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by Rose Custodia, Aubrey Semaning, and Reinier Gaspar

Armed with his athletic skills, the College of Development Communication (CDC) College uSecretary Edmund Centeno dominated the finals match of badminton singles, 2-0, against Reinier Gaspar in the 2019 CDCiklaban Sportsfest held at Baker Hall, University of the Philippines Los Baños on November 9 and 16.

Centeno beat Gaspar through a statement win of 21-7, 21-11 to finish the tournament with an unbeaten record.

Before going to the finals, both players need to sweep their opponents through a stepladder format, defeating three players each before qualifying in the battle for the gold.

Aside from this, Centeno also paired up with Mark Angelo Baccay as they also claim the championship title in the badminton doubles.

CDCiklaban is a sports festival organized by the CDC Student Council that aims to provide opportunities for individual development through various activities, increase social contacts, growth of lasting friendships and recreation for individuals, regardless of their skill ability.

Going and staying in a new environment, with new unfamiliar faces, new culture, and school was a challenge to me. What made it even worse was the fact that I am too far from my family. So, here are five tips or advice that I wished someone has told me before the start of the semester.

“No man is an island.” I believe it would be impossible to survive in UP without a friend or some friends. You need to make friends and socialize. You need someone to talk to about your past and/or new experiences, achievements, failures, rants, crush/es, or whatsoever. We are all struggling here but it doesn’t mean that we need to suffer alone. We can support each other and have that sablay together.

In the past few weeks, the “Hell, Hell Weeks”, I missed home so bad. I wanted to go home but I can’t. There were so many things to do: reports, papers, articles, exams, etc. I wished I went home when I still had the chance before. So, if you don’t have an important matter to do in LB, I advise you to go home. Take a break from LB, be with your family, spend time with your friends, and feel the comfort of your home.

During the whole semester, I have been cramming everything. And, based on my experience, let me tell you that it’s not a good habit. If you’re aiming for high grades then, you need to start doing your requirements and your review for quizzes or exams as soon as possible. In that way, you’ll have more time to check, revise, and improve your work, and you’ll be able to study your lessons thoroughly.

In my dorm, cooking is not allowed so what I’ve been eating in LB are fast food that are far from healthy. You need to eat something nutritious and healthy. You need to exercise. You need to drink water and stay hydrated. And you need to take good care of yourself, stay away from danger, and be safe.

It’s not a crime to take a rest if you are tired. With all the stress and pressure, it is important to take short breaks to rest and relax. Your mind and body need these. Take a rest but don’t give up. Always remember that no problem lasts forever. You can face it and overcome it, one way or another

At the start of this semester, we were asked to rate ourselves. We assessed our qualities and skills as media writers. Now, that the semester is almost done, we are again asked to do so. Here are my results:

My qualities as a media writer:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16PbS9eWFcoKQjCLigLEZnOmD46wyvcpD/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VepuEwtOIKIfH0eXJpFGzogpXkZxTJfl/view?usp=sharing

My skills as a media writer:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OCcmSGX4aM5feqM0nafG-pAzmuK7DvuU/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NZG84CJ7I2fypWlTiVTJjTga7jRnKFoD/view?usp=sharing

Most of my media writer qualities and skills improved, but there is still plenty to develop. Which, I will hopefully achieve as I continue my training to become a development communicator.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Fotg0QLhCIFGRSJ6efXY67gGkYw9TID2

As we count the end days of the first semester in the university, we surely learned a lot from our professors, and also, from our personal way of learning from our own experiences. Being immersed in the fundamental subjects of the Develepment Communication curriculum for a whole semester gives us a proper molding on how development communicators in-training should act and possess. It gives us the appropriate qualities and skills set that we need to have in order for us to be effective media writers.

With that in mind, I think all of my qualities as a media writer were amped up because of the training that DevCom had given to us. So, I am giving myself an uno to all the qualities that media writers should possess. However, I want to highlight the qualities that I do believe that took a huge leap on myself — being more resourceful, curious, and imaginative more than ever.

Throughout out lab exercises, we were exposed to the realities in the field. You need to be resourceful when it comes on how you will create a quality output with the things you only have with yourself. Also, you should be very curious on how things work, so that you can deliver to your audience the most pressing issues and concerns that needs to be addressed with. There are also certain situations that you will need to generate your creative juices on how you can transform your data into a more digestible piece of information to your viewers.

Due to the fact that I served as a campus journalist on my previous high schools, I do believe that I have the skill of obtaining relevant data from their sources and organizing it to a more compact form. However, the process of writing doesn’t stop there. You need to validate the information and write it clearly and effectively, and also being proficient on the usage of communication tools. I must say that I am more knowledgeable on validating information due to the fact that lab exercises required us to present substantial and validated information, so I learned in how to triangulate the presented data that I have. Moreover, I must say that my knowledge when using communication tools were heightened because I exposed myself on how these things work. I’ve consulted my seniors and I taught myself alone throughout the process because being a DevCom student must be equipped with this skill because communication tools will serve as our bestfriends throughout our stay here in college.

I am very thankful to what I’ve learned this semester. From the exams, activities, and lab exercises that our professors gave us, it became the building blocks for me to build a strong foundation for me as a media writer.

Thank you, next!

I try to look back at everything that has happened in the past few months and at the top of my head all I could think of were the doubts and the shortcomings I had to overcome.

Starting with a clean slate it took me quite a while to get used to the environment. When I started getting a hang of the activities in devcom I was pressured, but at the same time challenged with the endless work we have to do to fulfill requirements. Going out in the field and covering live events did enhance some parts of me that helped push myself through the semester.

qualities

Curious or inquisitive – 2
Intelligent – 2
Industrious – 2
Resourceful – 2
Persevering – 2
Imaginative – 1
Puts premium on accuracy and truth – 2
Loves to read – 1
Interested in and loves people – 2
Service-oriented – 2

skills

Gathering data – 2
Validating and clarifying information – 2
Organizing information – 2
Writing clearly and effectively – 2
Proficiency in the operation of communication tools/devices – 1

I can say that my industriousness and resourcefulness improved over the months. Finishing devcom-related tasks requires a lot of hard work and can’t just be done all willy-nilly, especially when you work with a group. You have to have the grit in making your articles or materials, because we should work with great detail and attention. Because of hectic time schedules I also learned how to manage my time more wisely, along with other resources that affect my performance.

Before I admitted that I lacked the skill to write, but after the rigorous activities I’ve gotten less rusty and the words come to flow easier. This skill is still a work in progress, but comparing it before, I can say it has changed a lot not only to my outputs but to myself as well.

This semester hasn’t even begun showing me the UP life and I have yet to experience more ups and downs as a development communicator in training and as a simple college student. Despite of it all, with the slow but steady progress I’m making, I might as well push through.

Let’s what happens next semester. For now, it’s been a worthy five (and a half) months.

Armed with his athletic skills, the College of Development Communication (CDC) College Secretary Edmund Centeno dominated the finals match of badminton singles, 2-0, against Reinier Gaspar in the 2019 CDCiklaban Sportsfest held at Baker Hall, University of the Philippines Los Baños on November 9 and 16.

Centeno beat Gaspar through a statement win of 21-7, 21-11 to finish the tournament with an unbeaten record.

Before going to the finals, both players need to sweep their opponents through a stepladder format, defeating three players each before qualifying in the battle for the gold.

Aside from this, Centeno also paired up with Mark Angelo Baccay as they also claim the championship title in the badminton doubles.

CDCiklaban is a sports festival organized by the CDC Student Council that aims to provide opportunities for individual development through various activities, increase social contacts, growth of lasting friendships and recreation for individuals, regardless of their skill ability.

I started the semester clueless of what a development communicator should be, but as the four months went by I realized that honing the qualities and skills a media writer should have is vital to become an effective communicator. Our goal is to be able to deliver our message of development to our respective audience, through the outputs that I have made I saw the need to possess these distinct qualities and skills to manifest and achieve our goal as development communicators.

In the course of the four months, I have developed most of the qualities a media writer should be. During the beginning of the semester, I lacked the quality of being resourceful. I saw the need to work on it the most. Now, I can say that it became my best facet. I am now able to deal with new and difficult situations skillfully and promptly. I no longer find it hard to adjust to situations that are not easy and superficial. I am now able to devise ways and means to be able to meet situations even if it requires much time and effort. As a media writer I can now strategize innovatively, I became flexible in gathering information and facts. I am now capable of gathering information from various sources and figuring out every means of getting a story. Asides from being resourceful, I have become more service-oriented and interactive with people, I saw the need to provide accurate and relevant information not only to finish a requirement but to also help my audience be knowledgeable enough to make better and informed decisions. Moreover, none of these improvements will be able to happen, if I did not continue to persevere. I have allowed myself to adjust to the fact that it is never supposed to be easy, but never quitting and doing something to improve my weaknesses allowed me to become a better writer and communicator for development.

Aside from qualities, I realized the need to possess certain skills that could aid me in creating outputs. During the beginning of the semester, I found my most developed skill to be organizing information. Every time I write, I still begin to divide my data into an outline so that I would know which concepts belong to the same group and which ideas need to be stated first. Towards the end, I also developed my skill in gathering data and writing clearly and effectively. Through the first lab exercise we had, I got to interact with a lot of people through the expert and MOS interviews. I was also able to research critically on information regarding my topic. I still prefer writing articles and essays with good introductions and endings to captivate my readers into reading the whole piece. However, my proficiency in the operation of communication tools/devices still has the lowest rating, I realized that I somehow improved, but didn’t improve enough. I am still not familiar with using apps like Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere, Audition, and the like. Hopefully, I would still be able to improve this in higher Devcom courses since through this skill I would be able to create and promote my works through different mediums, make tasks more efficient, reach a larger and more diverse audience and get feedback from them, and improve my created output to suit my audience’s needs.