By Dean Eduardo M Trinidad,
College of Business Administration-Caloocan and Overall Chairman,
2nd UE Caloocan Week

UE Caloocan celebrated its 52nd foundation year with another big celebration that involved the whole UE Caloocan community last February 15 to 21, 2006.

It coincided with Caloocan City Day, which every year falls on February 16. The theme of the University affair was "UE Caloocan: Over 50 Years of Producing Leaders, Topnotchers and Champions." This was the second time that the four UE Caloocan Colleges—Business Administration, Engineering, Arts and Sciences, and Fine Arts—joined hands to hold their respective college weeks simultaneously.

Just like last year, the virtually weeklong event gave the opportunity for the students, faculty and administrators to celebrate their achievements, undertake co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, hold personal development programs and other campus-enriching activities. It also helped showcase the different program offerings, modern facilities and vast Caloocan Campus of the University to graduating high school students who came to visit. It was also an occasion to provide an outreach educational program for high school teachers of the CAMANAVA area.

The event started with a Thanksgiving Mass celebrated by Fr. Vino Faminialagao, OFM, at the main lobby of the Tan Yan Kee Academic Building, attended by Acting President Ester A. Garcia, Chancellor Ernesto S. De Castro, Deans Eleanor Javier (Arts and" Sciences), Gerardo Tan (Fine Arts), Rogelio Aniez (Engineering) and this writer (Business Administration), other University officials, invited guests, faculty members and students.

The Opening Ceremonies followed immediately at the same venue, with Acting President Garcia making her "debut" appearance before the UE Caloocan community. In her short talk, she exhorted all concerned to continue the UE tradition of producing leaders, topnotchers and champions as its valued contribution to society. She praised Ms. Duchess Marie Cruz, who recently landed in the number one spot in the recent licensure examination for Certified Internal Auditors given worldwide to about 21,000 examinees, and who is a product of the Caloocan Campus' College of Business Administration. The Acting President also cited the topnotchers in the licensure examinations for Certified Public Accountants and Engineers, and winners in Fine Arts competitions. She noted however that a lot of work needs to be done to further improve the quality of education in the University, including increasing the research output of the faculty, and that this is her thrust as the new President of the University.

After the opening ceremonies, the four-day event went into full gear with various activities such as professional development seminars and workshops for faculty members, student competitions, evening performances and shows at the Open Field stage, sports activities, a job fair and career talks for graduating students, and exhibits.

The College of Fine Arts held an exhibit—dubbed "Ani ng Sining"—of its students' outstanding work and an on-the-spot painting contest at the Administration Building among students of National Capital Region universities. A UE Caloocan student, Reynan Sanchez, won the said competition, which was judged by art experts from outside the University. Both of these were also part of the UE Arts Month 2006 celebration.

The UE Chorale graced the opening of the Fine Arts Exhibit with a short but unique presentation that expressed their songs as "paintings." This wowed the crowd so much that they clamored for another concert. The UE Chorale obliged and held a "full" concert on the last day of UE Caloocan Week.

In one of the evening programs, the Student Council held a "Night of the Champions" to recognize students who won in different competitions, held within and outside the University, in various academic and talent fields.

The UE Red Warriors, the University's senior men's basketball team, gave a basketball clinic and an exhibition game that showed the prowess of our players. These were punctuated by the lively numbers presented by the UE Pep Squad, and the picture-taking and autograph-signing sessions with the players held after the game, much to the delight of the students. Grandmaster Nelson Mariano II, a UE alumnus and Woodpushers Coach, along with the varsity players joined a chess tournament for chess aficionados from various high schools. The audience was impressed not only by the presence and performance of the Grandmaster and the players, but by the sight of very young, grade 2 boys beating college students.

A main feature of the four-day event was the "Open House" fro graduating high school students, wherein they were treated to free College Entrance Tests (CET's) with merienda, token gifts and an informative campus tour. More than 1,000 high school students, accompanied by their teachers, visited the Campus. Also featured was the UE-Tan Yan Kee Foundation Inc. scholarship examination given to qualified graduating high school students. The registration desk was manned and the accompanying activities were handled by volunteer faculty members, students, officials and employees.

For this year, the Campus co-hosted with the Foundation for Upgrading the Standard of Education (FUSE) a two-day seminar-workshop on the effective teaching of English, Physics and Chemistry in high school. Eighty teachers from the different high schools in the CAMANAVA area participated in this affair. Acting President Garcia, who was instrumental in networking with FUSE on the project, went out of her way to be present at the Opening Ceremonies to show her "passion" for educational programs like this which elevate teaching standards in the country. FUSE was represented by Training Chairperson Dr. Evelina M. Vicencio and Ms. Helen Siy. Acting President Garcia promised that this was the first of many such tie-ups with FUSE that she wants to pursue.

Another highlight of the entire affair was the bonfire by the College of Business Administration and the Junior Institute of Accountants (JPIA) in honor Duchess Marie Cruz, who topped the Novemver 2005 worlwide examination for Certified Internal Auditors and who finished her Bachelor of Science in Accountancy degree, Magna Cum Laude, at UE Caloocan in 2002. In her talk, Ms. Cruz impressed upon the accountancy students the value of hard work, dedication, discipline and serious study habits in attaining success. Ms. Cruz passed the CPA licensure examination the year after she graduated. She has since been working for the auditing firm Punongbayan and Araullo.

All told, the 2006 version of UE Caloocan Week was an improvement over the previous year's celebration, judging from the wider array and number of activities, and from the reaction of those who participated in them. This was made possible by the support given by the administration and the faculty, students, officials and employees, the real stakeholders in the event. It was my pleasure in having once again chaired this year's celebrations, for I really felt like a champion!