Events and Highlights

The Creative Spark of FLCD Circle’s New Publicity Committee

By: Ma. Isabelle Alessandra M. Mirabueno

The committee is currently composed of eight members: David with Happy Aranjuez, Clarisse Hari, Ethan Estrella, Kezia Escote, Pauline Rilveria, Isabelle Mirabueno, and Joshua Bolante. David has said that the committee was built upon the Publicity General Team, originally composed of her, Aranjuez and Estrella, that was formed during the first semester of AY 2020-2021.

The month of January 2021 marks the date in which FLCD Circle officially established its Publicity Committee headed by Julia Kristiana David, as the appointed Vice President.

As adjustments are being made in the shift to remote learning, large social media presence also became a priority to give more prominence to the organization’s events. Creating consistent branding, maintaining constant engagement, and widening the reach in social media are just some of the goals of the newly-formed committee.

As the semester ended, the committee’s projects and innovations turned said goals into reality. The line of holiday commemoration pubs drew in the flow of engagement in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with the highest reach from the Academic Achievers which received 26,000 views. The branding manual created by the Publicity General, gave FLCD Circle a distinguishable social media presence. The committee is exploring other mediums and platforms as the group has also taken to creating Instagram story templates for the Learning At Home series and commemoration events, not to mention the Circa Newsletter being the committee’s biggest project. David has expressed her pride for all the members’ achievements in the committee’s first semester of activity; as her term ended as its first VP, she already has visions and hopes for the team -- “I hope our pubs become one of the main reasons why we’ll have a lot of applicants in the future.”

David has passed her torch to Rilveria, the Publicity Committee’s VP for AY 20212022. Indeed, the future is bright with growth and possibilities for FLCD Circle’s latest committee.

FLCD Circle Debuts First Podcast Series with Introduction of the Course

By: Joshua Emmanuelle Bolante

FLCD Circle has released the pilot episode of its brand new podcast series, Circle Time, on April 30.

The said debut introduced the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Bachelor of Science in Family Life and Child Development, which focuses on studying individual development and family relationships across the lifespan.

Ainjelou Arce, FLCD Circle Vice President for Internals, has said in the episode that pursuing FLCD really helped her develop interpersonal skills that would be very useful to almost every field, including but not limited to medicine, preschool teaching, research, and social work. Arce added that despite being an undergraduate in the course, the student must learn how to work with children, parents, and other systems surrounding the family. “FLCD is about studying an individual and their relationship with their environment so it is not limited to just children. We have majors where we also learn about adolescents, family and marriage, parent-child relations … and the different life stages,” Samantha Liao, FLCD Circle President, also said in the episode.

Liao and Arce also disproved the claims that the course only specialized in teaching and taking care of children and instead claimed that it extends beyond those concepts. Later, the two discussed the key applications of the course, such as home management. They mentioned that teachings and principles in FLCD are applicable, especially now in the COVID19 pandemic since families are staying at home most of the time.

The release came after FLCD Circle’s plan “to provide a public platform for the FLCD discipline, through short 15-[ to ]30[-]minute shows that will feature various guests and topics.”

Circle Time episodes are available for download and streaming on the organization’s official Facebook page and YouTube channel.

“What if I pursued this?” FLCD Circle holds career talk

By AJ Medenilla

To help its members choose what career to pursue in the future, FLCD Circle held a career talk entitled “Saan Nga Ba Patungo? A Discussion on the Different Career Pathways for FLCD Graduates” on May 22, 2021, via ZOOM.

Empathy, critical thinking, and creativity are just some of the skills the speakers still apply in their respective careers -skills that they learned and honed in FLCD. This highlights how FLCD equipped and prepared its graduates with the emphasis that their education put on these.

FLCD Circle invited their alumni Teacher Tanya Velasco, Teacher Angelo De La Paz, Miss Louisa “Lizzy” Marie V. Guevara, and Miss Ana Maria T. Belizario to share their knowledge on how FLCD helped steer them into and maneuver around their current fields of study -education, research, and medicine, respectively.

Teacher Tanya and Teacher Angelo shared their experiences as educators to both children and adults. Miss Lizzy talked about going into the field of research and counselling. Lastly, Miss Ana shared her path into the medical field. More than just the skills, they shared the importance of having good relationships and connections, for example, the friendships forged in FLCD Circle. These people -- mentors, friends, and others -will be your pillars of support during times of trouble. Additionally, they imparted valuable tips to the current FLCD students on how to choose the right path for themselves and gladly answered the questions that the students had, ranging from their careers and decision-making to how the pandemic has affected their professional lives.

To close the event, Teacher Ian Bayta, FLCD Circle’s adviser, shared how important such opportunities are in building a better FLCD community and how every FLCD student, whichever road they will choose to take, will always be a teacher -- not by profession, but by character.

TAHANAN 2.0 to Aid Filipinos During Pandemic

By John Robert G. Betic

FLCD Circle launched the second installment of TAHANAN last May 20, 2021, with Millenials PH (MPH) Rizal as their target beneficiary.

From the total amount raised, PhP 6,230.00 was used to buy school supplies such as pens, pencils, pad papers, bond papers, and crayons. The funds came from the sales of the organization's first merchandise named Billy, the blue whale plushie.

TAHANAN 2.0 is an online outreach event that aims to help public high school students through donations and school essential drives. This year the organization reached out to MPH Rizal, a youth-driven, advocacy-based organization that focuses on the aspirations young Rizaleños have for their province and the country.

According to Sol Tupaz, the Vice President for Finance, the event is an avenue for the organization to carry out one of its missions to serve society, thus it is a constant annual event during the face-toface set-up. The onset of the pandemic and remote learning did not stop the organization from continuing this event, hence the TAHANAN 2.0 was made with the focus of providing students with essential supplies for the new set-up. But, the new setting creates many problems for the core head and core team.

Shaira Jacinto, one of the core heads said that the biggest problem is in logistics, as it was very difficult to find a supplier for the merchandise. Prioritizing the safety of the members with their unfamiliarity with online selling prompted them to use Shopee, as it is more convenient and safe to use.

Julia Abrenica, a core head, added that the different responsibilities of the members due to the online set-up, like in their academics and own homes, also became a concern.

"Moving forward, we hope to expand the initiative so that the members have a more active involvement in supplementing the learning experiences of children and guiding the now parent-teachers through teaching and implementing developmentally appropriate activities," Miss Tupaz added.

FLCD Circle hosts its first online Olympics-Circlympics

By Beap Pineda

FLCD Circle hosted its very first online Olympics, Circlympics, last May 16, 2021. The event consisted of games and challenges held in different platforms such as Zoom, FLCD Circle’s Facebook group, and Messenger chat, and stretched for almost two months, with its conclusion occurring on the same day as the organization’s Sem Ender Party on July 3rd.

Circlympics’ core head, Bianca Pineda, said that she, along with the event’s core team, hosted such an event to foster camaraderie and stronger relationships among the organization’s members and to provide an avenue where they could bond outside org work.

The event was opened with the introduction of the six teams, who coined their own group names: fiRED up, 2NE9, Pabili Yelo, Berdegulan, Blueming Girls, and Violet’s Go. The cheering competition followed, and with Blueming Girls' own rendition of "Bulaklak" by Viva Hot Babes, they were hailed as winners of the first challenge. Albeit failing to clinch the top spot, Berdegulan’s member Joshua Bolante's voice recording of “Hi, Beap. Kami na panalo. Lez get it my ladies,” was a scene-stealer and subsequently became a household statement within the organization. The first game of the event was Assassin wherein the members were tasked to “assassinate” their opponents through chat by making them say a certain word. The game carried on for a week, with players decreasing each day. Eventually, only one prevailed: Athena Santos of Blueming Girls.

Berdegulan garnered the most points from their creativity in the game Recreate Me! Using the members’ editing skills they rendered images ranging from birthday parties, safari adventure, to having the members in the actual Circle Tambayan.

The final and culminating game, Amazing Race, tasked them to do various minichallenges before reaching the finish line. For the third time, Blueming Girls took the crown and were also declared as the overall champions.

Spirits high and fueled, FLCD Circle’s firstever Circlympics was definitely an online success. Hopefully, there will be more events, such as this, to come, but not in the online set-up anymore.