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IAMRAFI: Sky Full of Stars
The Story of Sheerene ‘Sky’ Abrea, Kool Adventure Camp, Assistant Director for Professional Development,
14 Years in Service
By Marco Paulo Trajano Deligero | October 9, 2018
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Sheerene, or ‘En en’ to her close friends, finds fulfillment in her journey with the Kool Adventure Camp of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI-KAC), where she gets the opportunity to help individuals conquer their fears.
She commits herself to consistent self-improvement for her to be a good role model and mentor to the youth — and this is one of the secrets of her 14 years stay in RAFI, and counting.
Early Exposure to Development Work
Sheerene was raised in a Christian home in Cebu City. Now that she has a family of her own, she is passionate about the values that her parents have instilled in her while growing up.
She finished a degree in Psychology in 2003 at the University of San Carlos where she developed her passion in facilitating and development work as part of Facilitators Circle in the university and other exposures. She then pursued a career path in Corporate Human Resource in Training Development.
Back in 2002 to 2004 she volunteered at the Kool Adventure Camp, which paved the way for her officially joining the organization in December 2004 as the post-camp coordinator.
On Her Kool Adventure Camp Experience, Camp Name
For En en, being with Kool Adventure Camp basically means being with a family; they live and eat together.
“I’ve seen how KAC has grown — from humble beginnings, our operations were very simple; before we would just load all our stuff on a truck, and now we have our own 10 hectare facility; and from 4 people before, we are currently at 40+ staff,”
In addition to being a family, En en shared that being with the KAC means sharing each other’s successes, and having different personalities adds up to the character of their team and the camp; making it more interesting.
“It is really like a family, because we consider the camp as our own, we live there, we maintain the place, and we need to take care of each other, because we all have different personalities, but we have the same interest — adventure education,” she said.
Another factor that has endeared KAC to En en are the exciting adventure activities where they get to experience and enable themselves to conquer their own fears.
“I remember during one our Kayaking expedition, Daphne [Dia] told me, ‘did you ever imagine that we would be doing this?’”
“I have never imagined that I will have a career in adventure education,” En en said.
For her, KAC is an amazing experience that is totally beyond her expectations, “I could not imagine doing anything else aside from being with KAC,” she added.
One of the traditions in KAC is for you to have a camp name that will represent you for the rest of your life.
And for En en, she chose ‘Sky’ because it represents promise and potential.
“For me, ‘Sky’ allows you to dream more, and hope more because God’s love is encompassing, He never fails,”
“And at KAC, we work with our strengths, we deal with weakness, we support each other’s strength,” she added.
The First and Only Wedding at the Kool Adventure Camp
In 2009, Sheerene married her husband, Segundo Abrea, Jr., who was also a trainer back then. It was the first and only time a couple tied the knot at the Kool Adventure Camp.
Both of them met in college and were exposed to adventure education as active volunteers of the camp. En en admits that KAC is a breakthrough in their personal advocacies. So after seven years of being in a relationship, they decided to get married uniquely — instead of walking down the aisle, the couple decided to climb the ropes course together, blindfolded.
“For us, getting married up above 50 feet is a metaphor of what a marriage could be, a challenging and meaningful journey,”
Their godparents also helped in their wedding by belaying both of them to reach the top of the 50 feet ropes course.
“The wedding itself was very symbolic, even our godparents and Mr. Roberto “Bobby” Aboitiz were involved by holding the ropes and coaching us all the way to the top. I even remember Leo [Urpiana] to be super happy because he was our ring bearer, and it was his first time,” she shared.
Up to this day, they are the only couple to get married at the Kool Adventure Camp, a feat that was featured nationwide over the television show Rated K.
En en and Her ‘Aha’ Moments
En en said that there are just too many memorable moments that she has experienced at Kool Adventure Camp and it all sums up to “seeing change and breakthroughs, both as an individual and as a team.”
She also added that simple words of gratitude from the campers are already enough for her.
“Their simple ‘thank you’ at the end of each camp are already enough, it means that they have already conquered their personal struggles, they have conquered their fears because of the activities that they have experienced in the camp,” she said.
On Staying For More Than a Decade
En en said that one of the factors that made her stay in RAFI for 14 years now is her love for training and development, and seeing the change in people. Another reason is knowing your ‘why’ and using it to push yourself to achieving your goals.
“I really love the career path that I have chosen — training and development work. I really love seeing the change in people, and seeing and experiencing the power of adventure education firsthand, it makes my heart full of joy,” En en said.
“One of the reasons is to find your ‘why.’ Being able to create different programs and seeing the results of the programs we have implemented, and seeing how it made a difference and transformed lives is definitely the reason why I am doing my job — this is my ‘why,’” she shared.
Another factor that En en pointed out is diversity; meeting different people through her work in RAFI-KAC.
“Definitely it’s diversity; working with RAFI-KAC always gives me excitement, it’s not boring, it’s fun, play, work and direction combined, it’s really building confidence and professionalism amongst people and us at Kool Adventure Camp,” she added.
The ‘Tatak RAFInian’
For En en, being able to look at the bigger picture and collaborate in the process of elevating lives are just two of what it takes to become a person who has this ‘tatak RAFInian.’
“We should look at the bigger picture and see how we could contribute personally; we should look at how we could intervene to make things better, each intervention maybe different but that is the process of collaboration,”
And one indicator of success for En en is knowing and feeling that you made a difference.
“After our intervention, we should make people feel and see that we have made a difference in their lives, that we have made things better, that we have made their lives better,” she shared.
On the Leadership and Vision of the Late RAFI President Roberto ‘Bobby’ Aboitiz
One of the people that En en admires is the late RAFI President Roberto ‘Bobby’ Aboitiz, who frequently visited the camp, and whose brand of leadership was both very grounded and connected,
“Sir Bobby shared to us his dreams, and vision for the camp, and his commitment and actions to achieving that dream through his Bugsay Principle, he was a role model to lots of people — the youth especially,”
“Sir Bobby allocated resources to establish the camp and touch lives, with the camp he envisioned to maximize the reach and power of adventure education, which has influenced us until now,” En en shared.
En en also shared that Sir Bobby was like a friend, even like a father, whom you could share your thoughts with, he was very supportive even in the personal lives of his staff, “he was someone who was very close to people, very personal and someone who can actually be described as family,”
En en further shared the learnings she had with Sir Bobby — on how one should learn to multiply one’s impact, and on leveraging it to multiply one’s passion to help the youth reach their highest potential, while involving the local government unit (LGU) in the process.
“Sir Bobby believed in the youth because he knows that the youth will become the future leaders, and potential workforce, he knew and focused on what new technology were out there that can be used, and on our (KAC staff) capacity to take in more people and become multipliers,” she shared.
On Her Greatest Career Accomplishment, How She Wants to Be Remembered
En en said that she is blessed and privileged enough to experience leading and be part of the process of the growth and success of a team.
And being able to see and work for the achievement of the camp’s vision is already an accomplishment, “it’s about the people helped by the camp — that is success for me,”
“It is not just about the position but being able to be recognized and be given the privilege in charge of others is already a big challenge — that to me is sweet success,”
“I want to be remembered as someone who reflects the love of God; it is not about remembering me, but rather, remembering the feeling of knowing me — feeling blessed, and feeling that someone cares for you,”
“God’s love and grace is truly amazing. He challenges and blesses us, He works in different and amazing ways, I have been blessed to be his instrument to radiate His love to others,” En en said.
En En and Her Biggest Life Motivation, People Who Matter
Now that her family is growing, En en shared that her daughter, Seth Abrea is her biggest motivation.
“Seeing her grow and me being responsible for her is one the greatest gifts given to me by God, she is my motivation; my family is my motivation,”
“It is a huge responsibility to personally guide her and improve the environment that she will live in and it gives me happiness that I take this life journey with her, this is a responsibility that I enjoy the most,” she shared.
En en is also grateful to the leaders in RAFI who have trusted her in her 14 years of tenure.
“Sir Bobby has always been my inspiration, I am so thankful for his leadership, I am so grateful that I have met him,”
“Also to the Aboitiz family; I am grateful for everything especially for the trust and confidence that they have given to me in relation to my job,” she added.
“To my KAC family, through thick and thin we are together; being able to understand and support each other, these are the reasons why we are a real family,”
“And of course to God, I see this job as His calling, this is where He has placed me, thank you very much.” #IAMRAFI
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