Janice Ong Yu was born and raised in the Philippines. She completed a degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila in 1992 and also studied Cake Decorating at the Wilton School in Chicago, Illinois which led to a side-career in specialized cakes for about six years. This self-confessed "jane of all trades" has many diverse interests. When family commitments no longer afforded her the option for an alternate career, she pursued other activities including scuba diving, photography, and video editing, among others.  In between these hobbies, she manages to find time to travel and is a free-lance contributor to FOOD and a few other local magazines.    Presently, Janice's full time job is managing her family-owned hardware store which specializes in architectural coatings and adhesives.  She has also invested part of her winnings into a newly formed post production editing facility with a group of friends.         Winning the MFM 2005 was a very unexpected but welcome surprise. It's been a year since I saw the TV ad on Discovery channel for the contest and I sometimes have to pinch myself and just be amazed at how far I have come. The giant check that was presented to me during the awards night still hangs on my door and is a constant reminder of the wonderful experience I had last year. Winning the MFM 2005 has opened doors to many new challenges which I would never have envisioned myself doing. Imagine me, being invited to be one of the guest speakers at a Nokia event, where I had to address more than a hundred media & press from all over the Asia Pacific Region. It really is a big thrill to be the first ever winner of this contest, and the icing on the cake is that I was able to “beat” out all the men.         After I won last year I thought that my association with the whole MFM series would more or less end there. So you can imagine my surprise when I was invited to participate in this years event and be given the special title of MobiQ. MobiQ is someone whom the semi-finalist/finalist can e-mail to ask for help on mobile film making, ask for tips on using the N90, share my personal experiences about the contest and be there to soothe jittery nerves as elimination day approaches. At first I was a bit nervous thinking that maybe I would get 1 or 2 emails only but lo and behold I got quite a lot of them. It was heartwarming to read many of the lovely letters from the contestants, some wrote just to say hi & congratulations, some shared stories about their lives and their aspirations, but most wrote to seek for advice and pointers and just anything that would at least give them an insight on what to expect on the day of the workshop. I was really very touched that they gave value to my experience, my thoughts and my advice. Being MobiQ certainly has been very rewarding in the sense that in my own small way I was able to help the contestants as they go through the same journey I did but this time they don't have to do it alone.