Friday, March 29, 2024

Tag: Vol. LXXX

Leonardo Garimbao

STUDENTS would probably see Leonardo Garimbao roaming around the campus with his bike four to five times each day.

He is just one of many security guards on campus who dutifully help ensure the general safety of students every day. Garimbao is now on his 25th year as a security guard in UST.

The 55-year-old Pangasinense tried his luck in Manila to support his wife Charito, his sons Charlie and Louise, and daughter Janette. He first worked as an employee in a manufacturing company in Tondo after the Garimbao family moved to Malabon. After nine years, a relative who worked in UST helped Garimbao land a job in the school as a janitor in 1985.

“For me, any kind of job would do, as long as it was decent,” he said.

With a salary just enough to support his family, he embraced this new occupation wholeheartedly.

Later, his manager offered security training for high school graduates, an opportunity he immediately seized.

Mike Reyes

COFFEE has evolved from just a hurried way of jolting the senses to a means of bringing people together. And a silent witness of these sweet reunions is just behind the counter: Bean Hoppers’ “barista” Mike Reyes.

Working for a coffee shop seems a good way to go for this Hotel and Restaurant Management graduate and he has been working for Bean Hoppers even before the shop opened a branch at the UST Carpark.

Like every Bean Hoppers barista, Mike also went through a series of trainings in preparing various blends of coffee.

“It is not really difficult to be a barista. Actually, it is more exciting to make coffee, especially those that have designs (and garnishing),” Mike said.

New CSC leadership vows to focus more on long-term goals

SOMETIMES, student leaders need a little wake-up call to realize that projects supposedly for the benefit of students should be concrete and have longer-lasting effects than holding just run-of-the-mill concerts or exhibits.

This was apparently the problem of the previous Central Student Council (CSC) as it faced a struggle in achieving more effective goals for the Thomasian studentry, according to leader of a student political party.

Looking back, Al Espaldon, outgoing chairman of Alyansa ng Kristyanong Lakas (Aklas) said that no concrete long-term project was felt during the previous CSC administration, leaving incumbent CSC President Jeanne Luz Castillo to start from scratch.

“I did not see nor feel any tangible project left by Cachero’s administration,” Espaldon said when asked about projects and achievements of the previous administration under Angelo Salvador Cachero, CSC president for academic year 2008-2009.

PhDs not doing enough research?

IS UST’s faculty doing enough research? Ranking only a dismal 144th in the QS.com listing of Asia’s top 200 universities, the University needs its faculty, particularly PhD holders, to beef up research.

For academic year 2006-2007, there were 1,101 master’s degree holders and 345 PhDs in the University. Only 79 MA or MS equivalent faculty members did research, while PhD researchers numbered only 36. Overall,92 researches were produced by faculty members that year, official data showed.

The year 2007-2008 saw a drastic drop in researches, despite the increased number of MA or MS professors and PhD professors to 1,165and 346, respectively.

The number of research papers produced and published within the University went down to 79. For the Social Research Center, Center for Educational Research Development and Research Center for the Natural Sciences, where 57 researches were produced, only 30 of them were done by PhD holders.

A glance at UST’s ‘other’ research center

NATIONAL development entails enormous research, just as the university’s success lies primarily on this endeavor. This is the credo of the UST Hospital research unit, dubbed “the other research center.”

Dr. Bernardo Cuevas, M.D., director of the research unit, believes that to achieve success, there is a need for a research management group to integrate research works, distribute opportunities equally, and balance abilities of researches.

The hospital research unit, established in 2007 by the Institutional Review Board Committee headed by Dr. Grace Garayblas-Gonzaga, is structured to manage clinical research, monitor processes, and integrate output.

“Since there are so many different departments in the hospital, each with a research committee and programs, we decided to have one management group that will consolidate and make the processes of how to do research as uniform for every department as possible,” Cuevas said.

Pagkakataong matuto

MATAPOS ang anim na taon sa elementarya, apat na taon sa mataas na paaralan, at apat na taon sa kolehiyo, sa wakas nakuha ko rin ang pinakaaasam kong diploma. Ngunit kahit marami na akong nabasang libro, pinagpuyatang takdang aralin, at nasagutang mga pagsusulit sa mahabang panahong ginugol ko sa pag-aaral, nagkaroon pa rin ako ng pagaalinlangan kung sapat na nga ba ang lahat ng iyon upang maging handa ako sa paghahanapbuhay.

Nasa ikatlong taon ako noon sa kolehiyo ng tuluyang akong binagabag ng tanong na ito. Habang ikinukumpara ko ang aking sarili noong mga panahong iyon sa mga kakilalang nakapagtapos na ng kanilang pag-aaral na nagbibigay sa akin ng payo, napansin kong mayroon silang kumpiyansa sa sarili at awtoridad sa kanilang napiling larangan na wala pa rin ako kahit na malapit na rin ako makapagtapos sa kolehiyo.

A child’s memories

“Life is both sad and solemn. We are let into this wonderful world. We meet each other, greet each other and wander together; and then we lose each other as suddenly and unreasonably as we have arrived.” – Jostein Gaardier

EVERYTHING that happens in this world can be unraveled by scientific formulae, which enables man to comprehend the true nature of its existence. However, I believe that the genesis of science formed in the core of man’s reason also needs to be guided by his own wisdom and faith.

A month before formally attaining my bachelor’s degree in medical technology, I came across a situation wherein my reason and ingenuity for choosing a profession as such, has been tested.

Right direction

I TRAVELED to places I never expected to go to. I treaded roads that were either smooth or rough and at times, I got myself distracted along the way. But wherever I end up, I always go back to where I started my journey.

Sports is the very reason I was led into writing. It is my comfort zone where I feel safe and I become best despite obstacles, denials and other challenges.

It is in playing, watching and writing about sports that I learned lessons that were not taught inside the classroom. Most people would regard sports strictly as a physical world but behind the action-packed games are precious and enriching learning experiences that give meaning to one’s existence.

By watching baseball, I learned that trust plays a vital role in making decisions just as a pitcher needs to trust his teammates’ line of defense when his own defense fails at the mound.

Dream jobs and encores

AS OF this writing, I am still unemployed.

Not that I have not done anything about it. I have already submitted résumés to a dozen companies. I pit myself against other fresh grad hopefuls that scream rather “flashy” university education in their CVs. I have also done the traditional walkathon, dropping résumés to various companies in the Makati business district.

After psyching myself for a good 10 minutes to “just do it,” I was flabbergasted to see the reception lady in a random office, place my resume on an inch and a half pile of other applicants’ CVs. So much for a lucky chance, eh?

Perhaps, job hunting is one of those daunting rites of passage that every adult has to go through. I found myself helplessly clinging to every piece of job hunting advice I could get my hands on but still ending up clueless on where to begin my pursuit.

Re: Reading

“And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:23)

“For beauty is nothing/ but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure,/ and we are so awed because it serenely disdains/ to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.” (Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies: The First Elegy)

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