The School of Deaf Education and Applied studies (SDEAS) would like to thank everyone for the wonderful support, contribution and participation in the recently concluded screening of A MI PATRIA (To my Motherland) last June 19 at 3:00 pm at the SDA Theater. AMI PATRIA is the first ever interpretation in Filipino Sign Language of 5 poems by Dr. Jose P. Rizal.
On the occasion of the 151st birthday of Rizal, the event was also attended by descendants of the Rizal family (Atty Ramoncita Reyes and Ms Liza Tinio-Bayot) and descendnt of Felix Hidalgo and Maximo Viola (Ms. Maete Gallego). We also had guests from the Instituto Cervantes, University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, Director Tikoy Aguiluz and production staff and friends of filmmaker/director Mirana Medina.
Last February 13, 2012, Monday, theAwards Ceremony of The Duke of Edinburgh International Award for Young People was held at 3:00pm at the ARG Theater, 5th floor, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Taft Campus.
The Awards Ceremony and the Awardees
81 awardees from the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies, the Girls Scouts of the Philippines, and Ticket to Life will be receiving their Bronze awards. Bea Francisco will be receiving her Gold award and Ana Arce will be receiving her Silver Award along with 8 Bronze awardees from the Deaf community. The Girl Scouts of the Philippines has 52 bronze awardees while Ticket to Life has 19 Bronze awardees. These young people are the first batch from their organizations to receive such distinction.
Miss Mae Paner, aka Juana Change, will keynote the event with National Youth Commission Chairman Leon Flores III as special guest and speaker. Sue Walker, Executive Director, as well as Rob Oliphant, Programme Manager for the International Awards Association Asia Pacific Region, will be present to give their certifications.
The Award Programme in the Philippines
The Award in the Philippines is slowly gaining ground. Independent Operators include the Girls Scouts of the Philippies, Boy Scouts of the Philippines, Ticket to Life, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies, British School Manila, Luciano Memorial School of Arts and Trade, Green Valley College/One Young Mindanao, and Cor Jesu College-Br. Polycarp Institute for Community Development Foundation, Inc. Very soon, South Hill School, Los Banos will also be joining the award programme.
The Duke of Edinburgh International Award for Young People The International Award is an exciting self-development programme available to everyone with ages 14 to 25 years old. It equips them with life skills, builds their confidence, and engages them with their communities. Over 7 million young people worldwide have taken up the Award challenge. The Award is tough but it is about individual challenge, not about reaching specific standards set by someone else. Young people design their own Award Programme, set their own goals, and record their own progress. The only person they compete against is themselves by challenging their own beliefs about what they can achieve. The Award transforms lives. Some of the Programme’s participants include young offenders, street kids, youth and children in conflict areas, and young people with disabilities. The award can prove a decisive turning point, not only in their lives, but also to people around them.
Mabuhay! (Long live!), we welcomed our Deaf Benildean graduates back to the School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies (SDEAS) of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) for the Alumni Homecoming and to celebrate "20 years of Journey and Success in Benildean-Lasallian Deaf Education” held last April 22, 2012 (Sunday) at the Angelo King International Center (AKIC). We were able to meet with old beloved Deaf friends, administrators, staff, and many of the professors who guided us in our education that is the groundwork for our careers and further education. This celebration is a milestone in our history.
Following the Holy Mass, there was a Career talk and Dinner. There were also raffle, games, bazaar, and a photobooth. We learned from the shared experiences and discussed how to contribute to the growth of Deaf Benildean education.
Not only was the homecoming weekend a wonderful time for us to get together and celebrate twenty years but it also gave us the opportunity to come together to support the School with a Benildean Batch gift. Our gift is our contribution to the SDEAS Alumni Scholarship Fund, whichisbeing setup primarily to provide support in terms of food and travel allowance to deserving SDEAS Deaf students and also to benefit Deaf alumni in terms of education, livelihood training and other services. We believe that this drive will also contribute to the development, expansion, and advancement of the School of Deaf Education and Applied Studies in the future in terms of education, programs, services, sustainable projects, etc.
Everyone took the event as an opportunity to catch up with friends. Personally, those years at DLS-CSB SDEAS probably changed my life forever. I am definitely looking forward to the next big celebration.
Last May 28 to June 1, The
Pre-College Education Network (P-CEN), in collaboration with DLS-CSB Center
for Education Access and Development (CEAD), sponsored a one-week training
of C-PRINT.
Pamela Francis of P-CEN and
Cynthia Camp of Postsecondary Education Programs Network
(PEP-NET) were the guest speakers tapped to introduce C-PRINT to the Philippines
for the first time. Teaching faculty and staff from various DLS-CSB
Schools and Centers volunteered to
take part in this one-week training which will continue with online mentoring
after the face to face lectures.
The 13 participants along with 4
observers from the implementing team volunteered their time and were willing to
be the pioneer C-PRINT Captionists who will usher in this new technology for Deaf
Access.
Over the course of the week, the
participants experienced both little achievements and minor setbacks as they
became familiar with the software, understood the skills they needed to improve
over time, and accepted the responsibility of setting the standard for other
future Captionists in the future.
Both Ms. Francis and Ms. Camp
were very encouraging, reminding the participants every now and then that they
are doing the best they can and that’s more than enough given the short period
of training time. The commitment that comes after is what is important and they
were happy with the zealous group of trainees who did above and beyond what is
expected of them.
C-PRINT is a speech-to-text system developed at the National
Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) as a communication access service
option for some deaf and hard-of-hearing students in educational environments.
This is widely used in schools and universities in the United
States. The goal of this endeavor is to
observe how the system will work in the Philippine setting so adjustments can
be made to accommodate Filipino Deaf culture and language.
