After the implementation of a collaborative immersion program (“Pagtataya”) with ten (10) Theo 141 classes of the Theology Department for the whole month of August 2014, the Service Learning Program (SLP) of the Arrupe Office of Social Formation currently facilitates the preparation of service-learning initiatives of other departments, namely Industrial Engineering, Computer Engineering and Architecture, of the School of Engineering and Architecture (SEA).
The Arrupe Office, through its SLP coordinator Ms. Eufemia A. Faller and program officer Mr. Marcelino Severino III, now prepares different concept papers that will tailor fit the serving-learning designs of each of these participating departments. Arrupe’s modified SLP integrates the framework of the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm (IPP) inorder to retain and promote its Jesuit flavor of service-learning.
Concurrently, the Arrupe Office has been conducting community visits to prepare identified communities for possible partnership in these service-learning projects. One of the things that the program also plans to implement is to invite possible faculty volunteers who will be able to assist the program in the supervision of these SLP projects in different areas. In the recently concluded Theo 141 immersion, some faculty volunteers were tapped inorder to accompany student immerses in their respective area assignments. It is hoped that this practice will continue to be employed in the conduct of SLPs among participating departments.
Orientation sessions for student participants are being implemented at present. Meanwhile, preparations are ongoing to craft social analysis and reflection modules which the Arrupe Office will use in processing the students’ experience after SLP. (By Eufemia A. Faller, Service Learning Program, Arrupe Office of Social Formation)