Laughter, colors, and lively interactions filled the first on-site community service-learning engagement phase of Project UP: Ulikid kag Pagkabalaka conducted with its partner school, Calaparan Elementary School in Molo District, Iloilo City last Friday, April 14.
The U.P. High School in Iloilo Student Council and the Goldies Academic Organization, in partnership with the Civic Consciousness Development Program (CCDP) class of the Grade 10 Ilawod and Ilaya, have been engaged in a series of service-learning initiatives with a number of target elementary school partners for more than seven years now. This year’s Project UP’s literacy support activities are delivered with the support and collaboration of the Asia Foundation and USAID-sponsored UPV SIBIKA HUB and Youth-Led initiatives.
Alongside the students were Prof. Imelda Catequista, Prof. Donne Jone Sodusta, and Prof. Evelyn Alobba, who were present to provide mentoring support to the UPHSI students and to explore school-level teacher training activities along the current initiative.
Dr. Gladys M. Sayson, the principal of Calaparan Elementary School, along the teachers, staff, and students warmly welcomed the UPHSI team during the opening program held before the actual classroom-based immersive activities. This initial phase of the first official on-site engagement featured singing and dancing activities by learners from both schools, a cup-painting activity, and a short get-to-know-you icebreakers.
The literacy support segment of Project UP aims to create a supportive literacy-enhancing environment for identified learners from Grades 1 to 3 as directed by the pupils’ learning area teachers. The ten-year collaborations geared towards fostering academic success for pupils and their respective partner school communities provided the directions, benchmarks, and evolving blueprint for these initiatives.
While this initiative is a part of an academic requirement, the UPHSI Grade 10 students see their presence and effort in this service-learning as tangible contributions in fulfilling their mandate as Iskolar ng Bayan and Iskolar para sa Bayan.
