Jo Anne V. Coruña is a Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong alumna (2000-2004) from the Philippines. She shared with us a heartfelt letter, in which she talks about her passion for the arts, the major role that UWC played in it and the journey that finally led her to embrace the arts as a career choice.

“I am from the Philippines and I went to UWC LPC from 2000-2002. Before UWC, I never really saw myself as the ‘creative type’. I'd written several poems and a short story, but as no one in my family - immediate or extended - was in the arts, it just never occurred to me that the arts could be my path/calling. When it was time to select my six subjects at LPC, one of the subjects I chose was Higher Level Visual Arts. No one really knew me in Hong Kong - no one knew I was the straight A student that I was, so that somehow gave me the freedom to choose what called out to me. And so I took Visual Arts. I made my very first serious drawing in LPC, of a cow skull, without the slightest idea of how to do it. But I did it. And I've been drawing, painting, printmaking, at different engagement levels, ever since.

In college, I was going to major in Economics (because that was practical, and majoring in the Arts just seemed too out there, at least to people back home). But I was far enough from home, and I was attracted strongly enough to the Arts, that I ended up taking drawing and printmaking classes, while changing my major from Economics to Sociology and then finally to Rhetoric. During the second semester of my junior year, I declared my major in Studio Art. It was an exhilarating feeling, but I was still scared of what I would be able to do with a Studio Art major, so I kept on taking classes in Rhetoric. I guess I never really went all in, so at the start of my FINAL year in college, I dropped my Studio Art major and went back to Rhetoric. While I did enjoy writing my thesis in Rhetoric, I knew I left my story with the Arts hanging.

Through the years after college, I was mostly working in nonprofits - Asian Pacific Fund in San Francisco, Ayala Foundation and Philippine Development Foundation in the Philippines, and then finally Ashoka in the Philippines as well. I kept my UWC sketchbooks. Every time I would move, my sketchbooks went with me. And then motherhood happened, and with my decision to raise the kids closely (without a nanny, as most mothers have nannies in the Philippines), I had to work from home. I still did nonprofit work, until recently. With the arrival of my second baby, I knew I couldn't keep up something as demanding as nonprofit work, even if I could do it from home. I resigned from my "dream job" at Ashoka Philippines in May 2015, and I focused on raising my now 5-year-old and 8-month-old. I started a daily painting project in January 2016 called Mapping Motherhood, and I've been - AT LONG LAST - pursuing the Arts "seriously" every since. I put seriously in quotes, because this pursuit is the most fun I've had my entire life. It's fun, yet meaningful, yet also very hard work. I now maintain my website, and I've been commissioned by great brands this year. I am most excited about my newest project: The Museum of Days. I have many more ideas for my art, but being a mom of little kids makes it more challenging to find the time. But I am here, painting and writing while everyone is asleep, and I am at my happiest and most authentic.

That's my story in its very abridged version. I thought I would take the time to share it, since I don't think I would have found my love for painting and drawing if it weren't for my Visual Arts class at LPC. For that experience, I will forever be grateful”.