Tag: May 14, 2012

HENRY David Thoreau, a world-renowned naturalist, once said, “Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.”

Just arriving in Manila days ago from a three-day backpacking trip in the Cordilleras with close friends, I realized something that I was yearning for over a year now.

I needed a breather.

That’s right, I was looking for an escape from a daily routine of academic work, the looming problem of unemployment, and the Varsitarian.

The trip left me with so many ideas for projects that I could not do due to my responsibilities inside the publication. Not that it’s a bad thing; I just felt that I needed to end my stay in the ‘V’ with something worthwhile.

TULAD ng lahat ng bagay, lahat ay may katapusan—may ending kumbaga. Ngunit hindi lahat ng ending ay nangangahulugang pagwawakas. Ito’y pagtatapos lamang ng isang kabanata at pagpapatuloy ng isang mahabang kuwento.

Comedy, drama, horror, romance, dagdagan mo pa ng sci-fi at fantasy. Iyan ang kuwento ng buhay ko sa Varsitarian sa nakalipas na dalawang taon. Blockbuster kung tutuusin, daig pa marahil nito ang kuwento ni Asiong Salonga sa aksyon at drama. Ang kuwentong ito ay ang pinakamasaya ngunit “pinakawasak” na kuwento ng aking buhay-kolehiyo.

TEACHERS and scientists are dying breeds.

Data from the country’s main statistical agency point to a “worrisome trend” – the declining number of graduates of education and science courses.

The National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) is sounding the alarm, saying this trend will lead to the deterioration of the country’s labor force.

In 2010, the number of education graduates plummeted to 56,209, which was just 12 percent of the total 481,682 graduates, from a peak of 77,555 or 20 percent out of 401,787 in 2002, according to the NSCB report titled “Worrisome Trends Towards Deterioration of our Human Capital.”

YOUNG Thomasian researchers continue to innovate to help address security and health threats of today’s society.

True to the University’s commitment in research and development, recent best scientific theses centered on cost-effective security development and medical treatments.

Electronics Engineering students Lariz Anne Albana, Justin David Chua, Raymund Danao, Mel-jie Brent del Mundo, and Mary Raulette Solomo created a robot that halts an object’s motion through a process known as interception.

SUCCESS comes sweeter the second time around.

Pharmacy alumna Janine Tugonon did not let her hopes of becoming a beauty queen vanish after she settled for a first runner-up finish in the Binibining Pilipinas 2011 pageant. She tried again this year and finally walked away with the title Binibining Pilipinas-Universe.

Tugonon began early in beauty pageants, but it wasn’t until she enrolled at UST that she started to take them quite seriously. She represented the Faculty of Pharmacy and won The Search for the Ideal Thomasian Personality. The victory led to something much bigger. A pageant organizer saw her potential and invited her to try her luck in the Binibining Pilipinas.

THE QUADRICENTENNIAL pavilion was filled with merriment and of course, relief as the graduating Thomasian Architecture students had their solemn investiture last March 27.

However, as other graduates were revelling in their hard-earned diplomas, one of the students took a leap of faith as Jerald Benedict Equina went center stage to propose to his girlfriend of five years, Angela Tafalla, a registered nurse currently studying at the UST Graduate School.

Just after the ceremony, the big-screen flashed an audio visual presentation that presented Equina’s monologue of sorts.

TURNING wounds into wisdom.

From January 1942 to February 1945, the Japanese converted the University of Santo Tomas into an internment camp that housed approximately 3,000 American Civilians.

This forced the internees to leave their homes, their families, and their way of life to succumb to Japanese colonizers.

Among those who survived was Leslie Ann Murray, who now works as vice-president of the Filipino-American Memorial Endowment, a foundation established in 1986 that aims to preserve and maintain tangible connections among Americans, Filipinos, and their allies who fought side-by-side in the Second World War.

Japanese Conquest

PEOPLE diagnosed with autism have unpredictable temperaments.

From an academic perspective, educators devised ways in analysing and teaching autistic children. The incapacities of these individuals are explored by the studies of psychiatrists, educators, therapists, and medical practitioners.

Fortunately, the University has the necessary resources that are capable of undertaking programs for autistic children. Its services include a disciplinary team that specializes in Special Education (SPED). The team is composed of experts from the Speech Pathology course of the College of Rehabilitation Sciences who aim to develop the speech of special children, and from the Occupational and Physical Therapy courses for developing motor skills.

THE GROUP of some 50 married “priests” that has come out in support of the “reproductive health” or RH Bill does not speak for the clergy, Church leaders said.

The recent statement of the Philippine Federation of Married Catholic Priests (PFMP), carries little value as the group—composed of men who have in fact left the priesthood—is “irregular,” said Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), in a phone interview.

The federation has not released an official statement, but the Sun Star newspaper had reported last April 9 that some PFMP members from Bicol and Cebu had announced their support for the bill during the group’s 13th national convention.

A VERY small percentage of priests in the United States were credibly accused of sexual abuse, according to an annual report commissioned by US bishops released last April 10.

The report, written by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington and posted on the website of US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USSCB), found 23 allegations against Catholic clergy concerning abuse of a minor last year. However, only nine were considered credible by law enforcement.