The topnotcher of this year’s Registered Electrical Engineers Licensure Exam is a 23-year old Cebuano who not only bested 4,436 exam passers, but also beat the odds in life. Electrical engineering was not Raymond Geoman’s first choice of college courses, but fate had other plans for him.
Geoman’s Road to REELE
As a child, Raymond Geoman was fascinated by the way electricity traveled from electric posts to his home, sparking an interest in electrical engineering. Perhaps he was too young to recognize the professional calling back then. But from his childhood days in Barangay Mantalongon in Dalaguete, Cebu, Geoman was already motivated to study hard and excel academically. The son of a construction worker, Geoman knew that his education was his ticket to improve his family’s situation.
“Naay mga times nga managhan na unta among hayupan, pero maanam na lang kay ibaligya aron pangbayad sa expenses sa skuyla,” he said. (There are times when we would like to keep our livestock, but we have to sell them little by little because we need the money for school expenses.)
After graduating as Mantalongon Elementary School’s class valedictorian, the hardworking Cebuano continued to excel academically in high school. He chose to pursue the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) strand in his senior year at Dalaguete National High School. The STEM strand is the academic program that exposes students to more complex mathematics and science concepts and nurtures their curiosity, problem-solving abilities, and communication skills.
The young Geoman intended to pursue civil engineering in college with a scholarship from the Department of Science and Technology (DOST). However, the Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U) was not accredited by the DOST for civil engineering. And so he found himself opting for mechanical engineering instead.
Eventually, he found that the odds were stacked against him yet again, as the mechanical engineering program’s accreditation soon expired. Fate clearly had other plans for the young student, and Geoman finally ended up pursuing electrical engineering.
“Napunta jud ko sa Electrical. I am happy that I am now a registered electrical engineer,” he said after passing the licensure exam.
REELE
The Registered Electrical Engineering Licensure Exam is the board exam intended for aspiring electrical engineering professionals in the country. The board serves as the culminating exam for engineering students who wish to apply their electrical engineering skills professionally.
This year’s REELE took place on April 24 and 25 and was facilitated by the Board of Electrical Engineering in N. C. R., Baguio, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Iloilo, Legazpi, Lucena, Pampanga, Rosales, Tacloban, Tuguegarao, Zamboanga and Puerto Princesa, Palawan. The members of the Board of Electrical Engineering who gave the licensure examinations are Engr. Francis V. Mapile, Chairman and Engr. Jaime V. Mendoza, Member. There were 7,005 examinees in total.
Pride of Cebu
As the top scorer in this year’s REELE, Geoman not only made his family proud, but he also brought pride to the whole of Cebu island.
Geoman also put an end to CIT-U’s eight-year drought in the REELE, with three other graduates also making it to the top 10 in the licensure exams. According to the university during a press conference following the exam, the school has produced an impressive 747 board topnotchers, 88 of whom have placed first.
Along with Geoman, CIT-U’s other Top 10 placers in the 2024 licensure exams are Mark Restie Sasan Laput who landed in sixth place with a passing rate of 93.05%), Paul Anthony Manabat Aliasut who placed seventh place, with a rating of 92.05%, and Vijay Manuel De Guma, placing ninth with a passing rate of 92.75%. Geoman passed with an impressive rating of 95%.
CIT-U shared that it enhanced the Philippine engineering curriculum by including additional math-related courses. The engineering department also said that their students focused not only on academics but also on competing in national mathematics quizzes.
Source: Cebuano topnotcher: ‘Electrical engineering not my first choice’