Organized by the Office of Student Activities (OSA), the Sibol Leadership Development Program (LDP) for Emerging Leaders aims to provide student leaders with skills and formation they need to contribute to nation-building.
OSA launched the program at Escaler Hall on November 11. The program will be conducted every Tuesday until January 13, and includes sessions on topics like goal setting, time management, and leadership styles. The participants will graduate from the program on January 16.
Fifty-four participants for Sibol were present at the launch. Associate Dean for Student Affairs Rene San Andres was the guest speaker.
Nation-building and national development are included in OSA’s vision for the orgs’ student leadership activities.
To be self-aware
Program Head Frederick Brian Lipio said the Sibol participants were chosen from emerging sophomore and junior student leaders, who are active in their respective organizations.
He said the orgs looked into their members and recommended participants for the Sibol program.
Program Head Ronnill Carlo Enriquez also said that several activities in Sibol will tap the leadership and awareness aspect of the students.
“We structured the program with different topics, on org development and on leadership management… it will be a seminar type of session,” he said.
Lipio added that aside from the goal of self-leadership, the program also aims to instill a deeper sense of self-awareness among student leaders.
He said that with a deeper sense of self-awareness, students will have a deeper sense of self-leadership and will be able to account for their strengths and weaknesses.
“Know thyself”
During the Sibol launch, San Andres said that everyone can be a leader.
OSA Director Christopher Castillo added that Sibol encourages its participants to become leaders not just for their respective organizations, but beyond Ateneo as well.
“You are the future of not just the Ateneo, but the country,” he said during the launch.
San Andres also emphasized the importance of self-leadership, as “one begins in self-leadership” and thus “one must know thyself” before becoming a leader, he said.
Realizing a vision
Student participants are still evaluating if Sibol, as a new leadership program, will be effective or not.
“So far, we had two sessions pa lang (as of now) and I see that this program is envisioning something grand for these LDP participants, their respective orgs, and most especially for nation-building,” said Ateneo Student Trainers member Jemika Kathryn Soledad (II AB PoS).
Paul Edison Kaw (III BS Psy), Celadon associate vice president for human relations, said he is not sure if Sibol’s classroom setting will be an advantage for the program’s goals.
He added, however, that “if it is in the classroom, more or less they will be able to build…the proper values and skills that the Sibol leadership development program would want to impart.”
