Author: uycaaaath

Are you a freshie? First exam? Here’s a few tips on how to survive in devcom exams.

by: Mia Bueta, Christine Casido, and Catherine Uy

Amidst the gloomy weather, the General Paciano Rizal Park was still jampacked with people on the night of September 19 at 6:00 in the evening. The people were patiently waiting for the annual Bailamos Dance Contest: Make Your Move, which is one of the most awaited activities in the known Bañamos Festival, in celebration of its 18^th year anniversary, held in Los Baños, Laguna.

The main goal of Bailamos is to showcase the different talents not just of Los Baños locals but also other towns around Laguna as well. However, this year most of the contestants were from Calamba and Los Baños only. Top priority of this event said by Mr. Jonathan Natividad, OIC in Los Banos Tourism, is the safety of the contestants, so as much as possible death defying stunts are prohibited.

The group should have at most 15 members with the age range of 16 years old and above. Each group should not exceed to five minutes and must showcase street style, hiphop, locking, etc. Dangerous stunts are strictly prohibited. Moreover, dance, steps, body movements, choice of music are signs of morality and good conduct, stated by Mr. Natividad.

This year’s set of judges are Mr. Pinch Araneta, Mr. Jayson Lagrada and Mrs. Jocelyn Ann Luna. Expectations from this year’s contestants are higher as Mrs. Luna said, “last year judge rin ako dito, so dapat mas level up ang performance nila”, and the contestants did not disappoint.

There are a total of 10 contestants who joined this year’s competition. But among the groups, only three have met beyond the judges’ expectations, namely: Nazty Boys (2^nd runner-up), Scammaz (1^st runner-up), and G7 (Champion).

Having the least number of members, G7 still managed to win the judges’ heart through strictly following the criteria. Clean dance moves, safe stunts and facial expressions are what made them stand out. Bringing home 20,000 cash prize and certificate, half of this will be given to their parents to give back as being their inspiration, stated by Mark Justine Likayman, one of the members of G7. Their win was unexpected for they are just newly formed last March and it was their first time joining the dance battle.

After all the performances, a unity dance was presented showcasing the 10 groups in one dance number. A special award was given to Scammaz, the group who won 1st runner up, as the Dancer of The Year.

In celebration of the 404th founding anniversary of Los Baños Laguna, the annual Bailamos Dance Contest is a great opportunity for the youth to showcase their talents in dancing as stated by Mr. Natividad. The event has highlighted the culture of the people of Los Baños as their supportiveness and loud cheers were evident throughout the evident.

Maahas is not a usual name for a place. And as a probinsyana from Isabela, I am not familiar to the barangays here in Los Banos. But I’m not alone, because I am with my team, the CCM.

We bravely came to the so called Barangay Maahas. But first, we asked someone the whereabouts of Barangay Maahas to gain information and to know where to go.

As we reached the Barangay Hall of Barangay Maahas, the employees approached and asked us to what were our concerns and kindly lead to us to Bb. Krystal Lizza M. Alvarez, the secrectary and contact person in the barangay. From there, we politely interviewed and asked her about the information of Barangay Maahas.

Method of interviewing was used to gather data because we really came to the Barangay Hall of Barangay Maahas to have the information needed and we thought that interview would be the most effective method of gathering to be able to have the information first hand and also because we don’t have any contact to the Barangay Maahas.

And for the next batch of BSDC freshmen, here are my tips on gathering of data:

Tip #1 : Know your assigned location

Make sure that you are knowledgeable on the place where you will go for you to be not lost on your way and to save time.

Tip #2 : Be patient

Have always with you your patience to wait for the officials to accommodate you because they might be busy.

Tip #3 : Be polite

Have a kind and polite attitude on asking questions towards the official or your interviewee.

Tip #4 : Be prepared

Don’t forget to have papers and pen or audio recorder with you because it’s your weapon/tool in data gathering. 

A media writer takes a lot of skills and qualities to be considered as such. Some may be innate but some can be developed as time goes by.

I highly think that Development Communicators are brave people. But for me, sometimes I do get shy too. It takes a lot of courage and time for me to develop the skills and qualities I have and should have as a development communicator.

Knowing myself more and discovering the skills that I have keeps me from getting a 1.00 self rating. Whenever I fail on something, I’m thinking that I’m not good on that, so as a result, that failures challenged and motivated me more to improve.

But among the qualities of a media writer that I need to work on the most is being loves to read because it’s really hard for me to easily digest all the information that I’m reading and also I easily get bored when I read but I need to make an effort to improve my skills in reading.

However, the skill I’ve developed the highest competency is the gathering of data because when I am in junior and senior high school, our teachers exposed us on researches. And it requires to be inquisitive on gathering data/information. So through the years of doing researches, I developed my skills in gathering data.

And I think the skill I need to work on the most to develop is organizing information because sometimes I have difficulty on weighing the importance/relevance of information on a certain topic. So, I need to learn more on how to organize the information needed in terms of relevance to the topic.

A girl who’s been living in the world of pageantry has entered a new world for her to have a new crown. From the Queen Province of the North, Isabela, there she lives by the name Catherine Uy, who travelled so far for 15 hours to reach and explore her new stage.

Reading and writing were not really her thing before. She usually gets bored whenever she read and gets lazy whenever she writes. But because of journalism workshops, her appreciation to writings ignited.

Since she’s an elementary student, she tried so hard to find her field where she can bring out her full potential and skills. But not long enough, she made a place in the field of broadcasting where she enhanced and nurtured her talents in news writing and radio broadcasting. Little did she know that she also has talents to other fields of journalism. So, after 3 years of being a broadcaster, she moved on being a photojournalist which she learned to appreciate more the beauty of everything even in small things. But one time, her teacher required their class to make a feature article and as days passed, she gained a lot of interest in that field which made her realized one thing – her passion in writing.

Discovering more about herself gave her the courage to try some other things and there her journey on pageantry began. Her learnings from journalism helped her in how to properly communicate with other people and on how to formulate her answers to the questions. And the most important thing she learned was to be an advocate of journalism through pageantry. She uses pageants as a way to give good influence to people and be an epitome of a civic-spirited shaper of community.

But her journey will not end there. Now she is a freshman student taking up Bachelor of Science in Development Communication at the University of the Philippines Los Baños where she hopes to find her new crown, crown for serving the nation. It might be a new environment to her and still in the process of adjusting, but her passion in writing and making big impact to people will still remain and continuing to grow. And for 5 years that she’s been yelling her name to the crowd, she is now ready to yell and serve her nation as ‘Iskolar ng Bayan’.

Nobody said that college life is easy but nobody said this would be so hard.

First month here in university is already mixed emotions. At first, I felt excited to be an Iska because my dream finally turned into reality. But my excitedness didn’t maintain its high level and my first month stay here in university already gave me many lessons. Despite the mixed emotions and challenging situations I encountered, thankfully, I survived a month here in University of the Philippines. And so, here are my realizations/ lessons learned in my first month in UPLB:

Preparedness is a must

One must come prepared at all times ‘cause you’ll never know
what might happen. That is the most important thing I always bear in mind, to become ready all the time. Here in University of the Philippines, no one can never know who will survive in the future happenings unless you’ll face future preparedly and armed. One example here is, bringing your umbrella all the time, because I knew that the university has its own weather system, therefore the weather is really unpredictable. 

Know your priorities

Focus on what’s most important, and learn to prioritize the
things you need to accomplish immediately. Such as in requirements, you should weigh the things in your to-do list and balance the time you’ll spend in requirements. If you focus on your priorities then it can help you to avoid cramming.

Accept your failures

Not all the time, I can be best among the rest. Here in University of the Philippines, I learned to accept my weaknesses and failures because if I let depression take control over me, then I’ll suffer even more. Instead, use my failures as a motivation to do more and be the best version of
myself. Because no one can ever help me but only myself. 

Health comes first

Prioritize first your health because you can’t accomplish
your work if you’re unhealthy or have any diseases. It is a must to maintain your strength from the beginning until the end because if you became weak, it would be more difficult to do your requirements. So always keep in mind, health over acads.

Learn to enjoy

Amidst of workloads, you must don’t forget to enjoy. Even if
I feel depressed some time, I should still give myself time to rest and enjoy my college life. It’s okay to take a break from acads in order to have a fresh start. Don’t push yourself too much on acads.

Honor and excellence

This is the tagline of University of the Philippines. In everything you do, you must do it with Honor and Excellence. For us ‘Iskolar ng Bayan’, must accomplish our duties for the benefit of people. Because being an ISKA is a privilege, so, we must do our best to fulfill our responsibilities to our nation
for us to be rightfully called Iskolar ng Bayan.

The path that I’m taking now might be blurry and dark, but when the right time comes, all of this would be worth it in the end. It just needs patience and virtue to reach the finish line and in order to wear a sablay. And I’m still fighting to reach the end even if it’s just a month after I began this fight.

Entering the university without any idea of what a Development Communicator is and should be is a difficult thing. I even asked myself, “Is it really for me? Is it really what I want?”. Whenever my relatives ask me if what is Development Communication is, I don’t know what to answer and how to explain it.

But little by little I’m having a glance of what a Development Communication is through the DevCom courses I’m taking in. And as a Development Communicator-in-training, I came up with the top 3 characteristics of a development-oriented topic:

Community-based

A development-oriented topic must focus on community for they are the ones to be affected by such developments. It should primarily address the needs and problems of the community and eventually give solutions for the betterment of the lives of people residing in community.

Value-laden

Possessing a value is a must in identifying a development-oriented topic. It should prioritize to have a greater purpose for the bigger community, which means having a purpose is having a mission or goal to achieve and that should focus on the welfare of the many. If one can’t be value-laden, then it would worthless and won’t give any help for the people.

Progress-oriented

It must create a progress for it to be considered as a development-oriented topic. A progress that can eventually benefit the community especially the marginalized sectors. It should look on angles in which it gives development that can lead to progressive community.

Luckily, I got a chance to interview Ms. Danessa Lorenz Lopega, a BS Development Communication student Batch 2018, on what are the top 3 characteristics of a development-oriented topic:

Having all these characteristics in mind, we can critically assess topics or articles which are in lined with development.

In battles, one must come prepared and be ready at all times.

Bravery and confidence are not just the keys to win a battle, weapons are of great help and valuable in battles. Same with goes as a DevCom student, field works are like entering battles, so it is a must to have with you your weapons/tools everytime. In order to survive, it’s better to be ready than to say sorry. So, here are the top 5 items which keep DevCom students alive.

Pen and Paper. These are the most common yet valuable tools that gives life to a writer. They are both effective to use when gathering data and information because most of time the information can retain in your mind whenever you’re jotting down. It may be sound classic but still the best companion of writers.

Mobile Phone. One of the most weapon used in collecting information is mobile phones because it has many useful features such as audio recorder and camera. It also gives convenience to writers for it is a light to carry tool that can be use whenever you need to cover something.

Earphones. In spite of the noise that our surroundings have, it would be best to use earphones especially in transcribing interviews to clearly hear the response and content of the audio. It’s best to use this for you to have high quality of audio in interviews.

Laptop. This could be of great help to DevCom students in compiling files and needs a larger capacity of documents. It is better to have this whenever you do multi-tasking such as editing files, videos and researching for references.

Storage devices. These devices such as Flash Drive and External Drive could be a life savior to writers for it is used to back-up their important documents and files that can be used in the future. It’s best to have back-ups at all times.