In the current module of the First Year Development Program (FYDP), it reintroduces exposure as an integral component of social formation especially that the program is now lodged under the Arrupe Office of Social Formation (AOSF). It may well be remembered that this external engagement component (i.e., exposure and outreach) was removed at a certain point in the program’s evolution (i.e., the program undergoing different name changes from Behavioural Development [BD], to Freshman Christian Formation [FCF], to First Year Christian Formation [FYCF], then to its current name, the FYDP).
Thus, on 28 February 2015, the FYDP under the coordinatorship of Ms. Gina Villagonzalo conducted an Exposure Day/Day of Engagement in several marginalized areas in the city. The module for the half-day exposure was designed to emphasize the use of the five senses by seeing, noticing, smelling, hearing, tasting and feeling concrete life situations/realities as application of the topics/themes which the students learned in FYDP sessions, as well as to awaken social consciousness by way of exposing them to the multiple realities of life.
The conduct of this simple half-day exposure, in a way, serves as the culminating activity of students’ learnings in their FYDP classes during the second semester. Through this initial contact with identified communities—the university’s external partners in its various outreach and engagement programs—it is hoped that the students will be better prepared in their formation when they take the National Service Training Program-Civic Welfare Training Service (NSTP-CWTS) class on their second year.
Using the spiral Pastoral Cycle of See-Judge-Act (i.e., experience, analysis, reflection and praxis), the student who participated in the exposure then went through processing and reflection sessions in the classroom through the assistance of their FYDP guides.
The communities in Davao where the exposure took place are the following: GK Samahan ng may Iba’t Ibang Kakayahan sa Dabaw (SAKADAB) in Los Amigos, Tugbok District, as well as in Barangay Mintal proper. The conduct of the exposure was through the assistance and coordination of Mintal’s Punong Barangay, the Hon. Ramon Bargamento. Mr. Karl Anthony Ebol, AOSF’s Community Engagement Office (CEO), facilitated the preparation for the conduct of the exposure. (By Arrupe Communications and First Year Development Program)