IN ITS INITIAL independent event of the year, the Bedan Scholar’s Guild (BSG) of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) launched the return of its face-to-face Year-End Assembly last May 11 at the Collaboration Room of the 3rd floor library.
Among others, the program delved into discussions about the scholarship contract, summary of activities of the Academic Year (A.Y.) 2023-2024, and essentially what it is like being a Bedan scholar.
Guest speaker, Shelumiel Emuslan, former BSG President and now first-year student under the College of Law (COL), expounded the life of being a Bedan scholar while providing wisdom to the scholars and ultimately giving them a glimpse of what it’s like to be law school students. Emuslan further emphasized the significance of excelling in academics and engaging in extracurricular activities, saying “Hindi lang pwede sa acads ka magaling.”
Following Zhamira Padol’s win in being elected as the Fourth Year Representative of the CAS Student Council (SC) for the preceding A.Y. 2024-2025, Via Jessica Clerigo, stepped up as the new President of BSG, who also spearheaded the event.
Looking behind-the-scenes, Clerigo disclosed how the year-end assembly was “originally intended to be a general assembly since nothing had been conducted at the start of the A.Y.” She then expounded on the challenges of the program, one of which was the transition to newer tasks. “Everyone was almost new na parang nag take ng duties sa EB and puro appointment kasi nangyari n’ung election ng officers and we were only like ten? less than ten,” she explained.
In addition, another issue raised was the “lack of experiences in handling papers,” which was also one of the main reasons why the said organization had “very few activities during the year,” adding how the executive board were primarily composed of third year Legal Management students “having conflicts related to time and communication.” As a result, while there were several activities being planned, “only a few were conducted due to the circumstances.”
Despite the challenges, Enzo Ochoa, a scholar and first year student from the Political Science Department who was also awarded recognition for being an active member, found his time in the BSG a “memorable one.” “’Yung pinaka-highlight ko sa BSG is ‘yung pagtuturo po sa students. I remember po ‘yung mga students sa San Lorenzo Ruiz Student Catholic Center (SLRSCC), d’un po ako nag tutor back then,” he shared.
Ochoa then further pointed out the importance of the BSG as an organization to give back to the Bedan community, saying “we should utilize more sa aim ng organizations and to create more events that will eventually help the students in order to make the organization as well as the school more productive and progressive for the whole Bedan community.”
For her part, Ms. Lorena Galang, the moderator of BSG and the head guidance and counseling, conveyed her “joy” over the return of the organization’s face-to-face year-end assembly after three years of being conducted online due to the pandemic.
As for Clerigo, she envisioned the future of BSG to have more scholars. While consulting with Ms. Galang, Clerigo shared her biggest plan “[na] madagdagan ‘yung scholarship grant knowing na ang konti lang kasi talaga ng scholarship grants dito [sa San] Beda.”
(With Rolando Matthew Recel)