National campus journalism fellowship set by UST from October 21-23

MANILA—To promote press excellence and foster camaraderie among campus journalists all over the country, The Varsitarian, the 81-year-old official student publication of the University of Santo Tomas, will hold “Inkblots 2009: the 11th UST National Campus Journalism Fellowship” from October 21 to 23 at its Thomas Aquinas Research Complex in the UST campus in España. The event is open to all student writers, campus press advisers, high school journalism instructors, and school officials.

The fellowship will consist of seminars on news writing, sports writing, investigative reporting, features writing, culture and lifestyle writing, opinion or column writing, and parallel sessions on writing for broadcast, cartooning and lay-outing, among others.

Among the invited resource speakers are Cesar Apolinario (news reporter, GMA Network), Conrado de Quiros (columnist, Philippine Daily Inquirer), Nestor Cuartero (entertainment editor, Tempo), and Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo (vice-president for public affairs, University of the Philippines-Diliman).

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UP students shine in Asia business concept

MANILA—A multi-discipline team of students from the University of the Philippines-Diliman won the second prize in the KT&G 2010 Asian Students’ Venture Forum competition for the best business concepts using new technology, held recently in Beijing, China.

Composed of Business Administration students Katrina Gay Cruz, Karen Gail Feble, and Michelle Ann Molas; Public Administration students Julia Chu and Ezekiel Vicente; Mass Communication student Julio Danilo Silvestre; and Interior Design student Crisette Evelyn Arcilla, the Philippine team won over teams from eight other universities in Singapore, Japan, Korea and China.

The UP team presented “Language Live,” a concept for online Mandarin language tutorials, during a program at Renmin University. First prize went to a team from Singapore and the third prize went to a Korean team.

The students’ participation in the forum made them part of the Asia Entrepreneurship Community (AEC), a network of university students of China, Korea, Singapore, Japan, and the Philippines who exchange business venture information in the field of new technology and are concerned with venture entrepreneurship.

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Arts and Letters students tapped to start speak-English campaign at UST

MANILA—Students at the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Sto. Tomas are now required to speak in English during class discussions, serving as “guinea pigs” before the launch of a University-wide English proficiency campaign.

Rector Fr. Rolando De la Rosa, O.P., said that competence in English is one of the main complaints of many of the employers of UST graduates. He explained that a survey by employers in the country and abroad indicated that  although UST graduates “are very competent in their profession,” one of their setbacks ois that “they are not very articulate, especially in the English language.”

Artlets Dean Michael Anthony Vasco said the policy requires students and faculty members to use English as the medium of instruction and communication. However, the policy will not affect Filipino and foreign language subjects.

“Every liberal arts student is expected to be highly articulate. It’s about time that we create a strict language policy in the college. Our students should be able to articulate their discourse in the English language,” Vasco said.

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