Imma Kate Sta. Ines' Profile

“Simply Knowing Imma…”

by Marian Carpo

“For she’s a jolly good fellow (3x), which nobody can’t deny!” This is the very song that totally fits the girl whom I got to meet a few days back. Her name is Imma Kate Montes Sta. Ines, an 18-year old student from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) who lives at Nueva Ecija but currently boarding at Sta. Mesa Manila. This positive person will surely rock you out with a sweet smile the moment you met her gaze. She may look typically plain physically as a student but she’s more than the typical student who wants to learn and at the same time enjoy her collegiate years.

‘Imma’ as her friends and classmates fondly called her decided to take up Broadcast Communication as her course. She’s a woman who would rather be caught in the middle of a war and get dirty with a hundred stories to tell than to be an office girl stuck doing paper works. The term “maarte” never suited her and that is why it triggered my curiosity to ask her something about the persons behind of what she is right now ----her family. Imma is the eldest daughter of Mr. Noli and Cherryla Sta. Ines. Her father is a rides operator at Star City and her mother is an overseas contract worker who is happily married with each other despite the sacrifice they had to meet to supply their family needs. Imma also has two sisters whom she really was close to and whenever she goes back to Nueva Ecija she makes it her point to buy them “pasalubong.” Coming from a well-oriented family, Imma was able to establish her independency by studying here in Manila.

Aside from her family, the teachers also greatly influence a student and Imma was no exception to that. I Even ask her the desirable qualities that she wanted to see in a professor. She said, “I love a teacher who knows the right time to teach and to joke around, a person who really knows the subject matter he is teaching even without relying on his material and other notes. A friendly mentor sure is good who lectures the topic with depth and knows how to keep the class interested without forcing them to listen to him.”

When it comes to her studies, she never was this so-called “geek” or a super grade conscious type of pupil. She just enjoys whatever new and useful knowledge she acquires from school because she doesn’t want to be driven off by pressure just to learn something new. Learning for her is a natural process that does not need constrained memorization for you to know the subject, what you have to do is to simply get the main point and understand it.

With this perception of Imma we could accentuate that the entrance of knowledge in the form of learning will be retained in the minds of the students naturally if you also have teachers (the source of information) who instructs in a natural and uncomplicated way.

Even without any organization joined in COC, Imma was definitely enjoying her college life as she learned things not only academically but the realities in the human world pertaining to life’s lessons, cultures and many more. This point of her life made her mature physically, mentally and emotionally. The unchained independence she has right now while away home is something she uses to explore things positively while making her way to the top of her goal. And what could be a better name for our goal but to call it dreams. Imma wants to establish a name in the broadcasting industry someday. As for her family, she have always longed for their happiness. She’ll make sure to always be available for them and wishes that there will come a time when her parents will not be separated anymore with each other just to provide for their needs. Imma said dreamily, “They (her parents one day) would just sit in a lovely tree house in the garden of a big and marvelous but very warm place, cuddling each other for almost every day for the rest of their lives.” This phrase really touched my heart and bear out Imma’s love for her parents: these are caring words coming from a very sweet girl.

She made me realize how life can be dealt with simplicity the way I saw her live her own. We are the one who’s making it complicated well in fact life was made simple by God from the start. This is Imma Kate Sta. Ines: a student who “Laugh at life’s simplest jokes,” a student who takes life simply beyond the absence of unnecessary complications, a student who seemingly longs for a simple dream to come true, a student whom you could simply be friends with, and most importantly, a simple student who’s jolliness and goodness deepened her being as a person ready to face the real world.