Monthly Archives: September 2020

2 posts

First UP Diliman Virtual NSTP graduation held

The NSTP Diliman Office held its first virtual graduation last August 15, 2020 for students who completed their NSTP courses this Academic Year 2019-2020. This also served as an induction program for the graduates of Civic Welfare Training Service (CWTS) and Literacy Training Service (LTS) components to the National Service Reserve Corps (NSRC).  As reservists, the graduates may now be tapped by the state to perform duties related to literacy and civic welfare initiatives, especially during times of disaster.  The commencement theme “Maglingkod, Magmalasakit, Manindigan” calls for reservists to help the underserved communities and care for the marginalized sectors, values that are formed in their NSTP classes. This also serves as a reminder to all students that as “Iskolar ng Bayan”, they have a sense of duty to stand against injustices and relentlessly serve the people.  Vice Chancellor Ma. Theresa T. Payongayong, PhD gave her opening remarks to formally welcome the program’s participants. An inspirational message for the graduates was delivered by the guest speaker Mr. Joshua G. Danac, Convenor of the Scientists Unite Against COVID-19, an alliance of scientists, organizations and other Filipinos that echoes calls to expand testing efforts at the regional and local levels, and build the country’s COVID-19 testing capacity. Mr. Danac is a science research specialist at the UP National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and also a member of the UP COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team. In his message, he urged the students that no matter how young they think they are, there is always something that they can contribute to the community . “Sa ganitong panahon pinaka-tumitindi ang diwa at katuwiran ng NSTP. Ang panawagan nito sa ating mga Iskolar ng Bayan, ang ating service – ang ating paglilingkod. Ito ang krisis na humahamon sa bawat isa sa atin. Now, more than ever, we need to step up and serve the people,” he emphasized.  The program also featured the NSTP students’ community engagement projects, fundraising activities, and awareness campaigns along with their partner communities and organizations. NSTP classes’ partner communities include Sitio San Roque Community, Bahay Aruga, He Cares Mission, Open School of […]

UP Diliman hosted a nationwide webinar on NSTP Remote Learning and Teaching

Over two hundred NSTP implementers from different higher education institutions (HEIs) around the Philippines attended the NSTP Diliman hosted National Service in the New Normal: A Webinar on NSTP Remote Learning and Teaching last August 28, 2020 via Zoom and YouTube livestream. An activity spearheaded by the NSTP Diliman Office, the free webinar aimed to provide training for implementers in light of the transition to a remote mode of learning and course delivery for NSTP. NSTP Diliman Director Dr. Jonalou Labor warmly welcomed the webinar participants and also gave an overview about NSTP Diliman’s undertakings in terms of remote learning. Dr. Labor shared how the collaborative effort of NSTP Diliman implementers enabled the unit to address some of the most common changes and challenges posed by the pandemic in terms of course delivery. As a national university, UP Diliman is very much willing to offer the help it could provide to the larger community of NSTP implementers through the products of its course redesigning initiatives and projects. After the opening remarks, Dr. Labor introduced Dr. Ria Mae Borromeo, a professor teaching Computer Science and Information Systems Courses and the incumbent Director of the Information and Communication Technology Development Office (ICTDO) of the UP Open University. Dr. Borromeo highlighted in her talk titled NSTP Remote Learning and Teaching the importance of the preparation stage as the major component of remote teaching. She then discussed main considerations in choosing content, delivery mode, technologies, learning resources, assessment, and learning activities for a remote mode of course delivery. Lastly, she shared and explained the course design of NSTP Civic Welfare Training Service (CWTS) 1 and 2 of UP Open University to the webinar attendees. Possible volunteer opportunities for CWTS 2 in UP Open University are clustered into different community service tracks which range from literacy to sports and fitness, health and wellness, environment welfare, livelihood, music and visual arts, and relief operations, among others. Ana Maria Raymundo, a development sector professional and Public Administration graduate student at New York University, the second speaker, discussed Community Engagement through Remote Initiatives. She enumerated four main points in her talk: set the parameters, choose […]