When I started college, it felt like the exams are the most important thing in the world. I always got that nervous feeling before I walk into the classroom on exam days. But reality check: I was wrong. Though exams are huge portion of our final grades, it helps us become more knowledgeable. They prepare us to deal with stressful situations. Trust me, I’ve been there!
And for the sole purpose of helping you score your best on those killer exams, I give you this!
Each exam gives us a chance to test and show our knowledge, compare it to other students, and discover our strengths and weaknesses. Let’s take it as an opportunity and prepare for it really well. If we stay calm and we start preparing according to a plan, we’ll definitely do well.
By Lemuel San Gabriel, Raizza Mae Acuzar, and Cedric Allen Katigbak
This year’s outstanding citizens of Los Baños received trophies and plaques from the government officials of Laguna. (From L-R: Hon. Mayor Caesar P. Perez, Southern Tagalog Presidential Adviser Jose Maria N. Hernandez, AFP Chief of Staff General Benjamin R. Madrigal Jr., Outstanding Police Officer – PSSG Romualdo B. Esguerra, Jr., Outstanding Public School Teacher, Secondary Level – Marlu P. Parot, Outstanding Municipal Government Employee – Field Personnel Irene L. Bautista, representatives from the Outstanding Civil Society Organization – Rotary Club of Los Baños, Congresswoman Ruth M. Hernandez, Governor Ramil L. Hernandez, Hon. Vice Mayor Antonio L. Kalaw). (Photo taken by LCSanGabriel)
One of the highlights of the second day of the week-long celebrations for the 18th Bañamos Festival themed “Tagumpay ng Bayan ay Matatamasa ng Mamamayang Nagkakaisa” was the awarding of the outstanding citizens of Los Baños.
The commemorative program for the 2019 Los Baños Outstanding Citizens and Taxpayers was held at the Multipurpose/Evacuation Center in Brgy. Baybayin. The municipal government recognized the most outstanding teacher, government employee, police officer, and civil society organization, well as the top ten outstanding business establishments for being the most responsible taxpayers.
The awardees include:
Outstanding Public-School Teacher: Marlu P. Parot,
Outstanding Municipal Government Employee: Irene L. Bautista,
Outstanding Police Officer: PSSG. Romualdo B. Esguerra Jr. and,
Outstanding Civil Society Organization: Rotary Club of Los Baños
The recognition for the outstanding citizens of Los Baños aimed to acknowledge the individuals’ utmost commitment and competence to their line of work. Parot was recognized for her meaningful contribution to the development of the community, specifically the youth. Bautista, on the other hand, was commended for her dedication for being a public servant and having been efficient beyond office hours. Lastly, PSSG Esguerra Jr. was also recognized for his exemplary efforts for police operations against all forms of criminality which helped the revival of trust and confidence to the whole Philippine National Police.
The top ten business establishments taxpayers were:
Los Baños Doctors Hospitals and Medical Center Inc.
Waltermart Supermarket Inc.
Robinsons Supermarket Corporation
Puregold Price Club, Inc.
Grand Union Supermarket Inc. (South Supermarket)
HealthServ Los Baños Medical Center
Sanford Marketing Corporation (Savemore)
Laguna Water District Aquatech Resources Corporation
Mercury Drug – Los Baños, Laguna
Mercury Drug Corporation
These business establishments contributed highly through paying their tax diligently as a responsibility of their line of work. These taxes reflect mostly on the future of the town through different municipal and congressional projects the people ought to see.
Gracing the recognition ceremonies were Laguna Governor Ramil L. Hernandez together with his wife, 2nd District of Laguna Representative Ruth Mariano Hernandez. In her message, Rep. Hernandez emphasized that “the very key to success ay ‘yung sama-samang pagkakaisa ng mamamayan. Hindi namin kaya alone ang mga challenges na kinakaharap natin, we need the support and contribution of everyone.”
Also present in the event were the different schools, barangays, employees of different establishments, and representatives from the different sectors in Los Baños.
Shirley Labita from San Antonio Elementary School shared that the recognition of outstanding citizens serves as an inspiration for the members of the Los Baños community. She added that “…doon sa mga nanalo na lalong higit pa nilang pag-ibayuhin ang pagiging mamamayan ng Los Baños, (at) mamuhay nang alinsunod sa alituntunin ng Los Baños. At sa amin naman na hindi pinalad na manalo, siyempre pinagpupunyagi pa rin naming balang araw ay magiging outstanding din kami.”
From L-R: Lemuel San Gabriel, Raizza Acuzar, Ma’am Shirley Labita, and Cedric Allen Katigbak.
From the development communication courses that I’m currently taking, I learned that there are several characteristics of a development-oriented topic/ output so I ranked them. And here goes my top three!
1. It should have an orientation.
An orientation towards progressive change. This orientation will be the guide to executing the activities of development planned by students, organizations, government, and such.
2. It should have a goal.
I’ve observed that the topics or most kinds of outputs are
required to meet development goals like Millennium Development Goals,
Sustainable Development Goals, and CDC Values and Guiding Principles (4 Es).
3. It should have a progressive change.
A development-oriented topic/output makes the previous
development the basis for further development. Enhancing capacity within
communities and empowering the belief that solutions to problems are needed to
be addressed from the ground up.
But what I learned is still not enough, I need to learn more. So, I thought of asking Ate Loren, a CDC alumna about what she thinks. Ate Loren gives the best advice in both academic and extra-curricular activities and I always appreciate how she makes time to answer my questions, like this one, even with her tight schedule.
Now, let’s view the pictures and read the content.
I am so grateful that she helped out, not only me but the readers of this as well. I am glad that I asked the right person. Another realization is that I should not be afraid to ask questions. I should learn to be passionately curious and ask. For a development starts with learning, and learning starts from asking.
As Danish Proverb says,
“One who is afraid of asking is ashamed of learning.”
Life is like a roller coaster, and some of the biggest loops most definitely happen during the time spent at college. Nobody said college would be easy, but knowing what to expect during your first semester of classes will give you an edge over the students going in without a clue.
The first four weeks of my stay in UPLB was like the craziest but the most entertaining ride in a park. It was thrilling and interesting at the same time. I have no idea what is happening most of the time and I don’t know exactly where I am headed. But everything turned out great. And here are the…
Five Greatest Lessons I’ve Learned after Going to College
Lesson #5
I should think about my future much sooner.
I realized that I am an adult now; just because I don’t have to go to work for plenty of hours a day doesn’t mean I shouldn’t act like it. This is the time to take responsibility for my actions. I should be professional from now on. I should think about my future much sooner because for years, future seemed so far off that it was something I could always “get around to.” I didn’t realize that it was something I was currently living, or working towards.
This doesn’t mean that I need to make a hasty decision about a career or a major, I just learned that college is the time for me to discover who I really am, what I enjoy doing, what I’m good at, and who I want to be.
Lesson #4
I should be responsible and must learn to cope with homesickness.
I learned that in college, no one is going to make me go to class anymore. This was the time when I realized that my parents did more for me than I thought. Waking me up every morning, doing my laundry, paying bills, buying groceries, yes, my parents did more than I think, and now that they’re no longer there, it all falls on me. So, again I should be responsible. I need to do my duties and responsibilities. I must learn to cope with homesickness. It’s only natural that there will be times when I miss my family, we are a clingy type of family so being 10 hours away from home is really hard. But I must find a way to deal with those feelings, such as making a phone call or sending some email home. I need to tell my parents how grateful I am for them and I need to be strong for them.
Being an adult means taking responsibility for everything that happens to me. I must avoid procrastination and work on prioritizing my life. It may have been easy in high school to wait until the last minute to complete an assignment or finish a task and still get a good grade, but that kind of stuff will not work for me in college. I must give myself deadlines — and stick to them.
Lesson #3
I need to work on my confidence, get out of my comfort zone, and try new things.
I realize that I should stop being at my dorm room for the whole weekend. I should get out and explore the campus. I need to work on my confidence, get out of my comfort zone, and try new things. That college is the greatest opportunity I’ll ever have for personal development. Combination of homesickness and a feeling of not quite belonging was my problem. So, I considered joining a student organization and sports teams. Because of this, I made new friends, acquired new skills, and feel more connected to my school. But I seek a balance.
College life is a mixture of social and academic happenings. Don’t tip the balance too far in either direction.
Lesson # 2
I need to build myself a supportive environment.
In college, I knew I will meet almost all kinds of people. So, I learned that I should build myself a supportive environment. I need to organize my environment in a way that supports my aspirations, and I need to surround myself with people who believe in me and know how to motivate me when thoughts of giving up pops up in my head. I need to make sure I’m surrounded by people who want to achieve the same thing or who have already achieved it.
I realized that I what I need in college is a supportive system that pushes me back on the right track.
Lesson #1
I realized that I need to stay healthy and eat right.
By studying at a school that’s 10 hours away from home, I realized that I should avoid any illness. Getting sick can keep me away from classes for an extended period of time and there is no one to take care of me. In college, I learned that I need prioritize my health, that academics and extra-curriculars should only follow. I learned that I need to get enough sleep, take my vitamins, and eat right.
Without parents here to serve me a balanced meal, I may be tempted to go for those cup noodles and canned goods but I must myself that I should stay healthy and stick to a balanced diet.
Overall, I realized that in college, I will surely face a lot of challenges — but that’s all part of the process.
Soon enough, I will be sharing a lot more experiences and lessons with soon-to-be college students.
Everything a development communicator needs, all in one post! Let’s start!
ITEM #1:
Whatever you do, don’t forget a pen and notepad.
Anywhere you go, different stories require different sorts of coverage. Different destinations. The hard bit is it’s not always clear how a story will turn out. We have to be prepared for it all. You can also use index cards. It takes more time than copying and pasting into an electronic document, which encourages you to be selective in choosing which ideas to record. Some writers color-code their cards to make them still more organized.
ITEM #2:
Mobile Phone
You’ve probably got one of these in your pocket right now. In our generation, I think we all do. We mustn’t forget that a good reporter works in two ways. Not only are you reporting, but also you must be aware of what’s going on elsewhere. Use your phone to follow all the best news sources so you know what’s happening at all times, you can also use it for faster communication and faster publishing of news and articles.
ITEM #3:
Digital Camera
I thought hard about including a digital camera. Yes, many mobile phone cameras can produce photos as good as a compact camera. But if you want really good press-quality photography, you need to invest in a good camera. I agree that this would be a big, expensive addition to the Development Communicator’s Survival Kit. But I think it’s definitely worth it.
ITEM #4:
Laptop
Laptop can be used as a storage device and a charging port for your cellphone and other gadgets because of the long-life battery feature used to power up the entire system. It is able to make the students feel convenience since they do not have to charge it repeatedly. You can also take notes with laptop. Aside from able to take notes faster, students can also record the lecture by using microphone, edit any file, and publish anything easily online. Laptops make communicators self-sufficient and they learn to type, manage their schedules, and learn to budget by using online planners.
Again, laptop is a great investment, it can be your source of basic references, it can be your audio recorder, it can be your file storage device, and it can be your charging port. It’s the ultimate all-in-one gadget!
ITEM #5:
Last item needed is… Money in your pocket.
Complete your kit and equip yourself for the journey of being development communicator by including some money in it. I’m not saying that it should be a large amount of money, the important thing is you have money, you never know when you’ll need them.
With this list of items in hand, you’ll be sure to get everything you need for your Development Communication journey!
Seen is defined as something has been looked at or noticed. But what if everything we see is more than that? Our group wanted to create an opportunity for people to be seen beyond first impressions to the unique talents within.
We want to look at things from a point of view other than our own.
As a group of student writers, we are tasked to put into practice our observation, document search, and interview skills to gather essential information from Municipal Hall, Mayor’s Office, Sangguniang Bayan. After getting all the information needed, we realized that the data gathering method that we have used is convenient, we approached the personnel face-to-face and the questions and data were given through oral conversation.It is effective because additional questions for follow-up can be asked whenever confusion and discrepancies occur in the data gathering process.
It was fun but definitely not easy. We learned a lot so if by any chance you are tasked to gather data like what we did, we can give you three great tips!
TIP # 1:
Bring a letter with your intent and the professor’s signature because some agencies require them for data privacy matters.
There will come a time when you might need to request something, be it from the company you are working for or a personal need that you have. Taking the time to construct a well-written letter outlining what it is you need could be the thing that guarantees you getting what it is that you want. Be sure to proofread your letter. Typos and bad formatting come off as being sloppy and like you did not pay attention to what you were doing.
They might turn you down. But that’s fine! Do not be discouraged. You can always make the request at a better time or find another route to go.
TIP # 2:
Don’t go to the agencies during peak hours because you may not be entertained immediately.
Put Yourself in their shoes, you must understand that busy people get hundreds of requests for help or jobs to finish. Even if you have the best of intentions, at peak hours, people are busy and can’t possibly respond to every inquiry. They’re not being rude — they’re just prioritizing. When you reach out to a busy person, do so with very specific questions in mind. You may only get one shot at that.
TIP # 3:
Respect the time of the personnel and do not let him/her be delayed from doing his/her responsibilities while gathering your needed information.
Busy people aren’t selfish and inconsiderate, they just want to be efficient with their time. Remember that the time they give to you is time they sacrifice from finishing their jobs. So, contact them in a way that respects this reality and considering that their schedule is as lightly as possible. It is important that you are mindful of another people’s time not just yours.
We hope you learned something from us. Let’sget a variety of perspectivesand look at things from a point of view other than our own because sometimes, what we’re seeing is not all that there is.
And we are Behind-the-Seen.
The members of Behind-the-Seen¬: Lemuel San Gabriel (left) , Raizza Acuzar (middle), and Cedric Katigbak (right).
The tricky thing about progress is that for many people it may not be linear.
Any of us can think of someone we know who is incredibly talented, the scientist, the musician, the athlete. And sometimes we probably wish we had been born with some type of gift, right?
But let’s keep in our minds that even if we don’t have the talent, it doesn’t mean that we can’t get better at something. Let’s make sure that the lack of talent isn’t our excuse for not getting better at something or acquiring a completely new skillset.
Self-assessment is a valuable learning tool because through this, we can identify our own skill gaps, where our knowledge is weak, and track our own progress. As media writers, there are qualities we need to have, qualities that we need to work on.
After learning the ten qualities that a media writer should possess, I rate myself as follows:
Curious or Inquisitive-1 Intelligent-2 Industrious-3 Resourceful-1 Persevering-1 Imaginative-1 Puts a premium on accuracy and truth-2 Loves to read-2 Interested in and loves people-2 Service-oriented-1
Among the qualities listed, being industrious is the quality that I need to work on the most. Now that I’m in college, I knew how important it is to choose my spare time activities in a manner that enhances my brain function, instead of reducing it. In a generation where entertainment means playing on our phones or browsing on Facebook, it’s really a challenge to have and maintain this quality all the time. Almost everything is given to us, almost everything is provided. That’s a good thing but the best thing I can do is to use this as a reason and inspiration to manage my activities wisely and to allot my time in productive activities and hobbies.
Given my ratings, are you wondering what keeps me from getting that 1.00 self-rating?
There are two obstacles that keeps me from developing these qualities. One is the influx of entertainment like Netflix and Hulu, applications that made entertainment easily accessible that I don’t need to leave my dorm room to find enjoyment and allot hundreds of hours to watch different genres of movies. Second is the social media, texting and chatting, or social media lurking have become the most common types of communication for my generation and it’s really a challenge to stop scrolling your newsfeed or story because it never ends.
Aside from qualities, as media writers, there are also skills needed. There are five skills a Media Writer should possess. And I rate myself as follows:
Gathering data-2 Validating and clarifying information-3 Organizing information-1 Writing clearly and effectively-2 Proficiency in the operation of communication tools/devices-2
Among the skills listed, the organization of information is the skill which I developed the highest competency. I come from an organized family, so I was raised to be an organized person as well. I keep my desk clean, our house is neat, and I keep track of what I need to accomplish and when. This involves ranking the tasks and activities in terms of importance and I’m doing this to avoid experiencing the frustration associated with not being able to locate a specific thing. Every day, I organize information. Overtime, this quality became natural for me. And I think it is great because it’s important to know the place and location of information when it is needed to in order to provide a smooth transition.
And the skill I need to work on the most to develop is validating and clarifying information. It’s very easy nowadays to share information on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, almost anyone can publish their thoughts and share their stories to the world. Most of the people don’t check the source of the material that they view online before they share it, which can lead to fake news spreading quickly. It becomes harder for me to identify the source of news stories, particularly on the internet because of the growing number of people who spread fake news and alternative facts.
Self-assessment is the capacity to examine ourselves, to see how much progress we have made. After doing this I realize that the aim of self-assessment is to assist the person to understand the extent of his or her skills and enhance them without the need for a perfect one.
I always keep in my mind that if it’s knowledge, it can be acquired.If it’s a skill, it can be learned or improved.
Even if I don’t have the talent or IQ of a genius, I can get really better at almost anything I want in life. It might take a lot of willpower, persistence and deliberate practice, but I can do it. There’s nothing that can stop me, if I am determined enough.
Sometimes life forces us into a situation where we must acquire new skills. When it happens, let’s accept that and improve ourselves.
The sea-nic view of Pandan Island, Occidental Mindoro.
Born in the Philippines to a family from San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, is a dream seeker named Raizza Mae F. Acuzar. She was raised with help from her grandparents, whose spirits reflected her Mindoreño roots. Heading out into college (University of the Philippines Los Baños) 10 hours away from home without having a fixed mindset on what she wants to do in the future was not easy. She was a DOST Scholarship exam qualifier so she ended up choosing one of the degree programs in DOST’s List of Priority Courses. After taking a few of the required courses of her chosen degree program, she started to lose interest in the topics for they are not something that she is inherently excited to learn more about. She gave herself some space to think and all led to a realization that the only way to do great work is to love what she does. She reminisced her childhood dream, to be a hero and voice of the people. At that moment, she felt something inside her lit up. It made her realize that she can’t be the voice of the unheard if she can’t even speak for her own. After a year, she shifted to BS Development Communication. A lot of times, Raizza doesn’t know what way she wants to go. She didn’t know what she wanted to do or be in life yet. But for the first time, she felt like she’s living an authentic life, and it’s making her dazzlingly happy.
In committing to an academic and training path, she knew she should first assess her skills and interests. Being a broadcaster is one of the most prolific jobs a communications major can hold and she is determined that she will be one. She aspires to be at the forefront of delivering the latest news to the world. And this time, she wants to make sure that she’s choosing her course for the right reasons. When she was still in high school, she never took anything seriously except for one, sports.
Being a student-athlete is both a thrill and a will.
If she is not training in the pool, she is in the softball field improving her ball throwing speed. Why would she choose this path when she could pursue her passion and be a professional swimmer or softball player instead? At that point, she got her answer. She is confident that if she ever chose anything in her life, it would be to drop her gloves, set aside her goggles, and hold the microphone. Playing sports is her passion but serving people is her purpose.
Raizza once desired to be the voice of the people, to be a hero. But later, she learned that people cannot speak for themselves until other people allow them to. She knew that it was silly for her to think that she has the power to give people a voice as if the inability of the people to listen defines their ability to speak. That’s why she now aims to put people first in every initiative. She aspires to be someone that amplifies the voice of communities where real people with real problems are just waiting to be heard. She knew that as long as there’s a need for development, her chosen degree will always be relevant. And staying an extra semester and graduating with the purpose she desires is better than second-guessing her career path. The notable author, Paulo Coelho once said: “Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”. Raizza’s heart has always been in serving the people, but she never expected BS Development Communication to be the treasure. ❤
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