THE LOYOLA Schools (LS) Office of Student Activities (OSA) held a Student Leaders’ Symposium (SLS) on September 17 in the Faber Hall Function Room.

Representatives from the Sanggunian, Council of Organizations of the Ateneo (COA) Executive Board (EB) and Central Board (CB), Confederation of Publications (COP), and the Council of Representatives (COR) of the 52 accredited organizations were present during the symposium.

According to OSA Director Christopher Castillo, the symposium aims to be an avenue for discourse and dialogue on matters that are forwarded by official participants on matters of perceived or validated relevance.

Moreover, it serves to cultivate the culture of productive dialogue and creative collaboration within the community.

“We want discourse and dialogue to be more collegial,” he said.

Catillo added, “[There is] not just an invitation but an expectation from you to participate on whatever matter that we are going to talk about.”

Representation in action

According to Castillo, apart from the heads of the organizations, officers from Sanggu, COA EB CB and COP, the COR are allowed to bring an additional officer of their own choice from their respective organizations. Regular students were invited to attend as observers.

“Transparency is another value we want to exercise,” Castillo said.

SLS will be conducted every other month. In the case of necessity, a special session will be called. The agendas for each SLS may be proposed and forwarded by the representatives and will undergo an assessment and approval procedure.

Agendas shall be presented through the SLS Agenda Proposal Form and will be examined by the Agenda Assessment and Approval team composed of the LS OSA Director and one student each from COA, Sanggu, and COP.

“Part of our role is representation, and I’d like for us to put that into good practice,” Castillo said.

OSA vision-mission

Castillo proceeded to explain OSA’s vision-mission and the formation initiatives of the LS to further elaborate the relevance of the symposium and other prepared activities of the offices.

“Guided by Ignatian tradition, the [OSA] is a leadership formation office that seeks to develop students of the Loyola Schools in the context of their various groups,” he said.

OSA aims to accomplish their mission through providing mentorship and training and formation programs to ensure the alignment of university’s values to the organizations’ and sectors’ thrusts and projects.

Castillo also discussed the OSA Academy, an initiative made up of two parts, namely, the Compania and Magis.

“This allows us to discuss a variety of issues or ideas. Sana hindi lang lagi problema. (This allows us to discuss a variety of issues or ideas. Hopefully we won’t just discuss problems),” Castillo heeded.

According to Compania Coordinator JG Advincula, Compania is the leadership formation plan for heads of student groups.

“It’s actually more of streamlining what we have been doing,” Advincula said.

The Compania consists of training and non-training activities. The training comes in the form of formation seminars, workshops, and leaders’ recollection whereas the non-training projects include year-long individual consultations and attendance in school functions.

The Magis initiative, headed by Ino Flores, provides training and non-training programs directed mainly to novice student leaders or the juniors and other non-graduating executive board members of student organizations.

“Life of a student leader is magis at work,” Castillo said.

The program aims to guide student leaders to identify and reflect shared milestone experiences to develop a sense of community in their leadership journey.

“As heads of the student groups I’d like for us to consider to have the perspective that what we do is not just about me as a head, but about the community,” Castillo said.

To be more

Castillo noted that the distinct characteristic of the LS OSA Academy program is flexibility and customizability.

He further clarified that the leaders were not required to participate in all the activities and that they have the freedom to choose the programs they feel is essential to their leadership formation.

However, as an added incentive, Castillo said that with every program the participants have attended, they will earn corresponding points.

An accumulation of 20 points will merit recognition of the participants in the LS Awards for Student Leadership and Service.

The programs are also open to the non-target audience to practice inclusivity to develop potential leaders not limited to those who already have positions.

“It’s at this point when you, the younger [EB] is called to be more. Hamon at pag-anyaya (It’s at this point when you, the younger EB is called to be more. It is a challenge and an invitation),” Castillo said.

“Any head has the task of ensuring that the future is fairly fine. You can’t have total security of the future but you have some influence on it. Let’s maximize that little influence we have,” he added.