#NEWS | Batch 2024 Partakes in Humanities Festival 2022
by Paris Bereber, Bea Panopio, and Bianca Peralta
Batch 2024 students of Philippine Science High School — Main Campus (PSHS-MC) celebrated the first face-to-face Humanities Festival in two years last December 19 to 21 with the theme: “Truth or Consequence: A Call to Critical Thinking and Positive Action.”
Day 1: Pisay Debate Open 2022 Round 1
Following the opening ceremony at the gym, Batch 2024 proceeded to the Science and Humanities Building (SHB) 2nd and 3rd Floor Extension classrooms to watch the first round of Verite, this year’s Pisay Debate Open (PDO) hosted by Invictus, PSHS–MC’s official debate varsity.
PDO 2022 Round 1 included 32 teams that debated on the motion “This House Regrets the narrative that people should only enter romantic relationships that they anticipate will be sustainable in the long term.”
Each team then competed in Round 2, scheduled for later in the day.
Humanities Research Symposium
The batch then headed to the SHB 3rd Floor auditorium for the Humanities Research Symposium, which showcased several Batch 2023 students and their accomplished researches on various humanities-related topics — from language, social media, and sexuality to the high school experience in Pisay.
The following research projects were presented:
- “Unequal Adjustments: The Effect of ‘Unequal Englishes’ on the Adjustment of 7th Grade Students to a STEM High School and its Implications on the STEM Curriculum” by Filbert Ubanos
- “Tackling Parasocial Relationships Developed Between Filipino Stans and Content Creators in Twitch and YouTube” by Earvin Guerra and Eron Martin
- “The Influence of Twitter Communities on Language Perception: A Sociolinguistic Analysis” by Andrei Napoles
- “Through the Rainbow-tinted Glass: Looking Through the Lives of Queer Scholars in a Heteronormative World” by Juliana Padilla and Johannes Religioso
- “The Effects of a Virtual First Year of High School on the Establishment of Peer-to-Peer Relationships among Batch 2026 PSHS-MC Students” by Neil Francis Naorbe
The symposium ended with an open forum that featured questions from the audience and one of the hosts, Marco Liceralde of Batch 2023, and followed with closing remarks given by Ma’am Kornellie Raquitico of the English Unit.
Human Library
Day 1 concluded with the Human Library at the SHB 4th Floor Auditorium which featured Keren M. Cheng and her life’s journey in public speaking.
In her talk entitled “Authenticity Toward Confident Expression,” Cheng encouraged the audience to face their fears of speaking to large groups of people as she narrated her past experiences being an introverted person.
“Let your story speak,” she reminded the batch as she emphasized the use of effective communication to let themselves be heard.
Day 2: Pangkatang Slam Poetry
The following day, the batch converged in the 3rd Floor Auditorium to watch the Slam Poetry videos of each Grade 11 block. As a requirement for Filipino 5, groups of three or four students had to make a video of their slam poetries following the theme, “Katotohanan: Puso ng Agham, Matematika, Teknolohiya Tungo sa Ikauunlad ng Bayan.”
Each class had to choose a video that would represent their block in the event, which was hosted by Kevin Castro and Bianca Sacramento.
Judging the entries of the eight sections were Ma’am Kornellie Raquitico of the English unit, and Ma’am Camille Barquilla of the Filipino unit.
Of all the videos presented, three came up on top: Carl Valois, John Dela Cruz, and Gef Lim of Block D for third place; Jared Tayag, Luch Tolin, John Dizon, and Justin Leal from Block A for second place; and Kevin Castro, Benjamin Jacob, and Aenas Vibal, representing Block B, bagged the first place.
Pagbangon: Social Science Talk
Next in line for Batch 2024’s activities were two talks for Social Science 5: Pagbangon: Financial Literacy and Economic Recovery in the New Normal featured; and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) during the Pandemic. These were individually held simultaneously in the SHB 3rd Floor and 4th Floor Auditoriums respectively.
The first talk featured Prof. Edwin M. Suson, an assistant professor in the Entrepreneurship Department of University of Santo Tomas. He talked about different ways to handle and save money, and the different mindsets people need to be able to achieve them.
“Reality [is] the result in your life created by your actions, [which are] spurred by your belief[s],” Suson stated.
The second talk involved Ms. Dinnie Sean Manalo who discussed how the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) provided aid to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) during the pandemic.
Parallel Session
Next up was the Parallel Session headed by Mr. Eric Gerard H. Nebran, an educator and illustrator from General Santos City, and currently a student for PhD Comparative Literature in the University of the Philippines — Diliman.
He discussed the effects of writing material such as documentations and online websites on the variety of cultures the country has, especially with languages. He also talked about different ways to challenge constructed “greats” that exclude identities in literary and cultural productions.
Creativity Day: Bravura
The last activity of the day was Creativity Day, which featured Bravura, PSHS-MC’s official music club. The club held a piano concerto, which involved four pianists — Yanna Tenorio (2024), Rex Reventar (2025), Tomi Clamor (2024), Shaya Lao (2028), and Caleb Esteban (2026) — who performed a wide assortment of pieces.
Day 3: Pisay Debate Open 2022 Finals
For the final activity of the 2022 Humanities Festival, batches 2024, 2023, and 2028 gathered at the Gymnasium for the grand finals of Verite: PDO 2022.
The teams debated on the motion “This House Believes That it is in the interest of the scientist to publish this research” accompanied by an infoslide stating:
CAVEAT: This takes place in a hypothetical world. You are a researcher with a stagnating career in human biology, particularly in genetics. In one of your studies, you find irrefutable evidence that proves that certain races and nationalities are genetically superior or inferior to others. If this research is published, you would rise to notoriety and your research would be widely known throughout the world, who would accept this research to be fact.
On the government side was china boyz from Batch 2027 against the opposition, Carmichael from Batch 2025.
Closing Ceremony
Afterwhich, the closing ceremony was held, where the winners of the competitions were awarded. After deliberation of Verite: PDO 2022, the government side, china boyz, won by unanimous decision of the judges.
Winners of the essay writing contest of the English Unit were also awarded. For Batch 2024, Lance C. Libatique of 11-H, Samantha Antonette A. Mateo of 11-E, and Ezekiel R. Salazar of 11-F won first, second, and third place, respectively.
After bagging first, Libatique expressed that “[The essay contest] made me think about all the cool things that exist, but people don't join 'cause they're unconfident in their skills; just go for it.”
As the penultimate Humanities Festival of Batch 2024, they look forward to their last Humanities Festival this 2023 before their graduation.
