Over the years, science explained how the world, and everything in it, amazingly existed, developed, and created. Science as a subject in school can be fun and exciting but it can also be the other way around. Most of the students think that developing a deep understanding of many scientific principles can take a lot of time and difficult effort, but not really for Hillary Andales, a rising young science communicator from Tacloban City, Philippines.
Hillary Diane Andales is best known as the winner of the 2017 Breakthrough Junior Challenge for creating a 3‐minute video explaining relativity, besting 11,000 entries from 170 countries. Her prizes include a $250,000 college scholarship, a $100,000 Physics Laboratory for her school, and $50,000 for her teacher. Currently, her video has millions of views across all platforms. Some of her videos are available in her YouTube channel,
Winning video: https://youtu.be/mnJuKXhFaQ8
Inspiration and Motivation
Growing up, Hillary’s parents make sure that they are provided with educational materials such as books making her and her siblings excel in school. With inspirations from parents that are both supportive when it comes to math and science, it is not a surprise that she passed as a scholar of Philippine Science High School (PSHS). Her stay in PSHS (Eastern Visayas Campus) gave her the opportunity to join the 2017 Breakthrough Junior Challenge. It was not an instant win for her. Hillary's first attempt was not that bad because out of thousands of participants, she placed third in the competition. That “breakthrough” motivated her to join the second time around. With motivations from the teachers and the school, Hillary finally won the first prize of the said competition.
Science Communicator
Currently, Hillary is a junior at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, majoring in Physics and minoring in both Astronomy and Science, Technology, and Society (STS). Besides coursework, she also does research on astrophysics at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and physics education at the MIT Edgerton Center.
Hillary believes that her purpose in life is to actively tell the wonders of science with humanity. In her blog, she shared that as an astrophysicist-in-training who feels deeply inspired by the cosmos, she wants to share the excitement of science. At the same time, as a survivor of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan)—where better science communication could have saved thousands of lives—she also wants to share the life-saving value of science. In an interview with Asian Scientist Magazine on the contribution of the youth like her to science, she said that she believes that youth like her have huge potential and responsibility towards future generations. She also expressed that there is a need to take care of the world we’re living in as the young people will soon inherit this world. “We have the responsibility to make this world a better place to live in and science can help us do that… a generation that appreciates science can take care of the world better”, Hillary added. With the vast source of information laid in the minds of the youth, Hillary pointed out that what the young people like her should be doing now is finding ways and actually trying to do everything to make an impact.
This young science communicator believes that science will make everyone learn to start thinking critically. Very ideal it may sound, she envisions that if people think critically and it will erase the misconception that science is just about numbers and equations, it is the world that we are living in. For her, science gives life, both literally and figuratively—and through her work, she wants people to feel that. (Ma. Anne Bonglay, MSDC-II)
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