Maura Mangay-at
College Registrar

buddy press website

Xijen College of Mountain Province has setup  ”Buddy Press” on the college’s official website (www.xijen.com).  BuddyPress is a social network application that can be embedded in a website.  School sites tend to be sources of information on courses offered, school activitities and final grades.   School sites tend to be straightforward and offer less interactivity.  BuddyPress will try to change this.  As mentioned in its website, www.buddypress.org : 

“BuddyPress is built to bring people together. It works well to enable people with similar interests to connect and communicate. Some of the fantastic uses might be:

• A campus wide social network for your university, school or college.
• An internal communication tool for your company.”

With this in mind, students of Xijen College who are familiar with Facebook can find a new social network service to explore-right on the college’s website.  The school administration will encourage teachers to use Buddy Press as an extension of their classes.  In Buddy Press, groups can be formed where discussions and working on projects, assignments can be done.   The application will also hope to encourage a more comprehensive interaction between groups or students and teachers.  Several support application have been integrated in Buddy Press and this includes a “like” button similar to Facebook’s, a photo album generator, documents/file sharing and more.

In the pages of BuddyPress.org, the site describes how New York Universityuses the application:

“The Academic Commons of The City University of New York is designed to support faculty initiatives and build community through the use of technology in teaching and learning.  The free exchange of knowledge among colleagues across the university is central to better educating the student body and expanding professional development opportunities for faculty research and teaching.

The site is found at http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/.”

Jessie Padchonga, Juliet Sorya former tourist guides speak to students of Xijen College.

Bontoc, Mountain Province.   “ I am on vacation, but I was still able to guide tourists who wanted to visit Maligkong Rice Terraces..”  This was quoted from Mr. Jessie Padchonga of Bontoc, a former tourist guide who is now based in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.   Padchonga was joined by Juliet T. Sorya, also a tourist guide who was active in the early 80’s and Juliet P. Lucas of the Department of Trade and Industry.  They were the resource speakers in a forum held at Xijen College of Mountain Province on February 16, 2010.  The forum tackled the issues ailing the tourism industry in Mountain Province.  One of the issues discussed in the forum was the dearth of tourist guides in Bontoc and other potential spots in Mountain Province.  Except for Sagada, local hotel operators are hard up in coordinating for tour guides for their guests.   Maligkong Rice Terraces, the Bontoc Museum, Mainit Hot Springs. Samoki weaving village are areas tourists would want to visit in Bontoc.  In the forum, Padchonga and Sorya encouraged the students of Xijen College to work as tour guides during the summer months.   Padchonga and Sorya gave out tips on how to approach tourists, lectured on the ethics of tour guiding and ensuring client satisfaction.  “Tourist guiding is a decent livelihood and you learn a lot along the way..” stressed, Pachonga who started tour guiding at a young age of 11.  At this time, a German tourist whom I guided when I was 11, came again for a second visit to Bontoc and is staying at my house.  Padchonga also related that his American clients who learned he was now a Pennsylvania resident invited me to their home states and took me on a tour.  It was a way for them to thank me for their wonderful experience in Mountain Province.    “ I experienced guiding a group of thirty seven individuals but I was able to hold their attention while I talked about our culture…” Sorya recounted during her days as a tour guide.  “Despite the economic crisis, people are still travelling.  Vietnam is the current favorite, “ said Padchonga.

Meanwhile, DTI Provincial Caretaker, Juliet P. Lucas presented the potentials of the tourism industry in Mountain Province.  Lucas also shared that in her visit to Japan as a government scholar; she observed that the Japanese are also into festivals that showcase their culture.  “Festivals draw a large number of foreign visitors each year..” she added.   Padchonga shared that there is a need for coordinated efforts among the government and private sector for a functional tourist information center. This was stressed by the tourists that he guided lately to Maligkong.   The tourists said that the information center they visited at the Provincial Plaza did not provide much information. 

Pachonga and Sorya impressed upon the students of the joys and learning derived from tour guiding.  Padchonga met his wife, a professor of Slippery Rock University and now runs his own garden landscaping service Company called Padchonga’s Lawn and Garden Care.   He currently employs about five Americans.

At the close of the forum, the management of Xijen College supported the setup of a tourist information center as a project of the student council in the near future.   Padchonga committed to act as resource person via e-mail, to students who will be interested to try out tourist guiding as a career option.   “I come home on vacation every year, I hope to see some of you earning for your keeps as tour guides..” Padchonga said.

Xijen College of Moutain Province

By Juliet B. Saley
Philippine Infomation Agency

Bontoc.  Another program of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) which pursues computer literacy and internet skills among out-of-school-youth and disadvantaged workers will be employing 28 youth mentors in the province.

According to Marcial Pachingel of the DOLE-Mountain Province, the Kabataan Information Technology Opportunities (K-ITO) project provides IT skills to beneficiaries through the help of youth mentors, thereby given them opportunities to land jobs in the information technology industry.

Pachingel said given priority to undertake this program are the barangay officials -to acquaint themselves on the use of the computer as most of them are not computer literate.  They will also be trained on how to surf the Internet focusing on how to research programs of various government agencies posted online.

To avail of this free training, each barangay (barrio) should have a list of eight barangay officials who are interested to undergo 22 hours training.  The training is currently being conducted in partnership with Xijen College of Mountain Province.  Xijen College is the partner school of the K-ITO project.

Most of the youth mentors who are students or graduates of Xijen College will be receiving a stipend of P3,500.00 for the conduct of the 22 hours training.

Hitting a one hundred passing rate from its initial two teacher graduates enrolled in the review program,

Xijen is ready to offer its review program for the April 2009 Teacher’s Board Examinations.  The teacher’s review center is done in cooperation with Ballogo Research and Review Center.  Ballogo has been has had a high passing rate among those enrolled in their review program.  Review classes will start on February 14 and shall be whole day classes every Saturday and Sunday thereafter.  BSED and BSEED graduates may enroll for the review.  For details you can send a query text message to 0920 903 1948.