Nicole Villarojo: She bleeds green and white

by: Chienalee Garcia

She was a professional ballet dancer for fourteen years, without any inclination whatsoever in politics. Who would’ve thought she was going to be a council president of one of the top universities in the metro?

Enter Nicole Villarojo, fifth year Economics and Marketing major from De La Salle University, this year’s student council president. She bleeds green and white, and definitely has the heart of a student leader.

Green and Orange
While other students had a background on student governance when they were in high school, Nicole was not part of the ratio. Strangely enough, her involvement in student politics did not start when she was a high school student in De La Salle Zobel. Only when she entered college and got invited by the Alyansang Tapat na La Sallista, one of the political parties in her University, did she join the council. “Actually it was such a mababaw reason,” shares the 21-year old self-proclaimed geek. “Their color was orange, and it was my favorite color so I joined them.”

Apparently, her love for the color jumpstarted her career as a student leader. After her stint as the legislative assembly representative during her freshman year, she advanced to being the batch president during second year. But during her third year in the council, she opted out of taking an elective position and worked in the office of the Student Council President instead. She came back as the Vice President for Academics during her senior year and eventually landed the top position in the council for her last year.

With her electoral victory, Nicole was able to fulfill her duties. But winning as the school president also showed her the bitter truth about her detractors. Although she did have a throng of supporters, Nicole also had her fair share of cynics. “Well before it was difficult for me to understand why people would fight against it. Then I realized that you can’t really please everybody.” Nicole claims that she has learned the art of diplomacy, of smiling even though she is already enraged.

“I try to see their point and I think the art of active listening is really important,” she says.

Politics in La Salle
Nicole points out that politics in her university is very different from that of the others.

“If you ask anyone from a student council in another school, they’d say that we probably have the most intense: we spend thousands, and I mean thousands, hundreds of thousands of pesos during campaign,” she shares. “It’s an all-out campaign talaga. And it can be really dirty, too.”

How dirty, you ask her?

“Smear campaigns, people destroying other people’s reputations, that kind. It gets so bad all you can do is just cry.”

Asked if she had any plans to join the national politics after graduation, Nicole politely shakes her head. “No, not as an elected officer,” she says. “But I’m pretty sure I’ll contribute in terms of research considering my background in Economics.”

Everyday Nicole
Lugging around a planner she claims to be very OC with, Nicole never leaves home without it. “Everything’s color-coded in it and things are numbered so I would know in what succession I should accomplish them.”

With a tight schedule in class and all the council work she has to get done with, does she still get to spend some free time?

“I don’t really have free time so if ever I do, I’ll just sleep or spend time with my boyfriend,” Nicole says. “Or I just listen to classical music to ease the tension.”

If by any chance problems in academics, family, the student council and her relationship with her boyfriend arose simultaneously, Nicole said she’ll try to multi-task.

“I think it’ll be family first.” Coming from a closely-knit family, it is no surprise. Being an only child has rendered Nicole very close to her kin. In turn, they provide her the much needed support in her line of work.

“Then follows my boyfriend,” she jokes. “Then academics and then council follows. But it usually depends because you can’t really gauge what needs much attention than the others.”

“But knowing me, I’ll find a way na pagsabay sabayin talaga lahat,” she laughs good-naturedly.

Not hard to imagine, seeing that she can balance her studies, council work, and relationships well.