Photo by Cristina Sim
“Ecstatic, enthusiastic, and energetic: 3 Es for Em!” Meet Em Enriquez (3 AB COM), one of the hosts for OrSem 2019: Silay. A former TNT for OrSem 2018: Taya, he rejoins the OrSem crowd this year as an O-Host newbie. For Em, who has wanted to be a part of the team since his freshman year, the experience feels “surreal.”
“I really wanted to be an O-Host because in college, that’s where I got to discover my passion for hosting or at least being part of an event and being one with the crowd,” Em gushes. “And to get to do that in an event so important to me talaga.”
While he didn’t make the cut for last year’s O-Host roster, Em found joy in being a TNT. He saw how he could be a part of the freshies’ journeys by guiding them through their first glimpse into college life.
Through his involvement with OrSem, Em experienced growth in himself as a person for others. And so, his greatest motivation to re-audition was to meet the freshies in “a different capacity.” “I guess part of me also says na this is, in a very Atenean way, fulfilling God’s will talaga for me,” he says.
Despite being a first-time O-Host, the communication junior is no stranger to the spotlight. He was a host for Lights for Hope 2018 and is the current head of the Ateneo Association of Communication Majors’ Hosting Pool. While quite a change of pace from other events, Em sees hosting OrSem as an opportunity to bring together his passions and OrSem’s tradition of service for the freshies.
With almost 3,000 freshies in attendance, the greatest challenge of an O-Host is to keep everyone engaged with the programs specially curated for them. This, thankfully, is second nature to Em who describes himself as loud and chatty.
“I’m a people person first and foremost which is why I love hosting ‘cause you get to interact with people talaga,” he says. “[It] comes out in my hosting style because I connect more with the audience [in] ways that it’s not just, ‘This is the event and this is me.’ It’s more, ‘I’m part of the event too, and we’re together in this.’”
A Blue Eagle since the second grade, Em shares his deep-rooted appreciation for the people-centric nature of Ateneo. His love for the community and the sense of belonging it comes with lend to how he enjoys being with others. His biggest advice for the freshies echoes this same sentiment: Find your tribe because you are never alone.
“You’re gonna find people who have the same interests as you, who value the same things as you, and people here are gonna love you for who you are talaga,” he says. “So you’re in it for the wild ride, but people are gonna be there with you. Amen!”
