Featured LPU Davao Employee of the Month: Mr. Don Jae Bontia

“I always believe that it is important to fixate yourself in what you really wanted to do in the future; however, you always have to prepare yourself on your journey since the road to achieve success will always contain a myriad of diversions.”

Professor Don Jae L. Bontia belong in a family with 3 siblings. He has an elder brother, sister, and a younger brother. As per Sir Don Jae, “Both of my elderly siblings graduated Nursing and my younger brother with an Information Technology Education Degree. My elder brother works as a nurse in United Kingdom and my sister in SPMC – ICU handling COVID-19 patients while the youngest works in Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Both of my parents are devout Catholics and are currently actively serving our CHAPEL in our area. In my end, I also do serve in church during masses as a choir member for more than 7 years now.”

When asked about his educational background, his experiences, the challenges he faced while achieving his goals from his elementary days to his highest educational attainment, Sir Don Jae shared, “As for my educational attainment, during elementary days, I am active with the school publication, focusing on sports news and feature sports writing and have joined press conference competitions. During high school, I still became part of the school publication and became Circulations Manager then back to sports news writing. At the same time, I also became an active member in the Boy Scouts of the Philippines and have participated in various camping and trainings around the Philippines for four years and eventually became the Senior Vice President during my senior year. Being active in the scouting unit, I have achieved the Eagle Scout rank, the highest rank a Boy Scout member can get. Though I have not been a part of the honors’ list when I graduated, I have been awarded with medals such as leadership award and honorable mentions from the organizations I have joined. During college days, I was supposed to take BSED in English after passing the entrance exam in a university, however, due to some circumstances, I was not able to pursue it, but rather chose a different road and took up BSHRM in PWC. It was a difficult time when I began studying since two of my siblings are also in college; therefore, there was a time wherein I decided to stop for a year. I tried also taking up a scholarship in a maritime school. I took up the exam for a scholarship for VERITAS (a cargo ship company), which I also passed, to enroll the course of Maritime Engineering.  However, through constant discernment, I declined the scholarship since I felt it really isn’t for me. Being on break, I became an active member of the youth apostolate in our church, and by the grace of our Lord, an opportunity has opened wherein a priest whom I knew and became a close friend too supported me to study once again, which then allowed me to enroll in Holy Cross of Davao College with the same course – BSHRM. During my college days, I have participated in various competitions in literary arts, focusing on extemporaneous speech and became a member of the literary arts team. I also took part and joined the debating team, but left shortly after. During the time I was competing for the intramural in our school, there was an elimination round for newscasting handled by the Mass Communication Program, so I decided to try-out. Eventually I got in from the shortlist and was able to compete and represent the school for the ABS-CBN Newscasting competition and became a finalist. Indeed, I was able to pull things off with the help of my mentor, Dr. Raffy P. Yroma, our program chairperson during that time. I also explored the opportunity to be in the student government and have been elected as the Internal Vice President of our Supreme Student Council and have been actively participating in community services. With my background in newscasting, I was able to hone my hosting skills and have been selected to handle different events in our institution. Being active in hosting has allowed me to earn as well since I also do part-time hosting for corporate events and many others. During my internship too, I also did part-time jobs to support some of my college expenses like being a waitstaff, pool-side attendant, on-call housekeeper, and banquet waiter. Though I was not able to land a ranking for the honors list, I graduated with awards from my exposure with my extra-curricular activities. After I graduated, the dean of the college of business from which our program is under and with Dr. Raffy P. Yroma as our program chairperson, recommended me to apply for a teaching position in our school. Shortly, after graduation, I started teaching right away. During the course of my teaching career, I also enrolled for the first course I have chosen before, BSED-English (earned units), took up the licensure examination then passed after first take. In addition, to improve my capacity to teach, I also took up graduate studies (Master in Management) and graduated two years after passing the licensure examination for teachers.”

Apart from Sir Don Jae’s part-time work in a hotel and restaurant during his internship days, he was immediately hired as an instructor from the school he graduated from. Also, adding to it, he worked as an instructor from a foundation teaching indigents and blue-collar workers. In addition to his work experiences, he also had a chance to work as a Human Resource Assistant in a company for more than a year and have done odd jobs too. As per Sir Don Jae, “Being a host still played a significant part in my professional life, however, I only accepted those from which would fit in from my time. In the academic field, I have worked as an instructor for almost 8 years and still counting. The journey wasn’t easy. I also have my own fair share of challenges and problems. Eventually, after an extreme moment of discernment, I decided to leave my previous employer and chose to apply in Lyceum of the Philippines – Davao.”

For Sir Don Jae, “Happiness can come in different forms and is relative from the experiences I had. But overall, I felt elated from what I do right now is satisfied from what I am experiencing as of the moment with my current employer – LPU-Davao.”

And lastly, his message to students despite the situation we are facing today. “From my experience, I always believe that it is important to fixate yourself in what you really wanted to do in the future; however, you always have to prepare yourself on your journey since the road to achieve success will always contain a myriad of diversions. Discernment will always play an important role in your life; therefore, take time deciding during crucial moments. Also, as we tread through with what we are facing today, always remember to take good care not just your physical health but your mental health too. Remember to always acknowledge your emotions and allow it to come out. Pent up emotions will always drag us down. Be thankful also to the Lord Almighty and to our families and friends. Lastly, continue being kind despite what others would say. Do not let negative feedback get you down, for we cannot always please everyone.”