Arrupe Office of Social Formation fully implemented its Seniors’ Integration Program this academic year 2021-2022. SIP was established in 2020 in response to the vision and mission of forming Ateneo de Davao University’s Sui Generis Leaders as part of its social formation framework. Hence, the first graduates of the K-12 curriculum were the first to undergo this program.
The Commissioning
The Seniors’ Integration Program had the commissioning rites ceremony of the graduating class of 2022 with a theme, “Pagbayaw: Sending off AdDU Sui Generis Leaders on a mission of reconciliation” on March 18, 2022. “Pagbayaw,” a Cebuano word that means to lift or to raise, represents the sending off the students to society by gathering the ADDU community, lifting prayers, and recognizing all seniors for all the fruits they now reap from their university formation.
Attended and streamed by over 1,000 people both via Zoom and Facebook, this event gathered SIP students, pool of SIP formators, deans, and administrators across different undergraduate schools and offices. The Academic Vice President, Dr. Gina Montalan and the Ignatian Spirituality, and Formation Office Director, Fr. Jessel Gerard Gonzales, S.J. were also present at this ceremony. The program was hosted by Mr. Jason Cyril Tajores who is one of the SIP Formators.
Ms. Agnes J. Sagaral, Arrupe Office of Social Formation Director, welcomed everyone to the commissioning rites ceremony. She highlighted the metaphor of “fire enkindling other fires” which captured the heart of the framework. She also stated that the social formation courses offered by the AOSF ensured that each program considered learning outcomes that are aligned with the VMG of AdDU. This includes students’ spiritual formation and social involvement despite the pandemic. Through the social formation courses, students were able to gradually change “from being sparks to embers and eventually blazing fires.” This was done in preparation for their commissioning as AdDU Sui Generis Leaders.
The Giving
The ceremony also recognized the hard and heart work exhibited by the SIP students in their social formation journey; thus, three awards were given to selected students, groups, and classes. They were given certificates which were signed by the SIP OIC coordinator and the AOSF Director and presented by Mr. Marcelino L. Severino III, ASF Coordinator. These awards were:
- Best Ignatian Advocacy Award
This award was given to the SIP group that has exceeded the minimum requirements of their Ignatian Advocacy Project. The recipients of this award have excellently made a critical, constructive, inclusive, and communitarian engagement with a particular vulnerable sector. Among two-hundred seven Ignatian advocacy projects, five were chosen.
2. Fortiores-in-Fide Award
Fortiores in Latin means stronger; hence, this award was given to students who have cultivated Magis mile in living out the essence of fortes in fide even before graduating from Ateneo de Davao University. Among 1,203 seniors, five exemplary SIP students were selected.
3. Magis Class Award
This award was given to an outstanding SIP class who has exemplified Magis by not just complying with the requirements of ASF 4204, but by having generously exuded commitment to excellence and social justice through their various Ignatian Advocacy Projects. With a total of thirty-eight SIP classes, three were given the award.
Here is the complete list of the awardees:
Best Ignatian Advocacy Award
- Bangon Bolton: An Ignatian Advocacy in Helping Victims of Disasters & Calamities
- Culture Forum: Bajau Community’s Language and Livelihood
- A Webinar for the Conservation of Macabol Forest and Watershed with The Philippine Eagle Foundation and SAMAHAN Ecoteneo College Unit
- Love O’ Craft Outreach Program
- Equality Education: Championing a Gender-Responsive Basic Education in the Philippines
Fortiores-in-Fide Award
School of Arts and Sciences
Dessa Caballero
AB Political Science
School of Business and Governance
Micah Therese Lumanog
BS Accountancy
School of Engineering and Architecture
Dolf Mirelle Montecillo
BS Chemical Engineering
School of Nursing
Angelo Ian Jabillo
BS Nursing
School of Education
Ailene Renee Tagorda
BSEd Science
Magis Class Award
School of Arts and Sciences
SIP Class 16-061
Mr. Datu Abdula Uka III
School of Business and Governance
SIP Class 16-7124
Ms. Maria Clariza Matute
School of Education
SIP Class 16-7100
Ms. Tricia Angelika Firman
The Sharing
One of the highlights of the program was the time to look back on the journey the SIP students and formators have embarked on together, wherein representatives shared their experiences and learnings they have gained throughout the formation program.
Ailene Renee Tagorda, Fortiores-in-Fide awardee of SOE, shared through a recorded video her journey in Ateneo as she became a student leader and a volunteer through the people she encountered and the Ignatian values she acquired such as Magis and AdDU Sui Generis Leadership. She also disclosed the most important lesson she learned which was “genuine service extending, oneself to those who needed the most.” She believes that upholding the Ignatian values and principles will enable her to serve the best way she can.
Ms. Maria Clariza Matute, the SIP formator of a Magis Class awardee, expressed her gratitude to the AOSF for trusting her to be part of the SIP pool of formators. Ms. Matute also shared her experience with her SIP students, “this was truly a very grace-filled journey with them [students] even though we are doing it remotely, but I can really sense my students’ enthusiasm and passion for service.”
Licel Joy Hontalba, a BSEd Social Science student who belonged to the class which was also awarded as Magis Class, imparted their Ignatian Advocacy Project called E-Tudlo TV and how their implementation went through. According to her, their advocacy focuses on helping Sibulan National High School teachers in Sta Cruz, Davao del Sur different ways to navigate using online educational tools through instructional videos posted on their advocacy’s Facebook Page. The implementation made her group proud because the teachers showed enthusiasm in learning about various educational platforms her group shared with them.
The Receiving
The seniors received “pabaon” to ensure that they obtained a collective understanding of what it means to be an ASGL.
A send-off message was given by Dr. Gina Montalan, Academic Vice President, to the seniors. Dr. Montalan emphasized the vision and mission of the university as a Catholic, Jesuit, Filipino university. It commits to the formation of its students to be men and women for others who are known as the AdDU Sui Generis Leaders, “uniquely formed, uniquely responding, and uniquely pursuing the mission of reconciling relationship with God and humanity and creation all for the common good.” She hoped that students as they were commissioned to uphold the Ignatian values they nurtured and share stories of transformation and hope despite the disrupted times. She reminded the students that the AdDU community are with them in this “pagbayaw” lifting them up in prayer and love as they live out the mission of the institution with a well-formed social conscience.
Fr. Jessel Gerard Gonzales, S.J. ISFO Director, headed the commissioning rites of the seniors. He started with an inspirational message to the seniors:
“We hope that you [students] do become our ideal leaders after university life. Life is very challenging outside, but I know [you are] equipped with a very strong core in terms of your values and your identity. You will be able to sail through life after university [life] but of course as you already know, Ateneo de Davao will always be your home.”
Then, it was followed by the prayer to officially commission them.
To formally end the commissioning rites ceremony, Ms. Precious Kyrie Undag, SIP OIC Coordinator, thanked all the people who attended the ceremony virtually thru Zoom and Facebook Live. She reiterated the purpose of this event as mentioned by Ms. Sagaral, AOSF Director, which was a significant honoring of students’ meaningful and fruitful journey here at the Ateneo de Davao University. As Ms. Undag expressed:
“We are glad to witness today -the Fire that Kindles Other Fire. Social Formation Framework has gradually come to fruition, allowing our students to transform themselves in faith so they can contribute to the transformation of society. They have integrated their academic and overall human formation with their service to marginalized sectors, as a manifestation of their growing faith in themselves, in humanity, in society, and most importantly, in God.”
She believed that the mission to form AdDU Sui Generis Leaders is still a work in progress, but is confident that students can exemplify it independently.
With this sending-off ceremony, AOSF hopes that the students’ learning, especially the projects they came up with will not end here but are continuously implemented, shared, and advocated. The Seniors’ Integration Program envisioned that these advocacies shall grow and reach more audiences and recognition so that they will be able to help more people or further contribute to solving problems faced by the vulnerable members of the community and even the environment, our common home. In this way, their advocacies shall remain sustainable.
Finally, on behalf of the pool of formators, we aspire that through the AOSF’s social formation framework our students will manifest as AdDU Sui Generis Leaders, stewards of peace on a mission of reconciliation.
Like how Calixto sent off St. Ignatius of Loyola in his journey, we also, as the AdDU community say this meaningful prayer expressed in the simplest form:
“….and may your passion always burn brightly -that in God’s time, you may set the world on fire”
Written by:
Ferdinand Aalrome Pagdilao IV – SIP Formator
Edited by:
Datu Abdula M. Uka III- SIP Formator
