The Varsitarian

SIMULA nang maitatag ang Unibersidad ng Santo Tomas noong 1611, ‘di lamang ito naging saksi sa makulay na kasaysayan ng bansa. Naging tahanan rin ito ng mga taong sa kalaunan ay nagpasisimula ng pagbabago sa ating Inang Bayan.

Bahagi ng mahabang listahan ng matatagumpay na nagsipagtapos sa Unibersidad ang mga bayaning una nating nakilala sa mga aklat ng kasaysayan, at noong bata pa tayo’y inakala nating may-ari ng mga kalye’t daan na nakapangalan sa kanila, mga taong tinitingala at pinagkauutangan natin ng ating tinatamasang kalayaan.

Nakaukit sa kasaysayan

Isa sa mga pinakatanyag na Tomasino si Jose Rizal, na kumuha ng kursong Metaphysics (Pre-law) at Medisina matapos mag-aral sa Ateneo Municipal de Manila. read more »

ISA SA mga pagpapatunay ng kalayaan sa isang bansa ang karapatan ng mga mamamayan na mamili at maghalal ng kanilang mga pinuno. Dahil sa pagboto nakasalalay ang pagsulong ng bayan, kung saan maigting na binabantayan ng mga mamamayan ang kanilang karapatan.

Sa Pilipinas diumano, kung saan diumano talamak ang pandaraya sa halalan at korupsyon sa pamahalaan, may mga organisasyong naninigurong magiging mapayapa at patas ang bawa’t eleksyon. Isa na rito ang Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV), ang tanging kinikilalang katuwang ng Commission on Elections (COMELEC) sa adhikaing ito.

Sa samahang ito natagpuan ng Tomasinong doktor na si Ricardo Ledesma ang panibagong paraan ng paglilingkod sa iba, bukod sa paggamot ng mga may sakit. read more »

THEY SAY that the recipe for success comes in different packages.

For Rommel Juan, it started with a dash of brotherly chat, a pinch of childhood memories, some free time, and a craving for fun.

With his youth and his brain overflowing with possibilities, Rommel talked his brother, Raffy, into putting up their own business—breaking away from the family’s fairly successful one.

Binalot Fiesta Food Inc., the restaurant born out of the brothers’ casual discussion, is now one of the up-and-coming Filipino food franchises, with 40 branches across the metro. And for Rommel, its chief executive officer (CEO), Binalot’s journey to being “the number one Filipino fast food” is still ongoing. read more »

GONE ARE the days when the young would make a face when someone asks, “Tea, anyone?”

With some stops at the UST Carpark and Dapitan Street, Thomasians have welcomed tea drinks served in new ways—cold, blended, and brewed- which served as cheaper and healthier alternatives to other brewed treats.

Brewing happiness

The introduction of tea drinks to the Philippine market began with a vision of giving healthy drinks a different face, like that of James Young’s. The franchiser of Happy Fanshu, brought a new taste in the Philippines, which originated from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. “Fanshu” refers to kamote or sweet potato. read more »

ENRIQUE dela Cruz Jr. had a “loaded” relationship with the University of Santo Tomas—he was a full scholar, part of the debate team, and an official of the Arts and Letters Student Council.

But in between his duties to the Artlet student body and years of training to develop structured arguments, this scholar made sure that he had his daily two-hour date with his textbooks and class notes. He knew he was still—and foremost—a student.

“It was just a matter of personal discipline,” he said. “We go to school every day. Everything else is secondary.” read more »

STUDENTS, teachers used to say, are like in a fish bowl. Whatever they do in class—the cheating and all the horsing around, for instance—are not left unnoticed by the man behind the desk.

But come to think of it, who’s actually under scrutiny in a classroom setup? Especially with the advent of social networking sites generally accessible in class, teachers can easily fall prey to their students’ profiling on any given day. There’s Ma’am Y who dozes off during group reporting. Or Sir X who gives the front row a “sprinkle” or two.

So make no mistake about it: Teachers—much like their students—are in a fish bowl, too, so to speak. read more »

THE RULE is simple: Wear IDs on campus. But students, time and again, are finding (if not, repeating) 1, 001 reasons to avoid it. Even with the introduction of colorful lanyards, there are still not a few like Marlon Castaño of the College of Commerce who find it “uncool” to wear IDs. He believes IDs ruin his get-up, finds it necessary to wear one only when he has to get inside a building and attend classes.

“I feel like I’m a high school student when I wear it. Pangsira siya ng porma,” he said.

Computer Science sophomore Hiro James Elizaga doesn’t wear his ID to save himself from an embarrassing “blast from the past.”

“I wasn’t able to have my haircut before the ID picture was taken so I didn’t look okay,” he explained.

By the rules read more »

ONE DAY in English class, Cheska*, a Physical Therapy junior, was summoned in front in what would turn out to be a harrowing experience of sorts. Never the type to speak in public, she was asked by her professor to deliver an extemporaneous speech.

“We were given this topic and my mind just went blank,” she recalled.

She felt the words at the tip of her tongue, but just could not utter them. It didn’t help that all eyes were on her, especially the scrutinizing pair of her professor’s. She was frozen.

“I knew she [the professor] would knit pick every phrase I could have uttered,” she said. read more »

THE VOTES are in and in all likelihood, it seems that “yellow” will be the new color of change.

As Filipinos await the proclamation of the next president and vice president, it’s time to reflect on lessons learned from the country’s first-ever nationwide automated balloting, an exercise that attracted some 50 million voters.

“Filipinos are always eager to try something new,” said Zenia Rodriguez, Political Science coordinator of the Faculty of Arts and Letters, explaining the overwhelming influx of voters. According to her, this was due to the Filipinos’ initial acceptance of the new voting procedure, despite it being relatively new and complicated. read more »

SOCIOLOGY student Justin Elizaga was counting election returns that scrolled through his arms day and night.

He encoded some of the 76,475 election returns for validation and catalogued them, not an easy task especially when you had been doing this non-stop all day, up until the wee hours of the night.

Still, Elizaga did not let up knowing he—like many other UST volunteers of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) for the May 10 elections—was doing something noble.

“It wasn’t really just a piece of cake,” Elizaga said. “It was a real job in the real world. It was something for our country.”

‘Getting involved’ read more »