RIZAL'S CAREERS AND CONTRIBUTIONS

              

Rizal had maximized his stay in Dapitan by devoting much of his time in improving his artistic and literary skills; doing agricultural and civic projects; engaging in business activities, and writing letters to his friends in Europe. His careers and achievements in different fields were as follows:

* As a PHYSICIAN, Rizal provided free medicine to his patients, most of them were underprivileged. 
* As an ENGINEER, Rizal applied his knowledge through the waterworks system he constructed in Dapitan.
* As an educator, Rizal established a school in Dapitan which was attended by 16 young boys from prominent families. Instead of charging them for the matriculation, he made the students do community projects for him like maintaining his garden and field. He taught them reading, writing in English and Spanish, geography, history, mathematics, industrial work, nature study, morals and gymnastics. 
* As an AGRICULTURIST, Rizal devoted time in planting important crops and fruit-bearing trees in his 16-hectare land (later, reaching as large as 70 hectares). He planted cacao, coffee,sugarcane, and coconuts, among many others. 
* As a BUSINESSMAN, the adventurous Rizal, with his partner, Ramon Carreon, tried his luck in the fishing, hemp and copra industries. 
* As an INVENTOR, little was known of Rizal. In 1887, during his medical practice in Calamba, he invented a special type of lighter called sulpukan which he sent to Blumentritt as a gift. 
* As an ARTIST, he had contributed his talent in the Sisters of Charity who were preparing for the arrival of the image of the Holy Virgin. 
* As a LINGUIST, Rizal was interested in the languages used in Dapitan, thus, studied and made comparisons of the Bisayan and Malayan languages existing in the region. In fact, Rizal had knowledge in 22 languages: Tagalog, Ilocano, Bisayan, Subanun, Spanish, Latin, Greek, English, French, German, Arabic, Malayan, Hebrew, Sanskrit, Dutch, Catalan, Italian, Chinese, Japanes, Portuguese, Swedish and Russian.
* As a SCIENTIST, Rizal shared his interest with nature to his students. With his boys, they explored the jungles and searched for specimens which he sent to museums in Europe, particularly in Dressed Museum. In return, scientific books and surgical instruments were delivered to him from the European scientists. He also made a bulk of other researches and studies in the fields of ethnography, archaeology, geology, anthropology and geography. However, Rizal's most significant contribution in the scientific world was his discovery of three species:

  Draco rizali – flying dragon
  Apogonia rizali – small beetle
  Rhacophorus rizali – rare frog