From U.P. and Back Again

I have always wanted to give back to my Alma Mater, the University of the Philippines Manila, the institution that imbibed in me academic excellence, freedom coupled with responsibility, and spirit of service. My batch mates and I actually made a pact to go back to U.P. after some years of practicing the professions we want to have in the corporate world, in order to pursue the noble path of teaching.

Our professors surely played a big role in this dream of ours to become professors in any U.P. unit in the future. I remember several teachers of ours relate how grateful they were with the education they were receiving while they were still young students. And how much they also aspired to return the favor to the state university by re-entering it for a Teaching Post.

Now that I am freer, schedule-wise, I am set to study again as I take the master's program in Development Communication this academic year here at U.P. Cebu through the U.P. Open University (UPOU). Much as I wanted to get a scholarship, the limited number of slots available posed as a big hurdle for me not to be granted one. Now I know I must work doubly hard to make sure that I have enough monetary support to pursue graduate studies. Special thanks to my godmother, Lyn, and to my uncle, Al, who both agreed to send over some student loan just so I could go ahead with the enrollment this first semester. I am hopeful that this master's program I will be taking will pave the way to re-enter the university as a future educator.

It felt good visiting the U.P. Cebu campus the other day and meeting the local coordinator of UPOU at the College of Arts and Sciences building. It felt good being in familiar terrain once again --- seeing the Oblation, the U.P. seal, the org nooks and 'tambayans', the 'traditional' classrooms, and comfort rooms --- all with that familiar U.P. trademark i.e. vintage.

Right now, I am reading a primer entitled , “The Meaning of U.P. Education.” I wish to learn from it well and hopefully enrich and help others grow in and through what I will be discovering from it. What does it mean to have a U.P. Education? As former U.P. Chancellor Emerlinda R. Roman put it, "... U.P. education  should be oriented towards preparing students to become self-reliant, to become leaders. It should be geared towards social transformation and the preservation of the Filipino element in the country's culture." 

Whatever may result from studying this master's program, and eventually finishing it, God willing, I know I'd be equipped to serve in any place God would want me to be.

Maybe going back to U.P. to teach would be more than just fulfilling the dream my batch mates and I had. Maybe deciding to work and teach in U.P. would reflect what it means to be a product of this state university.

For more information about taking graduate studies at the University of the Philippines, please visit www.upou.edu.ph.