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THE S PECTRUM VOL. 58 NO. 1
APRIL 2014
USLS builds more houses in GK site
Photo by Roma Jane A. Hechanova
O F F I C I A L S T U D E N T M E D I A C O R P S O F T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F S T. L A S A L L E
LASALLIAN HEROES. Ignoring the heat of the sun, Lasallian volunteers keep on building houses, in the hopes of transforming the lives of the people they can help through the University’s Bayani Challenge.
A total of 534 students, staff and faculty members joined University of St. La Salle’s (USLS) five-day volunteer program called Bago City-USLS-GK Bayani Challenge 2014 to build four houses. Headed by Balayan-Social Development Office (BalayanSDO), the participants started the construction of the houses at the Gawad Kalinga (GK) Lopue Legacy site in Brgy. Dulao, Bago City from May 12 to 16. Apart from Lasallians,
volunteers from local government units, students from Bago City College, and members of GK Kapitbahayan association also participated in the said program. As of press time, the four houses are still undergoing construction and Balayan expects to complete them by the end of August 2014. Each house is worth Php100, 000, the funds for construction of which come from the budgets of the University Student Government, the La Salle Yearbook-USLS, the National
Service Training Program, and fund-raising activities of University clubs. However, with the still ongoing fund-raising activities, Balayan decided to “start working on a fifth house”, according to Balayan-SDO Director Minmin Ponteras. She added that Balayan patterned the said volunteer program’s concept, “but not fully”, from Bayani Challenge, an annual five-day national activity of GK launched in 2006 that gathers volunteers to participate
in poverty-alleviation through building homes, repairing schools, conducting health missions and tree planting programs, and engaging with kids. Apart from the housebuilding activity, the University also adopted the Paraisong Pambata from the national Bayani Challenge, wherein Lasallian volunteers engaged the 30 kids in the community for five days in activities like storytelling, art workshop, singing, playing, dancing, and cupcake decorating. USLS/3
Photo courtesy of Patricia Mari M. Mijares
10 Lasallians conduct internship in Japan
LASALLIANS GO GLOBAL. The ten Lasallian students sent to conduct a three-month internship in Japan proudly wear their native costumes, bringing the Filipino culture with them. By Roma Jane A. Hechanova
Nine graduates and one senior student from the College of Education (CEd) of the University of St. La Salle (USLS) are currently on a three-month internship at Miyakonojo Higashi High School in Japan under the International Internship Program of USLS. CEd Dean Cherry Anne Biaco said the purpose of the program, which is exclusive to CEd students, is for the interns to teach English to the Japanese students and to make them more
globally competitive through “benchmarking from other Asian countries”. “It opens a bigger window to a new world. It helps our students propagate good Christian values and become more diverse,” Biaco said. The interns arrived last May 19 in Japan and started to work as assistant teachers the following day. They not only serve as facilitators during the individual or group class activities of the students, but also get to hold classes and construct their own lesson plans in coordination
with the Japanese teachers for the English subject, according to Patricia Mari Mijares, the senior student-intern. “We usually divide the group and attend classes with five student teachers, with one main teacher. They prefer the progressivist strategy. For example, we will group the class into five with one student facilitator each assigned to deliver an activity,” Mijares explained. Furthermore, the interns get to participate in four major programs of the host school, namely, Global Team, Theme Room, School Gallery, and the Summer Camp with the students. Mijares said they are helping prepare the projects of the Global Team, which is composed of the host school’s various teacher. The said projects include the Open House, which is similar to the University’s Lasallian Week, and the English Café, wherein the Japanese students may freely converse with the Filipino teachers. On the other hand, the Theme Room is an English exhibit, which the students may visit to learn more about the said language,
while the School Gallery features photos of the different school club activities on their bulletin boards. Meanwhile, the Summer Camp will allow the interns to interact and communicate more with the Japanese students. The nine CEd graduateinterns include Marianne Agapito, Sheila Mae Bayag, Jem Herald Deliarte, Benjie-Al Dy, Zygell Doll Jamelano, Ariel Joy Patria, Jhon Elber Perolino, Jessa Raycel Raquinel, and June Carl Seran. According to Biaco, the interns were chosen from the recommendation of the CEd council, which consists of the college dean, department chairs, and faculty members. “The college council recommend students in terms of readiness, intelligence, adaptability, and active membership,” Biaco said. Moreover, the University signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the host school last June 16 at the University’s English Cafe with plans to accomplish an agreement. Biaco added that two more batches are to follow after the first batch finish their internship in Japan.
BNeFIT takes a step for future demand of Cloud engineers
UP IN THE CLOUD. Participants from the BNeFIT Seminar pose together with Bacolod City Councilor Hon. Jocelle Batapa-Sigue. By Monica M. Cueto
International Information Technology (IT) firm EMC Academic Alliance, in partnership with BacolodNegros Occidental Federation for Information and Communications Technology (BNeFIT) and the University of St. La Salle (USLS), conducted a crash course program on Cloud technology at the Computer Science Laboratory 4 in USLS last May 19 to 23. A total of IT professors from the different colleges and universities in the province participated in the program. The training program on Cloud, a system of network computing wherein an application runs on a connected server, aimed to help IT teachers embrace and develop skills relating to the new technology’s innovation, infrastructure and services. EMC initiated the program because they believe that the IT industry has taken a significant shift in this new age of technology. BNeFIT Executive Director Hon. Jocelle Batapa-Sigue
claims that the professors are expected to teach the structure and fundamentals of cloud technology to their students in the hopes that, two to three years from now, the students will be equipped with the familiarity of Cloud. “It is, after all, the foundation of the teachers to be able to teach a new technology,” adding that it will prepare today’s young people for the future challenges in IT and the increasing demand for cloud engineers. She also said that the program was held to address the possibility of having no teachers with the right skills to teach students in the future, especially in IT. Moreover, with the possibility of decreasing job opportunities in some courses, enrolling in an IT course would be a good choice, according to Batapa. “There might be a mismatch, so as early as now, I am warning all high school students to be careful when you choose a course. You have to think, ‘If I go to college and work four to five years from now, what’s going to happen by that time?’” Batapa said, adding that “things are now really evolving fast”.
Photo courtesy of Raymund G. Trespicio
By Roma Jane A. Hechanova