Tag: Vol. LXXXII

THESE Thomasians didn’t wait long to find success in the real world.

Gold Lester Navea, 21, was still a Marketing student when he put up University Scoop in September last year. The ice cream joint on A. Lacson Avenue has since become a hit among Thomasians.

Dan Angelo Sangalang, 18, put up Disenyo Tomasino, an online apparel business, while Gabriele Benedict Pilapil, a nursing alumnus, is the man behind Goldstreak, a successful clothing line.

Navea has always seen himself as an entrepreneur, but was somehow discouraged because of his family’s “financial constraints”. But with a mix of persistence and passion—and lots of support from friends and family—he was able to start an ice cream business.

AS AN accomplished teacher, Emely Dicolen-Abagat is expected to know a lot of things—even, and perhaps most specially, the abstract concepts of love and dedication.

But Abagat, who was dean of both the Graduate School and the Department of Arts and Sciences of Colegio de San Juan de Letran in the early 2000s, chose to leave her posts behind and embark on a new mission—to spread the Catholic faith in South Korea. And thus began her most valuable lessons.

A NEED to “rethink and re-present our own” beliefs, in order to understand others, arises from the various cultures and religions of different countries, a philosophical theologian said before an international philosophy congress hosted by the University from May 23 to 26.

During the three-day conference Thomism and Asian Cultures: Celebrating 400 Years of Dialogue Across Civilizations, held at the Medicine Auditorium, Canadian professor William Sweet underscored the need to establish an “intercultural philosophy” that will ultimately “generate a shared, fruitful discussion granting equal rights to all.”

THE MAY days of yesteryears used to be filled with the smell of fragrant flowers, fervent prayers, and solemn singing for the Blessed Virgin. The religious procession called Santacruzan, meanwhile, was done simply and quietly—minus the fashion show.

But as Catholic tradition is passed on from one generation to another, fewer people are flocking to the month-long Flores de Mayo (Flowers of May), while the Santacruzan has all but lost its meaning.

Amid the preference for the pageantry, Thomasian priests still hope that Filipinos would go back to the reason for all the bloom and beauty.

‘Novena procession’

A COLLECTION of Thomasian designers kicked off this year’s Philippine Fashion Week last May 10 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

The collection of Filipiniana couture was supposed to be presented at the University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) Quadricentennial fashion show last February 24, but last-minute problems cancelled the show.

“We were supposed to hold it in our alma mater’s grounds, but we encountered problems. In the beginning, we were supposed to be 20 designers,” said designer Edgar San Diego.

IT IS not common knowledge that American Episcopalian minister and Yale-trained historian William Henry Scott cracked the Code of Kalantiao and exposed it as a hoax.

It’s even more uncommon knowledge that Scott’s expose was part of his dissertation in UST, where he took up his doctorate in History in the 1960s.

Both uncommon revelations are disclosed in the original contemporary drama, Fake, written by award-winning playwright Floy Quintos and staged by the University of the Philippines (UP) Playwrights Theater last May at UP Diliman’s Teatro Hermogenes Ylagan.

LITERATURE and its capacity for values-formation and character-building were the overriding theme of the first Milagros G. Tanlayco National Conference On Teaching Literature, an academic tribute to the well-loved Thomasian literature pedagogue who died on May 10, 2010.

The forum series was held at the Tanghalang Teresita Quirino of the UST Graduate School last May 9 to 10.

American Studies expert Oscar Campomanes said that “literature is not always considered valuable intellectually and institutionally, [but] it has an influence on ethical formation.”

HERE comes another dose of the “Word of the Lourd.”

But save yourself from the trouble of picking up the remote control and just sit comfortably, for this one comes in leaves of newsprint bound in an old rose cover with a photo of a fly manning a sketch of a vinyl turntable.

Insectissimo! (UST Publishing House, 2011) is the third poetry collection of Palanca winner, “multimedia rockstar”, and former Varsitarian writer Lourd Ernest H. De Veyra, a retreat to his first love amid a well-received television exposure in a thought-provoking news and public affairs segment.

De Veyra’s “project for the year” is a collection of 40 poems laid out at random, sprinkled with a musicality that shows the author’s persona.

“ Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit.”

That is what doctors usually say when they are about to inject someone, or do surgery. Dr. Guzman never told me anything like that, for my problem didn’t need any medicine—because there weren’t any.

It was one of those psychotherapy sessions that I dreaded most. Each session was a marking of my lunacy, so I tended to disagree to Dr. Guzman’s coaxing.

On one occasion, I even slammed my hand on his table, eventually scathing my palm with a spike receipt holder he used to pile his bills on. I often find myself triggered into a morbid trance like that one. For me, it was a regular thing, but for him it was an illness. Schizophrenia, he called it.

SA PAGTATAPOS ng bawat akademikong taon, libu-libong Tomasino ang tumatanggap ng mga diploma na hindi lamang sumisimbolo sa apat na taon o higit pang sakripisyo sa kolehiyo, kundi nagsisilbing pasaporte na rin sa pagkakaroon ng magandang trabaho.

Hindi lingid sa kaalaman ng lahat na hindi madali ang maghanap ng trabaho. Sa katunayan, ayon sa Labor Force Survey na isinagawa noong Enero, tinatayang 2.9 milyong Filipino ang walang trabaho. Hindi pa tiyak kung ano ang naghihintay sa mga Tomasinong nagsipagtapos sa taong ito, ngunit handa na nga ba ang bawat isa sa pagharap sa buhay sa labas ng apat na sulok ng Unibersidad?