UST ABCD: The Leader Within You: Empowering the ACEs of the Community

"Youth voices are powerful, it is through these voices that they empower a whole new revolution of thinking for nation-building."

This project was spearheaded by the Legal Management Society’s Community Development Committee of the Faculty of Arts and Letters. The participants of the event were the adolescents of the nearby community of the parish. As an organization that aspires to bring out the excellence among their constituents, the project was able to help the participants to be aware of their potential to be effective members and leaders of their respective communities.

The organization first and foremost aimed for the development of the participants’ sense of self and identity because the essence of the entire project was empowering these future leaders by instilling skills and values such as discipline, problem-solving, goal setting, proper decision-making, communication, people management.

The project had three phases which were conducted on November 30 and December 7 of 2019, at the Ministry of Urban Poor- Caloocan, Navotas City. The first two phases during the first day focused on personality development, while the third phase on the latter date was a leadership training. On the first day of the project, which involved 12 volunteers, talks and activities on personality development enabled participants to understand themselves better. Activities such as human bingo, writing impressions, tallest tower and charades were accomplished. Two speakers were invited, namely, Ms. Ludeth Zyra A. Mercado, MA, RGC, from the AB Guidance Office, to talk about, “Assessing one’s strength and weaknesses”, and Mr. Tyrone Jann Dc. Nepomuceno, MA, the Community Development Coordinator of the UST Senior High School, who talked about “Self-care and Management for Young Leaders”. The participants were responsive and willing to commit to the activities, they were competitive during games and attentive when it came to the discussions. During the last phase of the project, 18 volunteers, with two speakers, we were able to conduct a leadership training. After the first phase which was centered on personality development, this phase was now focused on the application of those learnings. The event had the same participants from the previous project with some new faces, which were interested in joining the program. At the beginning there was a recall of the lessons before the first speaker speaker, Adonis Basa, who discussed about the “Elements of Effective Leadership”. The second and last speaker before the team-building games was Krizia Bricio, who the Central Student Council secretary (2019-2020), who talked about “People Management and Working with a Team”. After the two speakers, we proceeded to the five games; Mine field, puto-seko tongue twister, sack race, and flour puzzle. These were all group activities which exemplified the leadership and teamwork, while enjoying a healthy competition among peers. Both days ended with an oral evaluation besides from the written one. Facilitators and participants were asked by the host about what they learned, and what they felt about the program which transpired.

It was the first project of the committee, and it was greatly successful. Not only did everyone learn from the experience, but we were able to establish bonds and friendships with the participants. The project was thought off carefully. The activities and content of the talks were specific and appropriate to the age group. The facilitators were quick to adjust and solve mild problems during the program, while keeping the audience engaged to not lose momentum.

FIRST PHASE – November 30, 2019

THE ACES OF THE COMMUNITY