Author: jmsbayaborda

Here is a short video introduction of my hometown Calatagan!

“This moment requires focus. Before you can focus on the future, you have to focus on the now.” This line is from the commercial of Stephen Curry, an NBA player. I can relate the line to studying in UPLB because as the line say, I need to focus and think about the present before the future, which I think I failed. If I will have the opportunity to give advice to myself, I will tell him the things that he should do so that he will finish the semester better than what I did before.

Sleep right.

This is the most important part of all the tips. Sleeping will not only make you feel energized before doing school works, but it will also help you maintain your body health so that you will be in good shape in attending classes. There will be nights that you are sleepless but you need to cope and adjust yourself to sleep even a bit. It may be painful to wake up immediately after sleeping with incomplete hours but at least your body will have some energy later because you rested.

Make friends.

If they do not thought of talking to you, then you should try and talk to them. Without friends, you will be moving forward slower than everyone. Most of the courses taught encourage you to interact with others, so why not try that?

Be industrious.

Work with assignments, projects, and activities given to you as soon as they are given. Do not let your tasks to pile up. It will just make you fully exhausted in working everything in one day or less.

Fix your things.

Reading and doing school works will be easier if you have a neat and tidy place. Arrange your things properly so that you can work efficiently. Do not choose on fixing them later because in the end you will always be procrastinating in doing that.

Avoid distractions and too much leisure time.

You will face a time after long hours of doing school works, you will decide to rest a bit for a while. Just be careful because it might affect your time for more important things. Do not let yourself forget that you have other things to do after relaxing.

Qualities of a media writer

Before:

1. Curious or Inquisitive – 3
2. Intelligent – 3
3. Industrious – 3
4. Resourceful – 2
5. Persevering – 2
6. Imaginative – 3
7. Puts premium on accuracy and truth – 2
8. Loves to read – 3
9. Interested in and loves people – 3
10. Service Oriented – 2

After:

1. Curious or Inquisitive – 2
2. Intelligent – 2
3. Industrious – 2
4. Resourceful – 2
5. Persevering – 2
6. Imaginative – 2
7. Puts premium on accuracy and truth – 2
8. Loves to read – 2
9. Interested in and loves people – 2
10. Service Oriented – 1

I have given myself these updated ratings because I know that I changed a lot from before who I was. I became familiar on the activities that my professors gave us. I also learned to be more cooperative to my classmates and to work under pressure. The semester thought me to be prepared every time so that I will be able to be productive. It made me realize on what path in life I am in.

Skills of a Media Writer

Before:

1. Gathering Data – 3
2. Validating and classifying information – 2
3. Organizing information – 2
4. Writing Clearly and effectively – 3
5. Proficiency in the communication tools/devices – 2

After:

1. Gathering Data – 2
2. Validating and classifying information – 1
3. Organizing information – 2
4. Writing Clearly and effectively – 2
5. Proficiency in the communication tools/devices – 2

With the skills I had before, I had a doubt if I will be able to cope with the challenges that may come. But now I can say that I improved a lot since then. Thanks to those people who I met who taught me things indirectly. Also with the DevCom courses, I familiarized myself in writing news in different ways, which I don’t do before in high school or grade school.

Overall, I can see that I improved my qualities and skills of a media writer. But I also know that there are still room for improvement for me. This semester may be over, but it will be remembered as the semester that my college began with, and is one of the foundation of my life in the future.

As students taking BS Development Communication in University of the Philippines Los Baños, many will approach and ask, “What is DevCom?,” “Is it like MassCom, but with a heart?,” or “What jobs/opportunities will you get from taking DevCom course?” At first, we have no idea what to say. After weeks studying, we now have answers to those questions. Here is a video introducing Development Communication and the top three questions answered by BS DevCom freshmen students.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wcdjXf0ilWbAwiigtBRPjP-_WK8aajPU?usp=sharing

Groupmates:

Buenaventura, Stephen (UV-2L)

Bueta, Mia Carmela (UV-2L)

Dulay, Hendrix (UV-2L)

Uy, Catherine (UV-2L)

Yes it is midterms, but it doesn’t mean that we cannot freshen our self up. Requirements, Deadlines, Quizzes and Activities, sometimes we need a little break from all of that. After a long period of doing school works, you can try these following tips to de-stress or unwind.

Go out and travel!

It does not mean to go far places, just go somewhere different this time instead of going to the University. You can try exploring Los Baños because there are so much around that you can discover. Familiarizing with the place is not fun alone, so bring your friends along!

Perfect Sleep!

Yes! This is what we need! Get yourself a full sleep. Do not make an alarm because this time you will be relaxing. Spend time also in resting, because you need it also. You do not want to be brought to University Health Service or to the Hospital right? It will be more stressful I think.

Eat, and eat and EAT!!

No, it does not mean to eat a lot like your first impression to the topic. It means that you should that food that you want to try long ago but you have not eaten it yet because you’re busy. It will not hurt somebody to eat a different kind of food to be relax right? There are so many dishes and foods around that you have not try yet. This is the time to try them!

Talk with your families and friends!

So you have done all the school works. Now, it is time to catch up socially. Talking personally or even through the phone is alright because right now you can focus on talking with other people. Talk about the things that you missed like your favorite tv show, movies and even personal things. It is better talking with someone you want to talk to without thinking about school works.

Do your hobbies!

May it be watching Kdramas, playing mobile games, outdoor or indoor sports or reading books/e-books, you can do the thing you want! Just don’t forget that you are still studying in College and more school works will come. Be cautious on not getting too hooked with those hobbies or you might neglect the things that you need to do.

by Gabriel Dolot, Geraldine Brotonel, Jonn Marwin Bayaborda

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xwc9OZ-7xpYKtDeeoX2SetDkZIADLdgI?usp=sharing

The day dawned gloomy in Los Baños, Laguna as festivities for the Bañamos Parade continue. The Civic Parade along Brgy. Anos, infamous for traffic, is filled with people carrying banners and balloons as they march to the beat of the marching band.

From the Makiling Subdivision, the parade trailed up to the New Multipurpose Hall in Brgy. Baybayin where delegates and spectators were greeted by the Rio Brothers Band who immediately captured the hearts of the senior citizens with their rendition of famous 70’s and 80’s hits keeping the ambiance fun and lively.

Bañamos, one of the biggest festivals here in Laguna not only has become a gathering of residents but also of local & foreign tourists. Ms. Naomi, a British citizen who works at IRRI said, “It’s amazing. Everyone is so friendly and getting together. It’s really nice that people want to celebrate.This is much more impressive than what we do to celebrate.”

Over the years, it seems like the Bañamos Festival has only gotten bigger and better from the large turnout of people and the venue itself. Hon. Josephine “Baby” Sumangil-Evangelista said in a short interview, “Nakita namin na mas madaming taong kasali ngayon. Tapos kung makikita niyo, contained na tayo dito because of this multipurpose hall, Talagang this was… hindi naman rushed, inayos talaga ‘to in time for the Bañamos Festival so every office is here right now celebrating our 404th foundation anniversary.”

The Civic Parade is only one of the most awaited activities of the Bañamos festival and it’s guaranteed that the rest won’t disappoint either.

In the past weeks, I built a set of learnings that I think is worth sharing with other people. It shaped me to who I need to be, to cope within the culture of UPLB.

1. Be Prepared. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to get through something most of the time. For example when there came a sudden change in the weather from sunny to rainy or vice versa and you did not bring an umbrella, you will suffer in getting wet. Or example in class, there will be some professors who will give surprise quizzes. If you are always well prepared, Then your life in UPLB will be just fine.
2. Avoid unnecessary activities. Most of the students like to postpone activities that they can do with their free time. For me, Avoiding unnecessary activities will help you in focusing with activities which are more important. You are allowed to party and celebrate sometimes but not every night. You will also be able to manage your time well with putting all the urgent priorities at the top portion of your to-do lists.
3. Rest is Gold. Today, it is not time alone to be the gold. Taking a break or resting can help you in balancing a busy day. As we all know, sleeping with enough hours can help us to set our mood and that we could be more lively than sleeping with lesser hours.
4. Learn to be independent. If in your province before have this circle of friends around you and now you don’t, learn to adjust with yourself. You may or may not build a new set of friends here in college but what is more important is that you learn to let go of the past and face the future. Actually, you will never be alone. God is with us always. We just need to pray for him.
5. Have fun in UPLB. If you think that the only thing in college is to study, you are wrong. There are many places around UPLB that can bring happiness to students. You can also participate in various activities from different offices and organization if you feel like joining them.

Knowing DevCom, there will be a lot of work to do in activities, assignments and paperworks. You will be sometimes assigned to a task where you need to work like those people behind the camera of tv news programs that will require the top five items to bring with you to perform your best at work.

The first item is a smartphone. With its different features and capabilities, You will have access to what other devices does. For example, you can use the camera (if your phone has good qualities) to take photos in an event like what cameras do, the voice recorder to have a copy of your conversation with an interviewee (like the function of the voice recorder), or the memo for listing datas and information. A smartphone truly is an all-around item, having the functions of other devices.

Moving on to the second item, it is necessary to bring a laptop just in case you need to work with documents and files immediately. Most of its advanced functions are not present in smartphones, which means that a laptop is one of the must haves.

On the third item, you need to bring cash. Yes, it is a basic need because almost everything that we need (food, water, clothes and other necessities) are bought at stores. You may say that you can bring food and water to avoid bringing cash so that you will not spend it, but you will never know if for example there comes an emergency that requires cash for it to be solved.

For the fourth item, the items come in pair, which is the pen and paper. Yes, these two are considered one, and even though you can use your phone in documenting something, the traditional way of writing never gets old. You may discover the advantages of having a pen and paper with you.

The last item is a tumbler with water, the simplest one yet it may help you in a big way. In this time of the year, the extreme hot temperature emitted by the sun can cause dehydration, headache, dizziness and other harmful effects on the body. Drinkable water is beneficial to help our body in maintaining its healthy state.

As a writer, it is imperative that we are familiar with our community. And as development communicators it is our way of understanding the situation in the community in order for us to truly serve their needs.

In a group of three, only one hails from Laguna but honestly, even he was not familiar with the barangay assigned to them. It was a totally new experience for them to travel to a small barangay near the the beautiful lake of Laguna. Barangay Tadlac is a small barangay along the border of Calamba and Los Banos along with other small barangays.

In order to provide the following data, the group decided to use the method of a face-to-face interview. It was way easier to get the information in that exact manner. The assigned person of Brgy. Tadlac was also accommodating and welcoming. She even gave us a printed output of all the information that we need. Additionally, unlike the other groups, we were not required to provide a letter. That is why we didn’t have much difficulty gathering the data. Aside from the data required, we also found out about upcoming activities of the barangay for the community in which will be helpful for us to identify the needs of the community through those programs. This activity also served as an opportunity for us to observe the community and determine where it’s at in development.

Here are some tips to effectively and appropriately gather data from your local barangay:

• Research. Before going to the barangay, make sure you know how to get there and where to go in order to get the information you need.
• Documents. Provide the necessary papers, letters, or requirements if the office requires you to in order to provide you with the information you need.
• Tools. Bring the necessary tools for data gathering such as a pen, notebook, audio recorder, camera, and such.
• Manners. Be polite and have the confidence enough to ask questions or for clarifying information. Also, be patient and flexible enough to adjust to the office policies because sometimes they would ask you to schedule an appointment to maximize your visit and gather the needed data.