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Silliman Joins US Secretary of State Forum Silliman University is one of only three universities given the opportunity to ask questions to United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a forum on November 13. The forum is part of the itinerary of the Secretary’s two-day visit to the Philippines. It will be hosted by the University of Santo Tomas. Two universities from outside Manila have been selected by the US Embassy to link to the Secretary through TV network ABS-CBN: Ateneo de Zamboanga for Mindanao and Silliman for the Visayas. Ms Clinton is arriving November 12 in the country from Singapore where she attended the Ministerial Meetings of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum. Her official trip to Asia immediately comes after her travel to Germany for the 20th anniversary celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Silliman senior high school and college students will gather on the Silliman Hall grounds for the two-hour event. One of them will be selected to ask a question to the former US First Lady. ANC anchor Tony Velasquez will moderate the Silliman event and live feed of the entire forum will be made available on campus. Silliman’s participation is facilitated by the Thomas Jefferson Information Center (TJIC) of the US Embassy in Manila. TJIC is the coordinating unit of the American Studies Resource Centers (ASRC) located in select universities across the Philippines. These centers serve as information hubs of the US Embassy, promoting American history, life and culture, and social and political processes. The ASRC at Silliman is hosted on the ground floor of the Robert B. and Metta J. Silliman Library, one of the country’s biggest libraries. Established in 1901 by Presbyterian missionaries, Silliman University is the Philippines’ oldest American university. The venue for the Silliman event features Silliman Hall, the country’s oldest standing American structure representative of stick style architecture. Two Silliman University administrators attended the 2009 Management Conference of the Association of Christian Universities and Colleges in Asia (ACUCA) held October 28 to 30 at Chang Jung Christian University in Taiwan. Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Betsy Joy Tan and University Pastor and Chaplain Rev. Noel Villalba represented Silliman in the conference themed “Service-Learning and International Cooperation.” Dr. Tan represented Silliman University President Dr. Ben Malayang III in the meetings of university presidents and the ACUCA Executive Committee. Dr. Malayang sits in the seven-country Committee as Philippine representative. Recognized as one of the pillars of service-learning in Silliman University, Dr. Tan shared the University’s interdisciplinary approach to service-learning and how it has been institutionalized as pedagogy of learning. She discussed the Service-Learning Model Program that Silliman hosted in August 2006, with support from the International Christian University in Japan, where 20 students from six Asian countries had the opportunity of community immersion. A separate session was organized for university chaplains that tackled, among others, the role of faith formation and development of Christian principles in the academic community. ACUCA was established in 1976 and is composed of 56 member institutions in seven countries (Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand). It recognizes the need for mutual support among academic institutions and the great potential for cooperation in reaching the common goals of Christian witness and service in education. It was developed out of an annual meeting of university presidents sponsored by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia. A Creative Writing Center dedicated to promote literary arts will soon rise on the picturesque Silliman property at Camp Lookout in Valencia. Groundbreaking rites will take place in the afternoon of November 15. Gracing the event will be Sillimanians Atty. Enrique Sobrepeña, President and CEO of CAP Philippines, Inc., National Artist for Literature Dr. Edith Tiempo and former Silliman President Dr. Quintin Doromal. Construction of the Center is supported through a P5-million donation from Atty. Sobrepeña. This donation was made in honor of his wife, Mrs. Rose Lamb-Sobrepeña, and the founders of the Silliman National Writers Workshop, Dr. Tiempo and her late husband, Dr. Edilberto Tiempo. The Center is envisioned to primarily serve as a permanent home to the Silliman National Writers Workshop, the oldest running writers’ workshop in the Philippines. Among the features of the Center will be a two-storey main function hall and five duplex cottages (with toilet and bath), inspired by the concept of a “writers village”. As it celebrates its 49th year in May 2010, the Silliman National Writers Workshop anticipates participation of creative writers from Asian countries. Two graduating high school students of the School of Basic Education were the champions of the Ana Alano Cup of the Philippine Schools Debate Championship (PSDC) held November 4 to 7 at the Ateneo de Manila University. Julius Anthony Ragay and Jay Anderson comprised Silliman Team A that bagged the Alano Cup in the championship round among the highest-ranking four teams coming from high schools that have not yet been part of the PSDC main finals round. Silliman won over teams from La Salle Greenhills, Ateneo de Davao and Ateneo de Zamboanga. Three other high school students made it to the finals of the Public Speaking Contest of the PSDC: Anderson, Amyrrha Estolloso and Pol Eldridge Caluscusan. Four other teams represented the University: (Team B) Estolloso and Nicole Villanueva; (Team C) Dayle Danielle Casianan and Jeff Nicolo Palad; (Team D) Caluscusan and Mishell Marie Gabas; and (Team E) James Shemron Corro and Mykaela Luz Maxino. The PSDC is the country’s national debate championship for high schools that follows the British parliamentary style. There were 116 teams from 19 schools around the country that faced off this year. Silliman was the only school from the Visayas. | ||||
| Siilliman
University, Dumaguete City, 6200 Philippines
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