It was well attended by members of the community, guests from thelocal government such as Mayor Oscar Moreno, representatives ofthe partner organizations, and members of the Xavier community.

“I have seen other relocation sites but Xavier Ecoville is standingXU has maintained its exemplary performance by setting highstandards”, said Mayor Moreno during his speech at the openingceremonies.

Father Bobby Yap the president of Xavier University (XU) said thatit took much longer to set up than other relocation sites as thewanted to prepare the families with values education and livelihoodopportunities.

Xavier Ecoville is a resettlement site for the survivors of tropicalstorm Sendong, there are more than 500 families currently livingthe area and have moved in to their permanent houses.

The event itself was a celebration of what the people haveaccomplished and what will be the continued development of thecommunity aside from the moving in of the families in to theirpermanent homes.

The celebration had entertainment that came in the form of games,and live music from a XU Soundtable band. The Showcase Nighthad entertainment from the Xavier Center for Culture and the Arts(XCCA).

The day was full of celebration and hopes for the new community atXavierEcoville andwill be the start of a continued relationship now thatthe families are now using the permanent homes.

Lumbia, Cagayan de Oro City- the permanent houses atXavier Ecoville were blessed on July 6 together with acelebration and the turn over of the Xavier Ecoville livelihoodcenter to the XE Multipurpose Cooperative.

Celebration of hope for Xavier Ecovlle

The Stair CaseBy: Dan David Tan October 2013

She said that was the event that actually“ignited her spirit” and she continued tostudy hard in high school, her family wasso happy that their daughter couldaccomplish something like that.

This led her to getting her first scholarshipin college, which was a full Saint FrancisXavier scholarship that covered her fulltuition after qualifying for it during theentrance exam.

She had it until last semester when shewas to report to the Office of Scholarshipand Financial Aid and was suddenlyinterviewed.

The interview was for a UT Globalscholarship, which covers everythingexcluding breakage along with anallowance per semester, after a fewmonths she was told she passed theinterview

She is still happy with her currentscholarship.

“As you can imagine, there is a lot ofexpenses involved, and with their support,I know it will help me reach my goals. Ireally thank them for their generoussupport to students like me”, She said asgrateful to have her sponsors for herscholarship.

Planning for her future

She is taking up Bachelor in Science inBiology as she was told it was the bestpre-medical course because she dreamt ofbecoming a dermatologist.

She decided to live college life to thefullest and so four extra years in schoolafter college would not fit her interests sowell.

She eventually decided that she wouldwant to become a medical representative,she found out there was more to a jobthan just financial security, she wants totravel and being a medical representativeis a way she can see more of the world.

Life as a scholar

As a scholar she has to manage her timeto accommodate her classes to maintainher grades, along with some things shehas to do as a scholar such as ten hoursof service and regular counseling abouther grades.

She says that she is quite happy with herscholarship; she says that it can help outher parents save more, the financialsecurity as a scholar not only helps herfamily but it helps her to keep motivated in

doing well in schoolwork.

Aside from all of the schoolwork, she isjust a normal person who loves singing,crocheting and hanging out with her bestfriend. She is just a normal student whoworks hard for her grade.

Prepare for the future

Students, whether brilliant or mediocre cando wonders for themselves if they just tryto work hard in their studies.

Annylaine found this out in time for highschool; she had developed the attitude todo her best in school and it is working forher now.

She has a dream and a way to achieve it,along with some help from herscholarship.

To those people who would want to bescholars and to those who donʼt take theirstudies seriously she said, “Itʼs alwaysbetter to always think for the future,”

Most of the youth only think of the presentwhen they should prioritize their studies toprepare for the future, she said that itstarts from within them that they can onlyreach their goals if they work hard.

Life may be difficult and there will alwaysbe some changes in our plans but successcan be achieved and with an attitude likehers we can achieve our goals.

Working hard: simple advice for the future

Many people just go to school andthey don't really work hard to dowell in their classes, it starts fromtheir earliest years like in gradeschool and this attitude can still bethere in college.

We don't know what we are capable offuntil we try to there are many of us withthe potential to really make use of what westudy.Just like any other person

Annylaine Factura a third year biologystudent was one of those people whodidnʼt take her studies seriously but shechanged early on.

More than anyone she was most surprisedat what she was able to do.

Just like any other person she has herdreams of what she wants to be when shegraduates but she believes that doinggood in school is the first thing she has todo achieve her goal.Back during elementary, she didnʼt reallythink about how she could do well inschool but it all changed when shetransferred schools after graduation due tosome problems with bullying in herprevious school.

She graduated from Philippine SouthfieldSchool a private school and transferred toBugo National High School, which is apublic school.

A new environment

It was in high school that she made somenew friends who came from lower classfamilies while she came from an averageor middle class one.

She made new friends and learned andgot to know their stories, they were poorbut they did not believe that poverty wouldkeep them from being a good student.

She realized that her classmates wereworking hard to get good grades and shedecided to do the same and work hard todo well in class.

Making things happen

Before that she only had average gradesthen she started to take school seriouslyand then during the first quarter of her firstyear she was surprised that she was thenthe first honor of her class.

Pinoy SpringSocial media today is where you can findalmost everything about the world we live in.From the Pope posing in a group “selfie”photo to the effects of chemical attacks inSyria, you can find it there. It is becomingeasier for people to share information, usinghash tags, like, profile tagging, and sharingmakes it faster to connect the world to eachother.

Now, here in the Philippines amidst the porkbarrel/Napoles issue (which can be seen inmany forms through the news feed ofFacebook and other social media) I ask, “areall these posts, of news, editorial cartoons,and jokes really helping the issue of bringingjustice to the ones responsible?” socialmedia did have a role in organizing the “million people march” (which is a largeprotest at Luneta park, that coincides withother rallies that were held all over thenation). Though the initial rallies are done,the protest continues online.

It is a big issue now on how the world isdealing with current events through socialmedia, just look at the Arab spring. A mansets himself on fire in protest to thegovernment and a video is posted online thatbrings the spotlight to the Arab countries.While a study by Juergen Pfeffer andKathleen Carley at Carnegie Mellon

University stated that “the social media didnot cause the revolutions” social media isbeing used as a communication tool duringthe revolutions.

"Social media in general, and Facebook inparticular, provided new sources ofinformation the regime could not easilycontrol and were crucial in shaping howcitizens made individual decisions aboutparticipating in protests, the logistics ofprotest, and the likelihood of success,” takenfrom a study by Zeynep Tufekci of theUniversity of North Carolina and ChristopherWilson of the United Nations DevelopmentProgram.

Back in the Philippines social media siteshas taken many Filipinos to the fight, when itcomes to the issues that rock our countrytoday. Like what has happened in the Arabspring, the organizers of the million peoplemarch were able to use social media as acommunication tool to promote the protest.Though social sites also host people whojust use the social issues to troll/or make funof others (well they can just troll othersregardless of the situation) they can also befull of people who post and share factualinformation that were taken from crediblesources.

Now, while this may be the case, it allcenters on our stand on things and ourresolve to deal with these situations. If we

make our argument weak, we wonʼt be seen,heard, or reposted. This is the risk we take ofusing the Internet and the websites thatspread through it. We still need to prepareourselves; we still have go out on the streetsto fight for our freedom. The Internet, socialmedia, and all the gadgets we use are justtools for communication.

Social media is a tool for our voice, it can bestrong or it can be weak but that is alldependent on us. We are the ones thatdrive content, we make it, and we view it.Social media works as a tool for advocacyand change because we are there in it. Notall of us have the ability to go out andphysically participate in social change, butsocial media can help bridge the gapbetween our ideas and the rest of thesociety. The important thing is that we haveideas and rights that we need to fight forregardless of the availability of the Internet.

Image from HnyB Foundation-http://www.hnyb.org/#5

The Stair Case is a newsletter creatted for thepartial fulfillment of myrequirments in DC 3"Introduction to

development journalism".It was created with theidea that the articles i

wrote would help developmy skill in writing and

journalism. The stair casewas created to bring meup to the next level, itwon't get me there yet,but it will bring me one

step closer tounderstanding writting

and journalism.

The Stair Case