The Student Executive Boards of the Entrepreneurial Management Program, College of Arts and Sciences, and Institute of Information Technology (EM-SEB, CAS-SEB, and ITEC, respectively) invite all UA&P Alumni to attend Infusion 2010 on 6 August 2010, Friday, 6:30 P.M. at C3 Events Place, Greenhills.

Infusion 2010 will have the theme The Red Carpet: Giving Through Glamour. It will serve as the launching and initial fundraising for UA&P H.O.P.E.S. (Helping Others by Providing Efficient Service), a socio-civic project headed by the three SEBs geared towards helping calamity-affected communities and other charitable endeavors. This event will also welcome and incorporate the freshmen into the UA&P community.

Each raffle ticket worth P50 gives you a chance to win a Blackberry Bold, gift certificates and other exciting prizes. Event entrance, on the other hand, costs P250 (5 raffle tickets). Ticket sales will be allotted to fund UA&P H.O.P.E.S, which will in turn go to calamity victims and rescue operations, and the other three SEBs for their future projects.

If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Nicole Briones, the CAS-SEB External Vice President, at (0917) 320 0107 or at nicole_briones08 at yahoo.com.

And the winners are:

Carmencita Esteban Platinum Award
Kainang Pamilya Mahalaga/Bisyo
Agency: Publicis JimenezBasic
Advertiser: Monde Nissin Corporation
 
Effectiveness Advertiser of the Year Award
Monde Nissin Corporation
 
Effectiveness Agency of the Year Award
Publicis JimenezBasic

Adobo Magazine article on Tambuli Awards 2010
Photos of the Tambuli Awards

Celebrating its fifteenth anniversary of founding, Kultura is putting up a visual art exhibit entitled TAKE PART featuring fifteen visual artists belonging to the UA&P community; our alumni, staff, and students.

TAKE PART is an invitation with different meanings. One, it is an invitation of the OSA-Kultura Desk to the circle of visual artists of the university and gather them together to celebrate their works in a form of an interactive exhibit. Two, TAKE PART is an invitation to viewers to glimpse from art the beauty of life and humanity; a part of man’s interior life, the beauty of things, and the story of life. Thus, we will be inviting the literary student organizations of the school, Haranya and Creative Writer’s Guild to create poems and prose out of the artworks. Three, TAKE PART is an exhibit of different art forms; painting, drawing, sculpture, installation art, photography, and digital or graphic art—showing the diverse ways one can participate in visual arts. Lastly, it is an invitation to the university community to take part in Kultura activities; to engage and participate in art making, whether it be visual arts, music, theater, and other forms of art. Thus, prior to the exhibit, we will be organizing workshops on print making and sketching for people who want to hone and practice their art skills. Some of the artworks from the workshops will also be included in the main exhibit.

The exhibit is tentatively scheduled on August 24-September 17, 2010. Opening night will be on August 24 featuring the artists and music and dance performers from the UA&P community.

Download the guidelines for TAKE PART.

“As a politician, I have to be able to think out of the box,” says UA&P alumnus and Balanga City Mayor Joet Garcia, who credits the University for allowing him to do just that. He graduated from the University (then Center for Research and Communication) with a BA in General Humanities with specialization in Political Economy, and although he was practically born into the world of politics, it was not an endeavor he immediately wanted to pursue until he realized that his education had given him the tools to do so.

“I may not be an expert in everything but I believe my liberal arts course in CRC provided me with the skill to study and analyze various real life situations and come up with smart and practical solutions to everyday problems at the city hall,” Mayor Garcia says. “People from all walks of life see me in my office to discuss almost anything under the sun,” he adds. “They may be farmers needing technical assistance on organic farming, teachers introducing a new reading program for grade-one students, fishermen objecting to the Supreme Court’s ruling on commercial fishing in Manila Bay, vendors complaining about the increase in lease rates at the public market, or the sick asking for medical assistance. I need to be able to give my insights every time, and this is where I am able to use my liberal arts background.

“My education in UA&P trained me to be a critical thinker,” he adds.

Son of Bataan Governor Enrique Garcia and younger brother of Congressman Albert Garcia, the alumnus didn’t share the typical “traditional politician” inclination of making a family business out of public office. Instead, Mayor Joet Garcia had to do some soul searching and spend time in another career altogether before realizing just what he was capable of.

“My father was already a congressman when I was in college but I didn’t really see myself following in his footsteps. It was only after I worked for an IT company for 10 years that I realized my educational background prepared me for a much bigger role in nation building,” he says. “Honestly, I didn’t quite know what to expect from my political economy course at that time. I just thought having a good background on economics and understanding politics will prepare me for whatever profession I will pursue in the future.”

Of his college years, he recalls “Fr. Juan Manuel Perez grabbing me by the neck and bringing me to his office whenever he sees me hanging around in the ledge. This gave me the opportunity to talk to him about everything, but more important, where God needs to be in my life.”

It was, perhaps, this positive experience that gave Mayor Garcia such a soft spot for education, giving it top priority among his many responsibilities and achieving considerable success. “In my first term as city mayor of Balanga, our greatest achievement was helping our public elementary schools rank first in the National Achievement Test,” he says. “This means our elementary students are the brightest in the country and this is the result of the effective partnership amongst the parents, teachers, and government.”

Hoping to get re-elected for a second term, Mayor Garcia still has his eyes set on meeting this high precedent and further improving his city’s quality of education.

“I would like to see to it that I help the city achieve its vision of making Balanga a world-class university town by the year 2020,” he says. “We want to be the center of education in the region and be like the university towns of Stanford, Salamanca, or Harvard where the whole community is involved in developing and producing world-class graduates.”

Under his leadership, Balanga City was named the “Most Business-Friendly Local Government Unit” by the 35th Business Conference & Expo in 2009, the second year in a row the city had been awarded such distinction. Whether he is re-elected or not, Mr. Garcia’s first term would be a difficult act to follow. Fortunately, he is determined to outdo himself, given the opportunity.

“A lot has been said about how dirty politics can be but from my experience, the positive side greatly outweighs the negative side,” he says, encouraging students to take a more active role in government. “If presented with the opportunity, involve yourself in public service. Being in government is the most direct way of helping people and making a difference in our country.”

By Mr. Carlo Cabrera, Corporate Communications Office

This article is from Universitas March 2010