INSPIRING IMMERSION
The summer before his fourth year of high school, the aspiration to become a priest became more explicit. After joining a week-long immersion camp in Mambukal, Negros Island where he lived in a community of sugarcane farmers, he was overwhelmed with the experience he gained from living in a rural set up, having lived all his life in an urban area.

Aboard the ship on his way back home, he approached their group’s priest and expressed his desire to become a priest, to serve the marginalized.


OBEDIENT SON
In spite of his arduous aspiration to be a priest, his parents, especially his father, did not agree with him. His father, being practical, suggested that it might be a better idea to finish a degree first before entering the seminary. His father thought that it might be wise to have a backup plan in case Juvelan would realize that priesthood isn’t his vocation. All along, Juvelan knew that this was his father’s way to change his mind, because he was their only child and the sole bearer of their family’s name. The young Juvelan knew that his father thought he would lose interest in entering the seminary if he went to college instead.

Being an obedient son, Juvelan enrolled in the University of the Philippines (U.P. DIliman). Although his father died while he was in his 2nd year in UP, he graduated with a degree in Speech Communications.


INDEFATIGABLE SALESIAN
After fulfilling his father’s wish, Juvelan entered the seminary, joining the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Initially, he was thinking of joining the Jesuits, whose charism is on social justice, in order for him to achieve his aspiration to serve the least, the last and the lost.

But truly God works in mysterious ways. Juvelan was not given by any chance to meet a Jesuit that might help him pursue his dream to help the poor. Although he planned to enter Ateneo for college, he lacked the funds to even take the entrance exams.

But Juvelan pursued his calling and joined the Salesians of Don Bosco.