ALFONSO LISTA, IFUGAO – – A gainful activity took place recently in a public high school at Barangay Pinto in Alfonso Lista. It’s a new take in raising the bar to increase the competencies of public school campus journalism practitioners in the countryside through environment inspired-journalism workshop.
Regardless of feelings and expectations, the one-day journalism workshop and related activities are opportunities to understand and appreciate the blessings coming from the private sector.
Lecturer Anthony Araos just conducted a journalism workshop at Pinto National High School.
The workshop covered subjects on news writing, editorial/opinion and sports/features/literary.
The school’s student papers’ members are currently preparing for the Ifugao district level competition. Winners are advancing in the provincial stage. They are ably assisted by school head David Dupyawon Jr.
Attending the workshop will help a promising young scribe to gain more knowledge on modern-day written communications.
“This time around new strategies and perseverance are needed to indeed inspire and motivate young journalists thus, the holding of this workshop, Araos said “Better deal to our learners matters,” he added.
As the needs of the growing populace outpace dilapidated school facilities, Araos noted that the necessity of acquiring materials and gadgets for school-based paper is hard to refute.
“Poverty incidence in Pinto remains high, an irony considering that the village is a food basket, supplying a significant volume of corn produce as well as vegetable needs of the people.
“Education can liberate people from poverty and social injustices” Araos pointed out.
With the aim to raise awareness on environmental protection, the Tree Savers Club chairman Victor Sampayan and civic leader and retired DENR officer Engr. Ferdinand Santiago led the community in a tree-planting activity before the workshop proper. “People should be conscious of it and we are willing to help,” they quipped. “We will lead and offer choices that will help our people do the same,” they added. Villagers were enjoined to plant more trees in their puroks. At the workshop’s commencement, Araos said he is hopeful that the youthful writers go green and are prepared and battle ready. For short, they are competitive.
While initiatives come with challenges, Araos, co-chairman of the Tree Savers Club, sees this as an open door for so many opportunities.
The school is worth seeing. It has 115 senior high students and six teachers. Going there from the town proper takes around 15 minutes.
Soon, the promise of a better future for Barangay Pinto will be fulfilled because of the full commitment of kind-hearted individuals. Half-hearted commitment will produce no results.
This workshop is and will be a source of strength of all stakeholders for a long time. All told, it was about living and learning beyond the craft.**By Anthony A. Araos
