SIXTY FILIPINO enterprises gathered in the biggest School of Social Sciences (SOSS) Week the university has ever seen. These enterprises constituted “FAIR-Works,” a development fair which served as the heart of the celebration.

FAIR-Works highlighted the theme of the event, “SOSSpernova” which encourages the students to exhibit their talents and skills and to encourage them to engage in socially-oriented activity.

It is a congregation of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) which are commonly known as micro, small, and medium Enterprises. They support the local industry and provide employment.

SOSS Week Project Head, Ana Maria Raymundo said that the theme was inspired by the message of the song “Firework” by Katy Perry.  She said that similar to song’s message, social involvement is already in the students and must just be triggered so that they would be aware of it.

“I’ve heard of so many different misconceptions about social involvement. We wanted to show that [students] can be socially involved through different fields of interest [and] it’s not necessarily in the convention or in the tradition of what people expect,” she said.

Aside from the NGOs, several other booths were put up in the SEC field from January 24 to 28.

Something different

This is the first time that SOSS Week featured bazaars, different from the celebration in the past years, where there were only several stalls.

“This year, we tried our best to take a higher step. We saw to it that it won’t be like [before] when people don’t go to the booths. [The event differs] physically [as this year] it is something big,” SOSS Chairperson Karen Anne Vera said.

Though the organizers had some problems with regard to logistics, they still opted to hold the events in the SEC field.

“I really want to bank on the [NGOs] because I want people to see that they can help in different ways—in ways that they can incorporate in their everyday lives, rather than [in a] one time, big time events,” Raymundo said.

The SOSS week also included an exhibit showcasing the eight most outstanding professors from SOSS, dubbed as “Radi8.”

“We [as students] wanted to give something back. We want to give like an ode to the professors [to show them that] we’re proud of [them],” Raymundo said.

However, some students were not keen on the celebration.

“[The celebration] was really difficult for the organizers given that…it was the school week that followed [the School of Management’s and it] was in a very large scale,” Junior Robert Aldrin Ortiz said.

Junior Richard Andrew Kevin Camacho agreed. “There are a lot of different stalls, but only few people participated,” he said.

More on students’ interests

Home organizations set-up their own booths to persuade passersby to participate.

A pledge wall, handled by the Senior SOSS Sanggunian officers motivated students to have resolutions.

The activity was geared towards encouraging students to give back to society or commit whatever they can.

There was also an Alternative Class Program to give the students a chance to explore their skills in lessons that classroom settings cannot offer.

“Usually our classes are structured. [So this] gives you something different; something you’d like to learn but sometimes you don’t have the time to attend [to],” SOSS Course Representative Jerome Albert Zapata said.

“This is where self-discovery or self-awareness enters. We want [the students] to discover new things that they can actually try because when you’re in school, you are stereotyped that you’re only limited to [something],” Vera added.

On issues and controversies

Vera said that based on the planning of the event, SOSS Week was the most diificult project she had. “It was a test of communication, like coordinating with each other outside,” she said.

Zapata said that information dissemination was the main problem due to the number of people involved in the project. “There were times [when] work is done twice or [not] at all. Sometimes the work is delayed,” he added.

Despite the challenges faced by the organizers, both Vera and Raymundo said that the event was a success given that they achieved their vision.

“We wanted [SOSS Week] to become an avenue for the students to be more familiar with different ways that they can show their own [talents and] interests. I mean, you can’t expect people to help out if they aren’t familiar with what they can offer,” said Raymundo.