FILIPINO  CANADIAN  NUCLEAR  DESIGN  ENGINEER  TUNES  INTO  PLAYING MUSIC

 

By Tony A. San Juan, OCT-Retired
Toronto-Canada
September 11, 2021
 




Music is not his first love. Building and designing mechanical equipment and devices are innately attracted to his engineering brain. That's right, folks! Solomon F. De Vera is very much into the field of engineering and technology in the Philippines. After coming to Canada with his young family in 2002, he further developed and enhanced his musical talent and focused a liking for writing music, quite a different and uncharacteristic departure from his chosen career in mechanical engineering. So it's an engineering science meeting and mixing arts in music. A unique combination, indeed.

Solomon F. De Vera, an engineer by profession but a musician at heart, can play various musical instruments adeptly and wonderfully well such as Trumpet, Trombone, Cornets, Flugelhorn, French Horn, and Keyboard. Likewise, he learned to play Wind/Reeds instruments like Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, and Tenor Saxophone. He is proud of having composed several songs and lyrics. He has earlier arranged the "El Pancho March" and "Happy Birthday Greetings" and is now into writing musical compositions.



Before his eureka in music, his personal and professional journey was an interesting and beautiful story to tell and share. A native of Gapan, Nueva Ecija, Filipino engineer Solomon De Vera, before immigrating to Toronto, Canada, has a flourishing but challenging career in the Philippines. Solomon is a grade school Valedictorian and high school Salutatorian. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree with Cum Laude distinction at FEATI University in 1992. A consistent academic scholar, he is a member of the Phi Iota Tau Fraternity, his alma mater's prestigious Lone Honour Society.  Solomon served as a Junior Engineer at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries-Philippines in 1993-1994 and also with the National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) as a Senior /Principal Engineer for 9 years.

S. De Vera continued his academic studies and received a Master of Engineering degree with a major in Heat Power in 1999 from the University of the Philippines (from 1995 – 1999) footing the bill from the beginning. Finally, in the last year, he was granted a scholarship from the country's Civil Service Commission.  Armed with academic degrees and a professional engineer's license, he immigrated to Canada, together with his young family dreaming like any new immigrant to have a good life. It did not turn out that easily, though.

As a determined, 29-year old Filipino gentleman with a Mechanical Engineering professional license from the Professional Regulatory Board (PRC) in the Philippines, he hoped to offer his engineering expertise and experience in his adopted country. But success in the pursuit of engaging a professional practice is disappointingly elusive to him. With similar situations that are characteristically common to  the often-described struggles of internationally-trained professionals, he experienced discouraging, if not discriminatory barriers, in receiving professional accreditation to continue and practice his chosen profession in Ontario.

After consulting his family and friends and weighing options he has decided to "go back to school" instead of facing uncertainties of meeting the complexities and ramifications of achieving an engineering certification from Professional Engineers Ontario(PEO), the province's professional engineering regulatory body. With a "bruised pride, he was challenged, have to sacrifice" and to squarely face the "humiliation of entering anew" into the classroom together with young classmates. In retrospect, Solomon said that "other people considered my decision as insanity, but I said it's what reality is at that point in time". He has to make a crucial decision and in 2004, he enrolled and toiled at Ryerson University in Toronto. His "gamble paid off" and in 2008 has completed the Bachelor of Engineering(BEng.) program with a major in Mechanical Fluid and Thermal Power. Proudly, he was licensed as a Professional Engineer in 2010 after a year of professional practice required under the supervision of a professional mentor.

With his university and professional accreditations, since 2008, he has been working as a Design Engineer – Mechanical at the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) until 2015 when it became the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories where he is currently serving as a Design Engineer in the Chalk River Laboratories nuclear research facility in Chalk River, Ontario.  He is a standing member of Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and The Featineans Association of Toronto (TFAT), an alumni group in Ontario.



Solomon is happily married to Juliet De Vera, a quality assurance coordinator at the Ontario Ministry of Environment. The couple has 2 children: Samantha (a Mechanical Engineering Summa Cum Laude graduate of McMaster University), and Absolom ( Gr. 12 at Chaminade School's STEM Program) who are following in their footsteps. Engineer Mon travels in-between weekends from his work and lodging in Deep River, Petawawa, and a home in Toronto, a distance of about 490 km. His sports and hobbies include marathon running, tennis, swimming. dart shooting, bowling, and pool billiard.

At age 51, though early to retire, Solomon is still into playing and writing music, being a band member since 2008 of community bands in Pinawa and Deep River as well as the Petawawa Legion Band and the Look O Hon band in Toronto.  He professed that "music is the source of strength and inspiration to continue with my daily routine no matter how good or stressful my life is. I believe that music transforms my imagination into something magical and tangible that helps me to purge and to unclog my boggled mind".

Solomon, named after the legendary King Solomon by his parents, believes in his self-created creed: "Our Destiny is How We Make it Happen." Definitely designed and developed in the crucible of challenges, personal hardship, sacrifice, and determination, the professional engineer-cum- musician Solomon is now realizing his personal credo and proudly living the Canadian dream. ( By: Tony A. San Juan, OCT-Retired)