Amethyl Mardin Pernito, a BS Fisheries graduate of the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences earned the distinction of graduating as the Class 2019 Valedictorian of UP Visayas. She earned the highest GWA of 1.277, magna cum laude, from among 800 plus graduates.

Her friends call her ‘Deb,’ a laid back version of her name that matches her disposition - friendly, amiable, with an easy smile. But Deborah B. Gay is far from laid back when it comes to her faith, her studies, and her kind of nationalism.

The new academic year has just began and most schools are now in full-battle gear as teachers welcome new and continuing students in the classrooms, polish their lesson plans and develop materials and learning aids that will help in facilitating student learning. More than ever, we have witnessed how the Department of Education (DepEd) worked together with other government agencies like the Philippine National Police (PNP), Department of Transportation (DOTr), and the Local Government Units (LGUs). We have seen the respective school administrators and school leaders prepare their teachers and students and, in fact for the many, the entire school environment to ensure a smooth and successful school opening. Not unknown to us, teachers spend most of their time during the summer vacation reporting to school to fix their classrooms, cover anew the used textbooks with plastic, repaint the classroom walls, and rewrite their lesson plans for the new school year. Teachers even go over-board when they spend their own allowances and shell-out from their own pockets to make both ends meet for classroom expenses, while do some inter-agency tasks and assignments that will pile-up and will make the escape to this educational panopticon an impossibility.

Paduhilao has always thought that his UP education did not just taught him academic excellence but it also gave him a weapon to face reality. His UP education is so important to him that it instilled endurance, strength, and integrity to survive life. “It taught me to be aware of my surroundings and eventually, strive for a life in service for the Filipino people as one of my core principles. UP education is not just a mere education to me. It became a fragment of my life that taught me honor before excellence, always.”

A BS Chemical Engineering student is the School of Technology’s topmost graduate. Jeraldine D. Calangi ended her college years in UP as magna cum laude with a GWA of 1.376.

True to the Division of Professional Education’s mission of inculcating values of academic distinction, nationalism and service, the faculty members, students, alumni and former faculty members of the Division distributed bags and school supplies and bags to 50 elementary pupils from Estancia, Iloilo and Cawayan Elementary School, Carles, Iloilo on May 30, 2019.

“For me, nationalism is an advocacy, an advocacy that promotes the interests of the different sectors of our society, especially the oppressed. How can we promote the idea of a just and equitable nation when majority of our people are poor?”

SEVENTEEN participants from the Division of Professional Education attended the 5th International Conference on Philippine and Asian Studies held at De La Salle Lipa, Batangas on May 9-11, 2019.

Tunog-Tikang, a showcase of the richness of the West Visayan music and Philippine folk dances was successfully mounted at the Casa Real Iloilo on May 4-5, 2019.