International science contest: Leyteña champ going to Harvard

CEBU, Philippines — Hillary Diane Andales, a native of Abuyog town in Leyte and a Grade 12 student of Philippine Science High School-Eastern Visayas campus, was the champion in the 2017 Breakthrough Junior Challenge, an international science video competition on concepts in life sciences, physics, and mathematics.

Andales’ winning entry—a three-minute video (physics category) that focused on reference frames in general relativity—outsmarted 11,000 entries from 178 countries to win the $400,000 prize, consisting of $250,000 in scholarship grant, $50,000 for the science teacher that inspired her, and $100,000 for a modern science laboratory in her school, PSHS-EV.

In an interview over morning program Straight to the Point of Radio Mindanao Network-Tacloban, anchored by Edward Sañagan, Andales said she chose to take up Physics in Harvard University, and that she is now preparing her papers for enrollment in that prestigious institution in the United States.

Andales however told Sañagan that her heart remains for ‘service to the nation,” and she is inclined to work in the Philippines after finishing her Harvard education.

"Even if i will study in the US and finish my college there, it will not diminish the fact that my heart is for the Filipinos because here (in PSHS-EV) the value of 'service to the nation' is being instilled," Andales said. “My only purpose in going there is to learn and gain as much as I could so that I can bring them back here in the Philippines."

Gretchen Mullen of skepticreview.com wrote that it was Andales’ second attempt in the international competition. Last year, she ended up the top scorer in the Popular Vote segment and won for her school a DNA molecular-biology lab. (FREEMAN)