STUDENT LEADERS from five Ateneo universities flocked to Naga City, Bicol, to attend the 25th Buklod Atenista Summit from October 23 to 27.
Sanggunian President Omi Castañar (V AB DS), Ateneo Resident-Student Association President Ross Raphael Bascuña (IV AB PoS), and SOH Central Board Representative Kurt Cendaña (II AB IS) represented the Ateneo de Manila in the summit.
The Buklod Ateneo Summit is an annual event where student leaders from different Ateneo universities of the country gather to share leadership experiences and strengthen their skills.
“[The summit is] a venue for the five Ateneo councils to convene and talk about relative issues regarding each one’s leadership in the university…and to hopefully pick up something good and bring it back to our respective schools,” said Cendaña.
The issues raised during the Buklod Atenista Summit ranged from problematic elections, student apathy, student policies, and cultural matters.
Other participating universities include the Ateneo de Davao University, Ateneo de Naga University, Ateneo de Zamboanga University, and Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan.
What’s the problem?
The summit made the representatives aware of the weaknesses and the problems of the universities, said Cendaña.
For example, one of Ateneo de Manila’s problems is getting the student body involved, said Bascuña. “The leaders always try hard in helping them become aware and active by coming up with various projects and programs… [but] these [do not] seem enough to achieve their expected outputs.”
For Castañar, the problem is that students rely on the leaders to resolve issues. “We need to realize that our leadership should come from who we are… [we need] to understand that our small acts are connected to the big act of nation building.”
Differences
According to Castañar, Ateneo de Naga and Ateneo de Davao have councils that have three distinct branches similar to the national government (executive, judiciary, and legislative) while the Sanggu does not differentiate between the executive and legislative branches.
“These things got me thinking about my recommendations for next school year’s constitutional revision for our Sanggunian,” Castañar said.
By the end of the summit, each council came up with resolutions that would be lobbied in their own student governments.
Ignatian roots
Although there was a clash of ideas in the summit, disagreements on issues were resolved because the participants were all rooted on the same Ignatian values, said Cendaña.
Cendaña added that Buklod Atenista helped him gain a broader perspective, due to the varied participants from the numerous Ateneo campuses.
“Ibang-iba talaga (It’s very different)…everyone has a different perspective on almost everything,” he said. However, Castañar said that even though the council presidents are different in terms of executing their services, they share the same passion in serving their fellow students.
For Bascuña, Buklod Atenista was an opportunity to meet different types of leaders.
“There were those who had a strong approach, some were silent but full of brilliant ideas, while some were in the middle of the two. Because of this, I was able to assess my leadership approach. More importantly, [I] learned a lot from the other student leaders’ approaches,” he said.
