This was an effect of both global warming and the El Niño climate pattern, which occurred this year. The adverse effects of this were felt worldwide, including in the Philippines. The nation experienced floods, water scarcity and extreme weather events among other things during the course of the year. According to Philstar, a news agency from the Philippines, Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in the Philippines, “urged the public to conserve water even before the onset of El Niño to be prepared for its adverse effect.” He also warned that due to El Niño, the monsoon and dry seasons would be more extreme this year. 

ISM has launched a new composting project in partnership with the Eco-Schools, an organization created to help ISM’s surrounding environment to become a greener area. They have created composting bays to combat the mind-boggling amount of food waste flooding in from the Kantina.

This yearlong project was finally completed in late August 2023. It was created in order to reduce the overwhelmingly massive amount of daily food waste pouring in from the MS/HS Kantina. 

ISM has achieved this Sisyphean task by creating a roster for ES, MS, and HS students, faculty and parents to help reduce the absurd amount of regular food waste that comes from the ISM Kantina. 

For a long time, ISM has had a problem with food waste from our Kantina. Pizza crusts, bad-tasting tempura, unwanted apple cores, useless banana peels, and all things of the sort have been tossed into the ISM Kantina bins. ISM has tried to make some efforts against this problem, but, up until now, their efforts had little impact on the tremendous amount of food waste entering landfills. However, in January 2022, ISM proposed a solution: to create large composting bins to dump all the waste in. This would end up benefiting the surrounding environment and decreasing food waste in a more green, nature-friendly way. 

Mrs. Amanda Pekin is ISM’s Assistant Principal, and also the brains behind the whole project. She created it to begin with! And according to her and her team’s data, there are multiple ways this can benefit our surrounding community and environment. “Children, parents and teachers have an opportunity to learn first hand about composting and the benefits of diverting food waste from landfill which in turn reduces methane emissions. The hope is that as a result we will all reduce the amount of food waste we generate and that we will compost both at school and at home,” she said via an email interview.

“Additionally this project has brought people together from across ES, MS, and HS that might not otherwise have connected. This project also provides an opportunity to be outside in a real world application of an important aspect of gardening,” stated Mrs. Pekin. 

But are there more ways that this project can benefit the surrounding community and environment? Well, according to the data Mrs. Pekin and her team have collected, “Whenever we divert food waste from landfill, we reduce methane emissions from landfill, which in turn helps reduce the negative impacts of climate change.” 

But with every project, there are obstacles. “The largest challenges were finding a good location and then figuring out how and who would transport the food waste each day from the Kantina to the Compost Bays once they were built!” said Mrs. Pekin. 

ISM has tried to launch these projects before, and, stated by Mrs. Pekin, they all went with encouraging results. “Each time we have seen encouraging results, as some projects have a bigger impact than others. The Eco Schools have supported many projects such as an annual E-Waste collection, Meatless Mondays campaign, and the PCA Used School Uniform end of year sale” claimed Mrs. Pekin”