Interdiscplinary Studies, a course where you choose two mainstream courses, study them together and find a way to combine the two as an effort to do more efficient problem-solving.

I chose Information Design and Management (Business), and in my thesis I used the elements of design and its practical application (Information Design) to optimize the efficiency of finance concepts (Management) and its corresponding financial literacy classes for the poor, specifically for the nanays.

I worked with the DepEd, PAGIBIG, BPI Globe BanKo and the Ateneo de Manila University to implement the program.

This was its first year of application, and based on the surveys done, the approachable design of the workbooks for the literacy classes proved to be a major factor to help the nanays understand the lessons more. I used a "friendly design" approach, avoiding to use fonts that are more associated to examination papers or legal documents and all the serious proforma (see Times New Roman, Sylfaen, Bookman Old Style, etc.) to completely do away with making the workbooks intimidating and scary and hard and boring. Instead, I made its vibe full of color, attractive even, to make sure the nanays would be open themselves to entertain the contents of the book.

That was the key: to let the initiative to learn come from the nanays themselves.

Anyway, I chose this course cos I've always had a passion for designing. But most people can only see designing and the arts in general as only for aesthetics. I wanted to solidify the fact that it can also be used in a different manner: it can be used to better the medium for communication and information relay.