THE UNIVERSITY won 20 merit and 10 excellence awards in the 11th Philippine Student Quill Awards, earning a finalist spot in the “School of the Year” tilt.
UST again placed behind De La Salle College of Saint Benilde, which bagged 41 merit and 25 excellence awards and grabbed the title “School of the Year” for the third straight year.
Winners were given either an “Award of Merit” or an “Award of Excellence,” depending on how the entry scored under the global seven-point scale for communication excellence of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).
Entries that scored 5.25 to 5.74 won a Merit Award, while those that scored 5.75 or higher won an Award of Excellence. The School of the Year title is given to the school with the most number of excellence awards.
The Varsitarian, UST’s 97-year-old student publication, contributed six awards to the University’s tally.
Among the entries that received the Award of Excellence was the 16th print issue for Publication Year 2023-2024, which featured an investigative report on the accessibility challenges faced by students with disabilities, and the story “Axe set to fall on non-tenured UST profs without health permits,” by former assistant news editor Janica Buan.
Former assistant special reports editor Fernando Pierre de la Cruz also won an excellence award for his report on the life imprisonment conviction of 10 Aegis Juris fraternity members over the death of UST law freshman Horacio “Atio” Castillo III.
Other entries from Varsitarian received an Award of Merit, including the Paskuhan 2024 issue, which featured Thomasian Christmas traditions in the Manila, General Santos, and Santa Rosa campuses, and the Olympic-themed Paskuhan 2024 video produced under incumbent editor in chief Chalssea Echegoyen.
The story “The inspiring journey of a visually impaired UST commerce graduate” by Buan also bagged the merit recognition.
Tiger Media Network, the University’s official broadcasting arm, received three excellence awards and nine merit awards.
The Flame of the Faculty of Arts and Letters won one excellence and one merit award, while digital media organization TomasinoWeb received two merit awards.
Media production organization TOMCAT – UST garnered one Award of Excellence and two Awards of Merit.
The UST Department of Communication won one Award of Excellence and three Awards of Merit.
Four other Dominican-run schools joined the Student Quills: the Colegio de San Juan de Letran Manila and Bataan campuses, and UST Legazpi and UST Angelicum College of Quezon City.
UST Manila holds the record for the most School of the Year awards, having won seven times since 2013.
The Philippine Student Quill Awards is the junior division of the Philippine Quill Awards, an annual awards program for business communication organized by the Philippine chapter of the IABC.
UST projects also won under the professional division, including the “Honora Medicum” 150th anniversary coffee table book of the UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.
The awarding ceremony was held on Aug. 27 at the Manila Hotel. Czeantal Naomi P. Delos Santos with reports from Chalssea Kate C. Echegoyen
