“Financial support does exist within the country and even internationally for students who wish to pursue a STEM career,” said Pete Gabriel Ledesma, a former National Science & Technology Fair (NSTF) awardee, as he urges fellow aspiring scientists to dream big and follow their passion.
Ledesma’s study on Phytoreductive-Hydrothermal Synthesis of Polyethylene Glycol-coated Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery Applications during the 2018 NSTF brought him a ticket to the 2018 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Pennsylvania, where he eventually won the Fourth Award in the Materials Science Category.
But his success didn’t happen overnight, and as he calls it, “several years in the making.” Ledesma narrated how he soldiered on despite the lack of advanced instruments in his former high school.
“I searched and contacted different institutions to accommodate me in their labs. When I finally found labs to accommodate me, I worked tirelessly – even sleeping in the lab to complete my requirements,” he recalled. “I had to do several modifications and refinements to my methods in order to synthesize my target material.”
Joining the ISEF, according to Ledesma, was one of the impetus that motivated him to pursue a career in Science.
“I would actively encourage the Filipino youth to seriously consider a career in STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) because our country needs more STEM professionals, and learning about nature is a great pleasure in itself.”
Ledesma is now an incoming Ph.D. student in Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities after completing his undergraduate program at the University of the Philippines-Diliman last July 2022.
Tune in on the official Facebook page of DepEd Philippines for the live stream of fun activities during the National Science and Technology Fair (NSTF) 2022 this August 2-5, 2022!
To register, visit .
For more details about NSTF 2022, read DepEd Memorandum No. 38, s. 2022:
